Grading is becoming a huge pain in my ass. This particular class is full of very bright, (mostly) hardworking upper-level students. Although these particular students are blessed with good math skills, they are not-so-blessed in the handwriting department. To make it worse, many of them do their problem sets in very fine, flowing ink pen (on both sides of the paper!), making it nearly impossible to decipher a 7 from a 9 or "does not agree" from a "consistent with theory." Seriously.
So I usually try to grade homework in the hour or two immediately after class, sort of like ripping the bandaid off quickly. I was several papers into the most recent problem set, when I reached one student's assignment that I couldn't read at all.
Then I realized why.
The pages were full of upper level math proofs, most decidedly NOT what my course covers.
The next problem set in my pile contained much of the same. Apparently, as my class was leaving, the next hour's class had begun filing in. I was so preoccupied with answering one of my student's questions that I failed to notice that two of the incoming students had tossed THEIR homework on MY pile. (Now as to why a student would just place their homework in front of an unknown TA is beyond me, so let's just add that to my list of Things I Will Never Understand About LargeU Undergrads).
Of course, the two wayward problem sets had their owner's names on them. Unfortunately, each student gave a slightly different course number. One listed the class as in the math department, while the other placed it in a division of engineering. After scrolling through the LargeU course catalog, I failed to get a match on either. After calling the math departmental office as well as several other engineering offices, I finally managed to get the professor of the course on the phone.
He had a very pleasant, British accent, so it instantly neutralized my growing annoyance at myself for being so anxious to get these stray homeworks into the proper TA/prof's hands. He thought the whole thing hilarious, and even offered to fax over the key so that I could grade them if I wanted.
I passed.
But seriously, are my expectations of LargeU undergrads too high? Is it too much to expect them to be able to recognize their TA (at least in a classroom setting...it still freaks me out a bit when I run into students at LargeU bars) and get their much-labored over (or perhaps copied) problem sets turned into the proper person?
