I discovered many years ago that students will complain about their final mark in a course. "I only got a 63% but I think it should be much higher."
If I say, "No, that is correct. That is the mark you deserve," they are never satisfied.
But if I say: "You got 6.3 out of 10 on four tests, and 12.6 out of 20 on your essay, plus 25.2 out of 40 on the exam: that adds up to 63%," they are almost always satisfied.
If they think I have just made up the final mark, they are angry, but the anger goes away if I present six different marks (each as susceptible to being made up as the final mark they received) and then added them together.
Math is magical! (Heck, even simple arithmetic has mystical powers.)
no subject
If I say, "No, that is correct. That is the mark you deserve," they are never satisfied.
But if I say: "You got 6.3 out of 10 on four tests, and 12.6 out of 20 on your essay, plus 25.2 out of 40 on the exam: that adds up to 63%," they are almost always satisfied.
If they think I have just made up the final mark, they are angry, but the anger goes away if I present six different marks (each as susceptible to being made up as the final mark they received) and then added them together.
Math is magical! (Heck, even simple arithmetic has mystical powers.)