Q&A: Tip for Grading Proof-Based Courses

Review a taxonomy of common proof errors before grading. When you recognize an error quickly, you can provide more targeted feedback and spend less time puzzling over what the student was trying to do.

Cross-posted from here.

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Question

What is important to keep in mind in grading proof-based courses?

I have limited experience grading, particularly in proof-based courses. Any guidance from anyone who has graded proofs would be appreciated!

Answer

To grade faster and provide more targeted feedback, it could be helpful to review some lists of mistakes that students commonly make during proofs. For example:

• https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/questions/17900/taxonomy-of-bad-proofs
• https://www.mathcs.bethel.edu/~gossett/DiscreteMathWithProof/CommonErrorsInProofs.pdf
• https://personal.math.ubc.ca/~cytryn/teaching/scienceOneF10W11/handouts/OS.proof.5invalid.html

This way, when you see something weird going on in a student’s proof, you can (more often) quickly recognize and articulate the issue, and spend less time being confused about what the heck they’re trying to do.

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