Eyes on the Prize

In the last two days we've gotten back several important grades on big tests and practicals. Today we received grades on a practical exam we took two weeks ago. The last time this teacher graded our practicals, he only gave 5 A's out of 100 students, so needless to say, people were nervous about the grades coming out today.

As usual, a bit of time was allotted during the lecture hour to discuss the common mistakes found on the practical exams. This teacher described a few minor concerns and then mentioned that he had two major problems with the practicals as a whole.

The first had to do with a technical skill that we should all be good at by this time in our dental education. The second went something like this...

Teacher: There were a couple of mistakes that I was ruthless on when I graded...
Us: *groan*
Teacher: If you did [fill in the blank with dental term], I deducted a letter grade. If you did [fill in the blank with dental term], I also deducted a letter grade. When I looked at some of your self-assessments of your work, I couldn't believe it. I don't know if you need glasses or just are in a completely different world, but some of you were totally off. If I felt like this about your self-assessment, I wrote "You should get your eyes checked" or "Are you kidding me?"
Us: *groan* *sniffle*
Teacher: But other than that, it was pretty good.

After that speech, it mattered much less to me about the actual grade I got, and much more to me that my teacher did not find my self-assessment to be comical and/or symptomatic of glaucoma. Although you know what those crazy M.D.'s prescribe for glaucoma...