I can't believe how much serious discussion is taking place here. When I read the article I thought it had to be from theonion or something.
A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
51–57 of 57 posts
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#52I would strongly advise grandmothers of this risk.
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#53When I used to TA a very large freshman class, we handled it by letting the students know on the syllabus that in such cases we would send a sympathy card to their home address.
The theory was that if the story was legit, it would be a nice gesture by the course staff. If it wasn't, the student would have some 'splainin' to do at home.
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
The author addresses this point, and how it is possible, but why so many grandfathers choose to remarry so quickly is still mysterious. > As more people go to college, their families find that, for safety reasons, it is wise to increase the number of grandmothers per family. Since there is currently no biological way of doing so (though another grant proposal in preparation will ask for funds to look into the prospec…
Which Author? Although it seems to be stored on Dongwon Lee user dir, he states this document was written by "Mike Adams". I couldn't find this Mike Adams and I find it a little disturbing to read a Study that has no references, no date and the Author doesn't bother about writing his own name in it.
As I said below, my tentative assumption is that this article is a humor piece, not based on actual data.
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#55Some of the data seem a little suspect. The grade correlation result is unreasonably strong, and the bin sizes aren't specified, among other shortcomings. That said, this was a very entertaining read. edit: Appears to be from 1990.
Exactly. I was reading skeptically and trying to guess what were the errors in the methodology that create this effect. Until I see the Figure I, with the almost aligned dots (If you ever made some physics or statistical experiments, you would be happy to get a measure like this.) The dots are almost aligned and one of the axes is the A/B/C/D/E grade, that is very indirect nonlinear measure. A graph like that usually means that the data are cooked.
Apparently this is only a humor piece, but many of the comments seams to take this seriously.
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't it quite easy to present proof that a relative has really died?
It really depends. Many people, especially poor folks, don't do obituaries, because they can be expensive. Original death certificates are always in high demand, and people tend to not realize that they need dozens of them -- proving to a teacher that grandma died is low priority. There are other cultural factors as well. Some religions call for immediate burial, so publication of the obituary will likely lag the stu…
I'm a professor in a university. For us a photocopy of the obituary, death certificate or an equivalent document is enough to allow the students to take the test ~1 week later. But the exact documentation needed probably depends on the university.
Re: A student's grandmother is far more likely to die just before an exam
#57This article is apparently only a joke. I found some indirect report of the opinion of author (near the end of the article): http://host.madison.com/news/local/doug_moe/doug-moe-poking-...