95% Fail (7/15/2006)

This week the results of the mock exam came back an the worst results were in the subject that I teach. I guess it should have been such a big surprise that most students failed. I think my results were about consistent with the national average. Still looking at scores was shocking and frankly rather demoralizing too. Fortunately I texted another PCV and she had about the same results, maybe it was not a result of poor teaching.

Still out of 100 points you only need 21 to pass and only four students achieved this feat. My highest score was 44 which by the grading scale is a "C." The good news is that now the students are motivated and are asking what can we do to pass. Last term most students did not do their homework I told them they need to but I would not force them. This week almost all of them did their first assignment and now many are asking me to help them outside of class.

Also last week I finally learned the last topic I have to teach. You always have to learn things ten times better when you teach and I finally took the time to understand the theorems about a circle and the equations for class (group) mean, median and mode.

I am wary about the next term but am excited to think that after next term, things will go smoothly and be easy. I finally am getting to know the students of the school and feel like I really own the subject material. I'm optimistic that my student will actually pass the national exam, and things I use to get them there can probably be used next year. At the same time I question whether they really will pass when it takes about a week for me to teach them how to use the log tables (they were supposed to learn two years ago) and failed the questions about the topics I already taught them. Also don't expect the fear factor to last much more than another week or two then I have to be careful that the students do not give up.
Cheers,
T.