Observation
Pre-printed per-student exams (name/ID pre-filled, per-student serial in the footer, §6) already function as a no-show ledger: when a student doesn't sit the exam, their serialized blank remains unclaimed in the stack — physical proof they never took it. Combined with the standing procedure of scanning every sheet, blanks included, to Gradescope, the no-show record also becomes a timestamped digital artifact. This forecloses the "I sat the exam / you lost my paper" appeal.
This is an unintended upside of the controlled-documents / per-student-serial design — worth formalizing so it's an intentional, documented property rather than a happy accident.
Proposal
- Document the scan-all-including-blanks + per-student-serial no-show ledger as an explicit property in
docs/design/exam-system.md §7 (Defensibility and grade appeals) and in notes/gradescope-exam-workflow.md.
- (Optional) tooling — a reconciliation step that diffs
build/register.csv (everyone who should have a paper) against the graded/scanned set, emitting an explicit no-show list per section. reg-exam-verify already resolves any paper → one student + one form; this would close the loop on absent papers.
Origin
Surfaced administering the CECS 378 final (Su26). Vault ref: notes/cecs-378-final-exam-revisions.md#^noshow-ledger.
Observation
Pre-printed per-student exams (name/ID pre-filled, per-student serial in the footer, §6) already function as a no-show ledger: when a student doesn't sit the exam, their serialized blank remains unclaimed in the stack — physical proof they never took it. Combined with the standing procedure of scanning every sheet, blanks included, to Gradescope, the no-show record also becomes a timestamped digital artifact. This forecloses the "I sat the exam / you lost my paper" appeal.
This is an unintended upside of the controlled-documents / per-student-serial design — worth formalizing so it's an intentional, documented property rather than a happy accident.
Proposal
docs/design/exam-system.md§7 (Defensibility and grade appeals) and innotes/gradescope-exam-workflow.md.build/register.csv(everyone who should have a paper) against the graded/scanned set, emitting an explicit no-show list per section.reg-exam-verifyalready resolves any paper → one student + one form; this would close the loop on absent papers.Origin
Surfaced administering the CECS 378 final (Su26). Vault ref:
notes/cecs-378-final-exam-revisions.md#^noshow-ledger.