Ever-changing deadline

I was feeling a bit guilty about not getting my lot of exams graded quickly and on to their second round of grading (we give the students a scientific paper with all the interpretation ripped out - just the set-up and results left, and make them tell us what it all means, so each one is graded by two people (takes about 20 minutes each)).

The meeting where we have to cough up the grades is next Monday, so I thought my colleague would have plenty to time once I turned them over this Monday morning.

Only, Thursday is a holiday. Which means that nobody in their right mind is working on Friday. Which means that the efficient and organised person rounding up all the grades wants them by tomorrow. By 6, even!

Sheesh! What's wrong with Monday? The meeting's not until 5.

My part is done, but my poor colleague! His desk was strewn with the papers of a different class when I added mine to the pile. Okay, I was nice and made a new pile.

Bon courage, Laurent!

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Taking directions one line at a time

I suppose it's the 'fault' of the person who wrote the exam, but only one student in four years so far has ever done this. The exam subject is an article that the students have to explain and interpret. There is a list of questions that follows the structure of the paper, there both to guide them through the points to discuss and to help us grade the results. Before the first question, there's a guideline: take the time to describe the experiments, their results and the conclusions one can make from each.

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So I have on hand 20 exams starting with Question 1: blah blah blah

And one where Question 1 appears on the fifth page, after each experiment has been described...

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**Hand smacking forehead**