For the quiz: nothing to do now. You can tell your professor "I'm sorry I missed the quiz. I slept through my alarm, I'll make sure it doesn't happen again"
For the sleeping: **DOCTOR.** **NOW.** Unexplained fatigue should be checked out immediately. It could be something easy like a Vitamin D or Magnesium deficiency, or it could be something more serious.
Take the L for this one. It's a quiz; it shouldn't tank your course grade (depending on the grade breakdown). It happens to most of us, nothing to lose sleep over (I'm so sorry). If you still want to email the instructor, just write 1-2 sentences saying you overslept and missed the quiz, you understand the policy of unexcused absences (whatever it says in the syllabus), and just wanted to let them know.
*Don't* ask to make it up. The only exception to this is if the instructor has a policy that specifically and explicitly allows make-up quizzes for any reason, excused or unexcused. This will be rare.
What is this "don't ask" bullshit? Any professor that would think less of a student for talking to them about something like this needs to teach less.
Bring it up next time you visit office hours. I doubt it will change anything, but the idea that you shouldn't talk to your professor annoys the shit out of me. They're human beings, not gods.
What a terrible attitude to have for a student who made a mistake... You don't have to do anything different to accommodate them, but being an asshole to your students is completely optional.
Yes, we do have to take time to "do something" to accommodate them.
I typically have 160 students per class. Sometimes only 50-60. To go in and reset and regrade an exam is a greater than zero minute affair.
I think you may be misunderstanding the response. I think they are saying that you don't have to accommodate the request, but you can just politely say no and that doesn't take any effort.
Which I sort of agree with. I don't mind if a student asks me if there's any way to make up a quiz or something. I say no, but you get to drop one quiz so don't stress about it too much. Or whatever the applicable reply is. It doesn't cost me anything to answer them, and honestly I don't mind if someone politely asks me if there's a way to make something up or something. It sort of strikes me as being similar to a baseball bat or asking the umpire where a pitch was. If you do it in the wrong way you're going to piss them off. But if you just say was that a little bit high? That's fine, and the parallel question towards me is fine as well as far as I'm concerned anyway
Mistakes come with consequences.
They missed a quiz. It’s not the end of the world, it’s not even the end of their academic career, it’s likely not even the end of a good grade in this class. It’s a minor mistake with an immediate and equal consequence.
If students learn these low-stakes lessons now then they don’t have to learn them down the road by, say, sleeping through their alarm on the day of a big presentation that would have real consequences for their career. We’re playing a low stakes game here where you can actually prepare for life. Giving special treatment for no reason would rob students of that opportunity.
I'm sick of this response that tries to analogize "the real world" to situations like this. It's a completely different situation, and if it's. truly a once-in-a-long-while event, you absolutely can miss the "big presentation" without any real consequences, because people aren't rigid jerks about real life.
And please highlight where I said any "special treatment" was warranted, because I think you'll find that's not mentioned in anything I've written. All I've claimed is that a student should always be able to discuss matters with their professor, and the stigma of "don't talk to your professor about this" is wrong headed and negligent on the part of any professor who agrees.
Oh, I imagine many of us would like to "teach less" - but we'd prefer to actually teach the subject, rather than manage student lives.
Virtually no one comes to office hours for actual academic help - it's mostly email/Canvas message and asking for exceptions.
Sometimes, course material is nested or stacked - being excused from one part of the scaffold is not a favor to the student.
I call them private manipulation/therapy sessions. I am super available to my students during and after class in public and on our course GroupMe. Students are professional and we stick to answering questions about content. Students won’t ask for favors or have excuses when peers are present. It’s too embarrassing.
Presumably OP came here for advice from professors, not from some random undergrad looking to get offended.
>the idea that you shouldn't talk to your professor annoys the shit out of me.
And students thinking they can talk their way around the syllabus by asking for favours annoys the shit out of us.
I assumed it was obvious, but here it is spelled out for you:
1. Read the syllabus policy.
2. Only if the syllabus is silent on make-up work for unexcused absences (this is rare) AND they never told you the policy in class, you can ask.
Otherwise, yes, asking when you know it violates their policy is a dumb move and will not earn you any favor with any instructor who seeks to be fair to all students. It's grubbing, and it's immature.
Yeah that's not what you wrote, nor is it implied by what you wrote.
It's also still wrong; your relationship with your professor is important, making sure they believe you're "bought in" to the class is meaningful, and explaining that you are and that this was a genuine mistake is, at the very least, helpful to manage that relationship properly.
You're drifting further and further here from the path of wisdom my brother.
It's fine with me if you have missed a quiz and you walk up after class the next class, or you drop by my office hours, and say hey I overslept and missed that quiz. I'm really sorry. There's no way to make that up is there? That's fine with me. I don't care if a student does that. I will say, no but you can drop a quiz. Or whatever the applicable policy is. It doesn't bother me if someone politely checks on the rules with me, that's okay.
But if you're starting to get performative about it and trying to make me understand that you are super bought into the class by bugging me all the time, then that's aggravating. And you're wasting my time with performative nonsense. There's a big difference between the two. As I said in an earlier comment, it's sort of analogous to how a batter might discuss something with an umpire. You can politely ask if that last ball was high or something, that's fine. But if you're constantly nagging him about it he's going to get aggravated with you.
Now, if I get aggravated with you, will it affect my grading? It will not. Mostly because I do blind grading, I do a page at a time, I have no idea whose test I'm grading at any given time. But you still don't want to aggravate your professors.
So while I agree with you that a polite inquiry, briefly, after class, or sticking your head in during office hours, is fine, I do not think that this performative idea of "hey see how bought into the class I am!" is a good idea. Don't do that. It's easy to see through, it wastes time, and it is aggravating.
If it’s a quiz, do nothing. My quizzes are worth 2% of the grade each. It’s designed that way so an excellent student who just happens to sleep through can still get an A. It’s only when folk miss 3, 4, 5 quizzes that it adds up.
Do see a doctor. You shouldn’t be that fatigued after 10 hours of sleep.
I second DR NOW. It might be stress. A little depression. A vitamin/iron deficiency. Or there are sicknesses that start with mostly fatigue and are elusive. Listen to your body sending those “I know something’s not right” signals.
If it’s a quiz, do nothing. My quizzes are worth 2% of the grade each. It’s designed that way so an excellent student who just happens to sleep through can still get an A. It’s only when folk miss 3, 4, 5 quizzes that it adds up.
Do see a doctor. You shouldn’t be that fatigued after 10 hours of sleep.
I'm going to disagree with some other commenters and say I'd prefer a student at least email me acknowledging they realize they missed the quiz. There may be nothing to be done about it no (I've taught very large classes where make-up assessments just couldn't work or it may be against course policies), but it at least lets me know you're all right and not just checking out of the class (Note: I generally teach small classes where a student not coming to a quiz is pretty noticeable and its a bit weird when they show up the next class and pretend nothing has happen. I felt different when it was a large class and I couldn't just notice a missing student in the quiz room).
I second getting the sleep issues checked out though. College students oversleeping because they were up to late is common, but if you're getting a full nights plus rest and still having trouble waking up it can indicate something else going on (Mono occurs to me, although you'd likely have other symptoms and not just fatigue. But I'm not that kind of doctor, so talk to student health).
Agreed. When a student told me they missed a quiz due to oversleeping, I just told them to take it with my afternoon section. Even if I couldn't offer that, I'd want to know why they weren't there.
This is an automated service intended to preserve the original text of the post.
*I feel ashamed is all I have to say, I have had an 8 AM everyday this term, but last week, I just gave up I guess, I slept through alarms even though I had gotten 10 hours of sleep at that point.
I have no good reason other than I slept through these classes.
I would usually sleep through my alarms only when I was getting like 4 - 5 hours of sleep, but not 10 hours.
I feel sick, but not actually, I just know something is not right, but again it all feels like I am complaining and like an excuse for sleeping through classes.
Now, I don't want to burden every single one of my professors with my day to day struggles, how do I approach this professor about having missed this quiz in a concise manner?
I am so scared that I will miss tomorrow's class that I cannot even sleep tonight.*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskProfessors) if you have any questions or concerns.*
For the quiz: nothing to do now. You can tell your professor "I'm sorry I missed the quiz. I slept through my alarm, I'll make sure it doesn't happen again" For the sleeping: **DOCTOR.** **NOW.** Unexplained fatigue should be checked out immediately. It could be something easy like a Vitamin D or Magnesium deficiency, or it could be something more serious.
When I couldn’t stay awake it turned out my spleen was going out on me. Had to have it removed. Really fucked up my Masters work.
you don't. You take the zero.
This. And then you learn from it (maybe 2 alarms next time).
with a third somewhere you'll hear it but can't reach to snooze it.
Yeah, I skimmed this and thought it was a final, but it's a quiz. Not a huge deal.
Take the L for this one. It's a quiz; it shouldn't tank your course grade (depending on the grade breakdown). It happens to most of us, nothing to lose sleep over (I'm so sorry). If you still want to email the instructor, just write 1-2 sentences saying you overslept and missed the quiz, you understand the policy of unexcused absences (whatever it says in the syllabus), and just wanted to let them know. *Don't* ask to make it up. The only exception to this is if the instructor has a policy that specifically and explicitly allows make-up quizzes for any reason, excused or unexcused. This will be rare.
What is this "don't ask" bullshit? Any professor that would think less of a student for talking to them about something like this needs to teach less. Bring it up next time you visit office hours. I doubt it will change anything, but the idea that you shouldn't talk to your professor annoys the shit out of me. They're human beings, not gods.
Yeah, definitely ask. Professors love it when you ask for special exceptions because you slept through your alarm. Can’t go wrong.
What a terrible attitude to have for a student who made a mistake... You don't have to do anything different to accommodate them, but being an asshole to your students is completely optional.
Something else that is optional: pestering professors with piddly nonsense when other students have actual crises.
Yes, we do have to take time to "do something" to accommodate them. I typically have 160 students per class. Sometimes only 50-60. To go in and reset and regrade an exam is a greater than zero minute affair.
I think you may be misunderstanding the response. I think they are saying that you don't have to accommodate the request, but you can just politely say no and that doesn't take any effort. Which I sort of agree with. I don't mind if a student asks me if there's any way to make up a quiz or something. I say no, but you get to drop one quiz so don't stress about it too much. Or whatever the applicable reply is. It doesn't cost me anything to answer them, and honestly I don't mind if someone politely asks me if there's a way to make something up or something. It sort of strikes me as being similar to a baseball bat or asking the umpire where a pitch was. If you do it in the wrong way you're going to piss them off. But if you just say was that a little bit high? That's fine, and the parallel question towards me is fine as well as far as I'm concerned anyway
Mistakes come with consequences. They missed a quiz. It’s not the end of the world, it’s not even the end of their academic career, it’s likely not even the end of a good grade in this class. It’s a minor mistake with an immediate and equal consequence. If students learn these low-stakes lessons now then they don’t have to learn them down the road by, say, sleeping through their alarm on the day of a big presentation that would have real consequences for their career. We’re playing a low stakes game here where you can actually prepare for life. Giving special treatment for no reason would rob students of that opportunity.
I'm sick of this response that tries to analogize "the real world" to situations like this. It's a completely different situation, and if it's. truly a once-in-a-long-while event, you absolutely can miss the "big presentation" without any real consequences, because people aren't rigid jerks about real life. And please highlight where I said any "special treatment" was warranted, because I think you'll find that's not mentioned in anything I've written. All I've claimed is that a student should always be able to discuss matters with their professor, and the stigma of "don't talk to your professor about this" is wrong headed and negligent on the part of any professor who agrees.
What's the point of emailing then?
Oh, I imagine many of us would like to "teach less" - but we'd prefer to actually teach the subject, rather than manage student lives. Virtually no one comes to office hours for actual academic help - it's mostly email/Canvas message and asking for exceptions. Sometimes, course material is nested or stacked - being excused from one part of the scaffold is not a favor to the student.
I call them private manipulation/therapy sessions. I am super available to my students during and after class in public and on our course GroupMe. Students are professional and we stick to answering questions about content. Students won’t ask for favors or have excuses when peers are present. It’s too embarrassing.
Presumably OP came here for advice from professors, not from some random undergrad looking to get offended. >the idea that you shouldn't talk to your professor annoys the shit out of me. And students thinking they can talk their way around the syllabus by asking for favours annoys the shit out of us.
I assumed it was obvious, but here it is spelled out for you: 1. Read the syllabus policy. 2. Only if the syllabus is silent on make-up work for unexcused absences (this is rare) AND they never told you the policy in class, you can ask. Otherwise, yes, asking when you know it violates their policy is a dumb move and will not earn you any favor with any instructor who seeks to be fair to all students. It's grubbing, and it's immature.
Yeah that's not what you wrote, nor is it implied by what you wrote. It's also still wrong; your relationship with your professor is important, making sure they believe you're "bought in" to the class is meaningful, and explaining that you are and that this was a genuine mistake is, at the very least, helpful to manage that relationship properly.
We're not scrutinizing who does or doesn't take a quiz.
You're drifting further and further here from the path of wisdom my brother. It's fine with me if you have missed a quiz and you walk up after class the next class, or you drop by my office hours, and say hey I overslept and missed that quiz. I'm really sorry. There's no way to make that up is there? That's fine with me. I don't care if a student does that. I will say, no but you can drop a quiz. Or whatever the applicable policy is. It doesn't bother me if someone politely checks on the rules with me, that's okay. But if you're starting to get performative about it and trying to make me understand that you are super bought into the class by bugging me all the time, then that's aggravating. And you're wasting my time with performative nonsense. There's a big difference between the two. As I said in an earlier comment, it's sort of analogous to how a batter might discuss something with an umpire. You can politely ask if that last ball was high or something, that's fine. But if you're constantly nagging him about it he's going to get aggravated with you. Now, if I get aggravated with you, will it affect my grading? It will not. Mostly because I do blind grading, I do a page at a time, I have no idea whose test I'm grading at any given time. But you still don't want to aggravate your professors. So while I agree with you that a polite inquiry, briefly, after class, or sticking your head in during office hours, is fine, I do not think that this performative idea of "hey see how bought into the class I am!" is a good idea. Don't do that. It's easy to see through, it wastes time, and it is aggravating.
If it’s a quiz, do nothing. My quizzes are worth 2% of the grade each. It’s designed that way so an excellent student who just happens to sleep through can still get an A. It’s only when folk miss 3, 4, 5 quizzes that it adds up. Do see a doctor. You shouldn’t be that fatigued after 10 hours of sleep.
Be honest. Like “I fucked up.” fwiw my brother had this issue—-after having to take a leave, it was NARCOLEPSY.
I second DR NOW. It might be stress. A little depression. A vitamin/iron deficiency. Or there are sicknesses that start with mostly fatigue and are elusive. Listen to your body sending those “I know something’s not right” signals.
If it’s a quiz, do nothing. My quizzes are worth 2% of the grade each. It’s designed that way so an excellent student who just happens to sleep through can still get an A. It’s only when folk miss 3, 4, 5 quizzes that it adds up. Do see a doctor. You shouldn’t be that fatigued after 10 hours of sleep.
I'm going to disagree with some other commenters and say I'd prefer a student at least email me acknowledging they realize they missed the quiz. There may be nothing to be done about it no (I've taught very large classes where make-up assessments just couldn't work or it may be against course policies), but it at least lets me know you're all right and not just checking out of the class (Note: I generally teach small classes where a student not coming to a quiz is pretty noticeable and its a bit weird when they show up the next class and pretend nothing has happen. I felt different when it was a large class and I couldn't just notice a missing student in the quiz room). I second getting the sleep issues checked out though. College students oversleeping because they were up to late is common, but if you're getting a full nights plus rest and still having trouble waking up it can indicate something else going on (Mono occurs to me, although you'd likely have other symptoms and not just fatigue. But I'm not that kind of doctor, so talk to student health).
Agreed. When a student told me they missed a quiz due to oversleeping, I just told them to take it with my afternoon section. Even if I couldn't offer that, I'd want to know why they weren't there.
This is an automated service intended to preserve the original text of the post. *I feel ashamed is all I have to say, I have had an 8 AM everyday this term, but last week, I just gave up I guess, I slept through alarms even though I had gotten 10 hours of sleep at that point. I have no good reason other than I slept through these classes. I would usually sleep through my alarms only when I was getting like 4 - 5 hours of sleep, but not 10 hours. I feel sick, but not actually, I just know something is not right, but again it all feels like I am complaining and like an excuse for sleeping through classes. Now, I don't want to burden every single one of my professors with my day to day struggles, how do I approach this professor about having missed this quiz in a concise manner? I am so scared that I will miss tomorrow's class that I cannot even sleep tonight.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskProfessors) if you have any questions or concerns.*