AP Teacher Adds New Code Word to Grading System, Students Confused
WHS AP US Teacher Ivana Golf, famous for her succinct grading system based on the use of three one word statements - and, no, and "?" - shocked students on Tuesday by introducing a new word, "duh," when grading their most recent paper. Many students are confused as to the word's meaning. Said one, "I know that 'and' means I should have written more, and 'no' means that I was wrong, but what the heck does 'duh' mean? Is she just calling me stupid?' Another student added, "What exactly is 'duh' refering to: the actual information, the quality of the writing, or the intellect of the student?"
To make matters worse, the new word seems to have an irrational point value. While the previous three words had relatively constant point values - one point off for "and" or "?" and two for "no" - the new word seems to have a value similar to that of pi. One student, who is also taking AP Calculus this year, has been trying for days to figure it out. "I got a 86.8567...% on my research paper," he said. "Since I got 4 'nos' and two 'ands' on it, plus one 'duh.' I'm estimating the value, based on DeClaude's Rule of Average Deviation, to be somewhere between 3 and 3.3, but decimal is non-repeating so I can't get any closer."
Ms. Golf insists that the creation of the new word was critical to the well-being of her grading system. "I just felt that 'and' and 'no' weren't carrying the complete message across. I needed a word to convey my sentiments when a student writes something so blantantly obvious that I began to question his mental competence," she said. In light of the historic addition, some students speculate that more grading words are soon to come. Among the possible candidates are "huh," "doh," and "yeah, right."