• academic offense,  covid-19,  no one asked,  profs,  tests

    quercus test PSA

    April 23, 2020

    hey hey hey there online schoolin’ students, and a good evening to everyone except profs who give closed book exams during a pandemic,

    this is just a friendly neighbourhood announcement that when you’re taking exams on quercus, your profs can actually see a log of your activity.

    some of yall might be aware of this already, but for those of you who weren’t, figured i’d put it up on the site. i know finals season is pretty much done but this might be applicable to anyone taking summer school. share to save a life, or whatever.

    so for backstory, quercus is basically the same thing as canvas, just renamed to fit u of t’s pretentious tree theme.

    canvas’s official support webpage is pretty transparent about the fact that, when a quiz or test is taken on its platform, it retains a ‘quiz log’ for up to six months. what can your profs see on this log, you might wonder?

    Suspicious Zach Galifianakis GIF by BasketsFX

    well, funny that you ask. they can actually see a second-by-second ‘action log’ of when you view, answer, and skip questions. they can see every attempt you take at a question (previous answers don’t actually get overwritten) and every attempt you take at a quiz overall, as well as how long you spent taking the quiz.

    most importantly, they can see when you click away to a different tab or window. this shows up as “stopped viewing the canvas quiz-taking page.” you can see why a high recurrence of these alerts might look suspicious, especially if your mark jumps quite a lot after the assessment in question.

    suspicious disney GIF

    i’ve also heard (but don’t know where on the canvas support site to confirm this) that profs can see what course materials have been opened/are currently open/have been downloaded on your computer. because we don’t love making empty allegations, this article from the OTHER U of T, the university of texas, seems to serve as confirmation. the article also lets us know that once again, canvas/quercus does its job WAY too well and provides a briefing of how long those tabs have been open as well. which is a bit embarrassing for me, given that i never close those tabs even when i’m done with them. my profs probably think i’m obsessed with their material.

    obviously, canvas/quercus activity reports will generally not be an issue if your tests are open book, or if your profs have made other provisions to prevent students from cheating. but make sure you’re clear on what’s allowed and not allowed before taking an exam on quercus, just to be safe. dodging academic integrity issues is always cool. we like that.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • grades,  psychology,  tests

    fall time freak outs

    October 17, 2012

    Hi,

    I’m a first year student at UofT. Like most other students in Toronto I am in the middle of going through my first batch of tests. My first test in university was the Psych100. I thought I did really great, I knew the material and left the test room feeling pretty confident that I left with a 80 at least. I check today and I barely pass!! I am feeling very down about this and more than worried about pulling up my grade, there is one more test and then the exam, weighing near the same amount, do you think I can pull up my grade to at least decent? And if I do horribly, can I retake Psych100 in the winter term because I know there is a class?

    Thanks!

    ———————————————

    Hey there first-year!

    Reading your little message has left me at a loss with all my feelings. Funnily enough, I felt the exact same way as you did after my first exam at U of T. I was so certain that I aced the test but got it back and was heartbroken to find I got a 60. But you know what I did? I studied my butt off for the rest of the term and did well enough.

    So yes, I truly do think you can pull your grade up. With two more tests, you definitely have the opportunity to first assess what exactly went wrong for you, and then to show that you’ve studied harder and that you’re willing to go the extra mile.

    However, the problem for you is that if you do horribly but still technically pass and thus get the credit for PSY100, then no, you cannot retake it unless that’s to meet some sort of program requirement. So if you’re in the course so that you can get into the Psychology program and don’t meet the required grade the first time around, then you will be allowed to retake it, but the mark that will be on your transcript and that will count toward your CGPA will be the first *horrible* one.

    So depending on whether or not you yourself think you’ll be able to improve, you can either work harder and try to salvage things, or you can drop the course and restart from full in the winter.

    Good luck with the rest of the course!

    aska

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  • anti-calendar,  courses,  hard,  tests

    i want my syllabus!

    July 19, 2010

    Hey,

    I’m trying to plan out my timetable and select courses for the upcoming school year. I’ve already referred to the anti-calendar and
    ratemyprofessor.ca to make sure I select the right profs so that’s not the issue for me.

    The issue rears its ugly head when I attempt to find the course syllabus for each course. The reason I’m looking for course syllabi is because I’m trying to get some insight on what the workload will be like for each course (how many tests and/or assignments there will be and what they will be weighted, if I will be graded on tutorial attendance, etc).

    When referring to the anti-calender, it seems like the workload is always rated ‘average’ by students, so that does not really help me. I’ve also referred to the exams and course collections database, but that yielded no results either (many courses are password protected, only have one outdated syllabus from the 1800’s, or are not even listed at all). I’ve even tried going on portal and clicking on “browse course catalogues” … but most, if not all, of the courses are restricted and don’t let me view the course pages.

    It seems I’ve exhausted all my options at this point. All I want to do is skim over the course syllabus for each course and such a seemingly simple task appears impossible to accomplish.

    Do you have any suggestions or am I just going to have to wait and receive the syllabus on the first day of classes?

    Thanks.

    Amanda

    ———————————————

    Hello Amanda, the keener.

    It seems like you’ve really done your homework – and the class hasn’t even begun! Sometimes, old syllabi pop up on former course or program websites, but sometimes they’re under lock and key. Though most profs tend to go AWOL during the summer, you might get lucky if you email the professor who’s listed in the timetable for the syllabus (perhaps they also taught the course last year?), or a quick and friendly email asking about courseload. Depending on the course, Aska might know some people who might be able to give you a bit of detailed advice about the work schedule.

    In the meantime though, don’t sweat it. I understand your angst, given that the class might have too much workload and by the time you know it you might want to drop it and then there might be no other spaces in the other classes you might want. (LARGE DEEP BREATH.) But in the first week of classes, many students go shopping – not just for fancy U of T hoodies – but by examining the syllabi of their new classes and decided whether or not they’ll drop them.

    The first day of your class is usually when you’ll get the syllabi, featuring all the assignments, readings and due dates.

    So for now, hold tight, lemme know what courses you’re looking for in particular, and I’ll see what I drudge up.

    xoxo, Askastudent

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  • GPA,  grades,  tests

    regrade me! regard me!

    July 7, 2010

    Ive never felt the need to contest a grade for a test/paper till now. I recently got a test back and I felt like the comments on it did not correlate with how much marks were taken off (one of the questions actually had no comments).

    I havent done this before and I an anxious about to possibility of my mark being lowered (even though I truly dont see why it would be). How do I go about this?

    ———————————————

    U of T is a bureaucratic monolith specifically designed so that students do not usually contest their marks. Fight the power!

    My friend Wyndham recently contested a mark on one of her assignments. The first step is to go to The Department in which your course is affiliated. They will usually want you to work it out with the person which marked your test originally. If you can’t come to an agreement, you will have to return to The Department with a copy of your graded test (if applicable, also your ungraded paper), which will be submitted along with your request to have your assignment re-marked. An impartial third party will re-mark it.

    An important note is that you’ll have to accept whatever grade the second marker gives you, whether higher, lower, or the same. If you think it’s worth the risk, go for it. A list of departmental contacts can be found here.

    xoxo, Askastudent

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  • tests

    the Oh in Ohiopasttests

    October 14, 2006

    heyyy askastudent! how was Ohio?
    well onto a question. how do i get my hands on previous tests in various courses? is there a store or a person to contact? thanks for ur help! u rock rock rock!!!

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  • languages,  tests

    ich bin askastudent!

    June 7, 2002

    I have a question about the german courses. I’d like to take german100Y, and I took german in grade 9. It say in the U of T handbook that if you have previous knowlegde of german the department will give you an assessment test and place you in the appropriate level. The problem is that I don’t remember a thing of what I learned back then…should I even tell the department that I took grade 9 german…what’s the point of taking the test anyway ( in my case)…

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  • admissions,  languages,  tests

    maybe you just THINK you’re speaking English, it’s just bad dubbing

    June 25, 2001

    Hi, I’m a high school student (will graduate next year) and I’ve just been told that I will have to write the TOEFL exam. I’ve been in Canada for 2 years now. Because of this I have to write the TOEFL. (universities require 4 years in an english speaking country to be exempt from taking the test)However, I have been speaking English all my life, in fact it’s the only language I speak. Why should I have to prove my English speaking capabilities just because I attended a school (which by the way was an ‘American school’) in a country where English is not the dominant language? Should I just suck it up and write the test (which I will have to pay for), or do you think it’s worthwhile trying to get an exemption?

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