text:
How to react professionally when you receive a complaint from a student
I got a surprising email from the department chair today, saying that one student has made a complaint against me. It seems that one of my weaker students felt that my tone in an office hour was mocking, and felt uncomfortable because of it.
I have not yet heard the details of the incident. So I have no idea who this student is (I'm teaching several hundred students this semester), or what it was that I actually said. I'll arrange a meeting with the chair soon to figure out the details. As far as I remember, I have never been angry or annoyed with a student, and I can't even begin to guess at the particular incident.
Nonetheless, I can't help but feel hurt and defensive at this allegation. I have received a prestigious teaching award just a couple of years ago, and my teaching evaluations have always been stellar. In fact, I have never received a negative feedback from students until now. Furthermore, the one common thing that all students have said is the fact that I'm very friendly and approachable.
I can feel it in my current classes that I'm teaching well, because multiple students who are enrolled in other sections show up to my 8am classes (I regularly have my classroom overflowing, and students often have to stand or sit in the floor to listen to my lectures), and I've gotten the students to a point where they feel comfortable asking even trivial questions in class (I feel that the majority of students are unafraid to speak up when they're confused about something, etc.)
So I feel that this student must have some sort of a personal grudge against me (midterms were just handed back last week), and decided to elevate this to a never-experienced-before level.
And even more hurtful is that my colleagues might start viewing me as a cruel person who mocks the weaker students.
I'd like to fight this allegation to the end to prove my innocence, and I'm not sure what the right way to do this is. Obviously, I realize that despite all this, I'm still in the position of power, and that I need to be very careful not to make this student feel retaliated or singled out (that is not my intention at all; I just want to prove beyond any doubt that I am a competent professor and a good person). So I am thinking of offering to do the following:

disclose all of my teaching evaluations that I have received from the beginning of my teaching career

offer to have representatives from the department visit my classes/office hours to see the kind of environment I have created for my students

offer to make recordings of all of my classes/office hours and other interactions with students

offer to conduct a mid-year teaching review/survey from my students, collecting anonymous comments to see if I am indeed unconsciously being thoughtless towards the weaker students

I did have a couple of students be very rude to me over emails; although I was courteous towards them in my responses, I wonder if the complaint came from one of them. Thus, gather all offensive emails that came from the students and give this information to the chair, to see if he can check if the complaint came from one of them

My question to you is, what else can I do to get myself completely acquitted from these allegations, while staying professional? I think that maybe I'm overreacting a bit, but I also don't want to let the students walk all over me in such a fashion, especially if the allegation turns out to be unwarranted or false. I am quite young (younger than some of the TA's that work for me, actually...) and sometimes do have these authority issues in the classroom, where students see me as their equal.
Update: I met with the chair to figure out exactly what the complaint was about. It seems that the student (who I remember to be completely lost) did not like that I was not giving out answers (I conduct my office hours by posing small step-by-step questions for my students, and never give out direct answers, instead guiding them to the answer), and that I smiled while he felt lost in my office hour(!!). I expressed my regrets at the misunderstanding, and the rest of the chat consisted of the chair saying encouraging things to me, and that I should continue what I am doing with my students. I do not plan on changing anything, but it is still upsetting to me that students can just fling off these wild allegations, though. Anyway, thank you for your overwhelming support.

Sorry to hear that and calm down. I think the suggested approach is destructive and will only serve to highlight the property of being overly sensitive, defensive, and irritable.
First, this is a small complaint possibly caused by miscommunication. It's not serious charges such as assault or sexual harassment. Miscommunications happen even we aren't intended to, and it's a two-way process. Even you are 100% communicating well, the other may still misunderstand. If you're upholding your best friendly behavior you claimed that was loved by the other students, then you're doing something that is right for most but one student. The effort you'd need to put to prove the you're innocent and the output of nullifying that accusation don't look like balanced to me.
Second, don't care too much about how other lecturers view you on this issue. First, you found this out because it's reported. But how do you know if the same rumor has not been spread to everyone informally? A sensible well-educated adult (like, I hope, your colleagues) does not usually just believe or even propagate unsupported claims. Sensible students do not just skip taking your class because they heard that you mock people. Instead, they'd look at the publicly available evaluation reports and know that you are a decent teacher.
Third, just re-read your own question. The department head has not claimed that the complaint is from a weaker student, and you also have no proof that the rude e-mail senders had any motivation to taint your reputation, and yet the stereotypes,  extrapolations, and unsupported claims in your post are immense. This is not to say I think you're a bad teacher, I want to point out that you may not be as objective and just as you may want to believe. And the past successes in teaching might indeed have biased how you see your teaching self.
Fourth, good records imply one is less likely to have committed wrongdoing. Good records do not guarantee no wrongdoing. Piling up all these positive records only serve to prove that you're not likely to mock people, but anyone can also ask "so what?" and you'll be left speechless. What if they think you have become too confident and full of yourself? What if there are other what ifs?
I have only taught for 10 years so I can't say I am very experienced, but one thing I learn is that just by random distribution some students are bound to dislike me, but deep down I know I learned my subjects, I am passionate about teaching them, I made reasonable teaching goals and make sure to best facilitate my students to get there, I am open to new evidence-based teaching methods and experiment, I yell "Okay class, let's start!" happily in every class. I am happy. A couple "neutral" or "disagree" in my course evaluation? A couple complaints about me being condescending, or annoying, or not pronouncing English 100% right? I'd reflect on them and see if I can improve, but I will not let them drag on; there are just too many other more important tasks to attend to.
My suggested approach is to present your record to your department chair and express your confusion about this comment. Escalating it may draw even more attention than it is now. (But I do agree that some of your measures such as peer observation will be a good learning activity among faculty.) Ask for his/her advice on how to deal with abnormal evaluation or complaint like this in future. I'd guarantee any experienced teacher (including your department head, I bet) will say something along the line of "We've all been there." If he/she becomes very negative about this one complaint and ignores all your past positive records, then you probably should evaluate if this environment will allow you to thrive.
However it turns out, I hope you and the said student will find peace and understanding soon. Remember to chill, and good luck.

you taught for 10 years and you dont consider yourself experienced????????!!!===

@SSimon, yes, and I wasn't trying to look humble there. In the first 3-5 years I really just worked on design and delivery, making things are presented nicely. Using educational literature, "reading" the classroom, using more interactive modules, etc. only started 5 years ago, after I had become more comfortable in delivery. Since then I realized every semester was a bit different: demographics, culture, new technology, etc. are constant moving targets; the only "experience" I gained is that I have to adapt constantly as well, prep work never reduces. (Sobbing)

@Penguin_Knight you are right on at the second-to-last paragraph. Escalating the problem will trigger Streisand Effect.

Very nice response. You cannot affect other people. On a course which one may think ran brilliant, one suddenly gets almost out-of-order comments. On a course which seemed middling, one gets enthusiastic comments. Who knows what bad day the student had? Some weak students may not be able to distinguish their own faults from those of the teacher. The teacher may not realise a gaffe they have done. It happens to the best of us (and to the not-so-best of us, too, just more often, so they are less put out by it).

+1  for emphasizing to chill out. (As from what I read, all that really happened is that a student complained that a professor felt 'mocking' in interactions, the chair noted the complaint and tried to note it to the faculty member - perhaps because  it isn't a particularly far-fetched complaint so it might be something the faculty member should be a bit more self-reflective about in future. Getting all defensive and running up massive documents to prove to chair that you don't 'deserve' a complaint is irrelevant. What the chair wants is for you to be informed, and to reflect.

I agree that you're over-reacting, and I think once the shock wears off and you take it a bit easier you'll see for yourself what's wrong here.
It's definitely not professional to prepare your defence before you even know what you're accused of. Just because you have an award, and almost all your students like you, doesn't prove you're infallible and doesn't prove you didn't do this one thing wrong that's been complained about. You're not accused of always being wrong or of being a certain kind of person, you're accused of one incident. If you act as though your general good character proves you innocent of a single incident, then you would be presenting yourself as arrogant, entitled and, frankly, clueless.
So don't go in with the attitude that "I don't know what it is you think I did wrong, but I've never done anything wrong in my life and I can prove that because most people like me". Don't think, "I'd like to fight this allegation to the end to prove my innocence" before you even know whether you're innocent or not.
Instead, listen to the complaint.
It's possible the incident is completely invented (in which case perhaps you can call specific witnesses who were present in the same class it was alleged to happen, rather than general testimony that you're a good teacher). More likely something happened that you thought at the time was fine (perhaps even still think is fine) but the student didn't like. In which case you can probably apologise, learn the lesson that not everyone likes it, and move on. If a student feels mocked or belittled, then chances are what they need to know is that you respect them and that making them feel otherwise was a mistake. That is the professional thing to do, but unfortunately you can't start doing it until you know the details, and you don't know the details yet.
For example, if your friendly and approachable style includes a certain amount of joking around, you have to be prepared for the possibility that not everyone likes being joked around, and it's possible that you did mock something they did or said. That would be fine if they thought it was funny, not so much if they didn't, which is out of your control. And just because someone laughs at the time doesn't mean they really enjoyed it -- people try to cover embarrassment or discomfort. So having separate feedback outside the class is helpful to you, to learn things you otherwise can't, it's just a shame that it's coming in the form of a complaint.
If you go in assuming you did some small thing wrong, you'll be pleasantly surprised if you didn't, or if you did but you can make amends. If you go in assuming that a person with good teaching evaluations cannot possibly have done anything wrong, then you'll get a nasty shock because others disagree.
Try very hard not to form a picture in your mind of your accuser or what you're accused of, because if you go in with pre-conceptions then you will naturally project them onto the actual situation. You think that it's probably a student with a grudge? Well, then when you find out about the incident you'll see a grudge instead of seeing a genuine complaint. Think it was probably a weaker student? Then you'll see an idiot and dismiss their opinions. The professional thing is to control that urge.
In effect, your professional responsibility between now and the meeting with the chair, is to do nothing and think nothing. That's really hard, but there it is.

even more hurtful is that my colleagues might start viewing me as a
  cruel person who mocks the weaker students.

That would be bad, but it's unlikely that a single minor incident, handled in confidence and settled to the satisfaction of whoever is in charge, will get you that reputation. Again, this is not about what kind of person you are, it's about one incident. And it'd still better than them viewing you as a cruel person who mocks the weak, refuses to accept even the possibility of being wrong, and keeps an exhaustive defence argument ready to go at a moment's notice.
Don't let your (natural, understandable) worry over the accusation, turn you into an even worse person than what you're worried you might be accused of.
Short version:

Try to remain calm. This is not a major incident until your boss says it is.
Prepare yourself in the expectation that you've done some (relatively) small thing wrong.
Don't guess what the complaint is or anything about the person who made it.
Go to the meeting, find out what's wrong.
Do whatever you can to fix the problem once you find out.

From past experiences (with cheating) I know that students almost
  always win ... [we should require] the students to prove that the
  professor indeed acted in a problematic way

Be wary of confirmation and selection biases, and be sure to remember in future that your past experiences now include this case, which was settled to your satisfaction. There doesn't need to be a cast-iron case against you before you're even asked for your account of what happened. Are you really saying that in past cases where you raised concerns of cheating that in the end were not proved, that you should not even have been permitted to raise the concern for further investigation until you'd assembled a convincing proof? And that's with you in a position of some authority and with access to the student's work. A student is not the right person to have to put their sleuthing shoes on and assemble all the evidence in the case: your chair is.
In your case there was no proof of wrongdoing and you were not punished. You shouldn't see that as a failure to apply a "beyond reasonable doubt" or other standard of proof. It's a success, the system worked. Generally speaking there should not be a standard of proof for students to even raise concerns, because if there were then students would be unable to get help establishing the evidence when they genuinely have been wronged. At this stage of proceedings it's an inquisitorial not an adversarial system. Even in a serious case that moves to an adversarial venue, the student is not the prosecuting attorney and isn't responsible for proving the case.

First: No matter what you do, you will get some complaints, especially if you deal with large student populations. That's simply impossible to avoid. Your institution will probably have some formal requirements for dealing with such complaints, and your chairperson is compelled to follow through with those.
The practical response is going to depend on your department chair and institutional environment. Hopefully your chair is someone who weighs your prior excellent track record, and gives you the benefit of the doubt (student complaint has burden of proof for any action). This has been my experience, but I've heard from people in other situations where the reverse may be true (e.g., institutions where there is no department chair, or maybe a Dean or Provost of particular persuasion). Probably the face-to-face with the chair will make this clear, and your word will be taken at face value, and that can be the end (barring some kind of hard evidence on the part of the student).
One thing I would point out is that if this or any other case veers into accusations of sexual misconduct, then you have to be very careful indeed. If you are part of a union in the U.S., then you have an ironclad right to have union representation during any investigatory interview (see: Weingarten Rights). The advice I've received is that if anyone from a potentially unfriendly bureau asks for an interview about a student complaint (e.g., in my case, certain places outside the academic department), definitely say that you'll want union representation with you; in some cases the requested interview is then called off. Also I have colleagues who only meet with students with the office door open, or within the department office where they have witnesses at all times.
Hopefully you have a reasonably supportive chair/department, and if your experience matches mine then likely you'll have a 2 minute discussion of your side and it will be over at that point (and none of the prior paragraph will be necessary). But be aware that there will be occasional unjustified complaints from upset students over any otherwise long and successful career.

Your comment about union representation makes it sound like it's universal, but at many universities in many countries, faculty are not unionized.

Edited to specify unionized faculty in the U.S.

Why would anyone meet with students behind closed doors? That's definitely asking for trouble.

@user49602 It's almost 20 years that I meet with students, and frequently with close doors. I've never had any trouble.

Unpleasant people are best handled via a low-pass filter. You give things a long delay, and significant time to build up and do not act on short-duration events. More opportunities for them to make mistakes. If it's an irrelevant blip, or simply a momentary outburst of disgruntledness, it will pass, and people, including themselves, will forget. As Fontane said: "Happiness is a strong stomach and a bad memory."

Everyone here had excellent responses. Let me just put it more concisely: the student has the right to complaint about whatever he/she likes to.
And you have the right to simply ignore it.
(By the way, it is your right to have a general mocking tone. As long as it is not mocking on personal basis, you are entitled to your own style. (I personally don't like mocking tones, but I also don't like people who wear, e.g. sandals. That's a matter of taste.))

Edit clarification:
Mocking on a personal basis is not okay. But here the student seems to claim something else: "a mocking tone". This can be interpreted as the student trying to formalize his/her discontent with the professor into concrete allegations. Since the professor did not mock him/her, the student allegedly has decided to base his accusations on something that is subjective or vague: a "general mocking tone"; which can in fact refer to many things.
My claim is that a tone alone cannot be a justifiable basis for a formal complaint.

-1. Just like the relationship between any other customer and service provider, the student has a right to be treated with professionalism and respect, regardless of the student's attitude towards the teacher. It is absolutely not the teacher's right to have a "general mocking tone".

That means a lot coming from you, Professor @Moriarty.

@user1717828 why is fact that my handle is the same as the surname of a fictional antagonist relevant to my comment? I'm not even claiming it as a deliberate reference to one of the numerous incarnations of Professor James Moriarty. There do exist other fictional Moriartys (Moriarties?). There are also real Moriartys. Or maybe I just liked the sound of the name.

@Moriarty, I disagree. Academia is not a service provider and the student is not a customer; at least not in the standard sense. Because in academia, for instance, the students get judged by the professors, and the judgement is based on many non-objective parameters. Indeed, it is not unprofessional to have a mocking tone---as long it is not personal insults.

@Moriarty I am in absolute disagreement. People do have a right to have a certain tone provided it does not break rules or laws. You do not have the right to police anyone's tone. Giving automatic immunity to behavioral scrutiny to customers and students is not an opinion that service providers unanimously share with you. If a student's attitude is a problem, it may very well be true that the professional response is to deal with it in a way that is uncomfortable to the student, such as reprimanding them. You are not there to ensure maximum comfort to them at all times.

@Moriarty, I was just making light of the coincidence. I see I should have ended the comment with a :-p or something. Sorry for the confusion.

@TheAnathema reprimanding =/= mocking. Mocking means to "make fun of someone or something in a cruel way; derisive". And this is not okay. Telling a student that their work is not good enough (etc.) is in no way tantamount to mocking them! Perhaps what I think of as "mocking" is a more restrictive definition than your own...

@Moriarty, indeed this is the definition of mocking. But here the OP was talking about a mocking tone, which is presumably something else. And we can interpret this as not real/direct mocking, but a tone which was seemed unpleasant. This is legitimate. People have different personalities, and it is impossible that every student would like the tone of every faculty.

I agree with the answers that say you should stop worrying so much.  You're planning to meet with the department chair to find out what's going on.  You might well find out that nothing is going on. Perhaps the chair knows perfectly well that you're a great teacher but some university policy requires him/her to inform you when there's a complaint.  Many years ago, I was the associate chair in charge of handling complaints about faculty; how I handled them depended on what I already knew about the person's teaching.  A known problem teacher got a visit from me immediately after a complaint; a known excellent teacher never even knew that there was a complaint --- I wasn't going to bother him about one student's complaint, and there was no policy requiring me to bother him.  Of course, if I got more complaints about the excellent teacher, then I'd have to do something (and revise my opinion about his excellence), but there were no more complaints about him. Your department chair may well have a similar attitude; the message you get when you meet with him/her may well be the same message you're getting here: Don't worry about it.

I think you've already worried far too much about this.
Malcontents are a fact of life and whining is often their ultimate revenge against the competent simply for being competent, never-mind stellar.  While it is reasonable for you not to immediately dismiss these complaints in your own mind - pondering if anything might have any validity however exaggerated by the student, it is not constructive to dwell on it too much.  Life is too short already.
The praise others and recognition by them of our efforts and accomplishments is a spice of life, but it is not a nutritious meal for the soul.  The locus of our identity should be within ourselves, not external and beyond our control.  That is to say: We should NEVER outsource our own happiness.  Sometimes we will be castigated for doing the right thing or merely for being an ethical person.  That or the envy of others owing to one's own excellence is no reason to retreat from excellence or from what you love to do.
Unless there is something more that comes out during your meeting with the department chair, all you really need to do is point out your previous performance and student reviews. (And abib abib... That's all Folks!)
Do be prepared - mostly emotionally.  If a third party you are not expecting is in attendance when you meet with the department chair, especially the dean, a university attorney, or someone from Human Resources; ask immediately, firmly, but without defensiveness WHY they are there.  And if it is indicated to you that there is more to the complaint, then just matter-of-factly ask them to get it out in the open directly and if it is a more serious accusation (like sexual harassment) calmly and IMMEDIATELY state on the record that you deny (assuming that is the truth otherwise the issue is out of my league) this and ask for any information you need so that you can present your side of the story.  I'm not trying to scare you.  Probably nothing like this will happen because if that were in the complaint I think you would have had this conversation already.
But in such a situation you want to neither appear reluctant (easy if they say something that shocks you) nor defensive - just matter-of-fact, direct, to-the-point, no repetition of account.
If all there is to this is what you have already been told (likely I believe) then you don't want to come across as having fretted too much about this.
And for goodness sake, don't spend any more time worrying - especially over things you have no control.
Good luck to you.

Well, you start with the (correct) assertion that the OP has already dwelled too much on this minor issue, to then launch into "maybe this becomes a sexual harassment story", and end with "Good luck to you". Frankly, from what the OP has posted it seems borderline paranoid to assume that there is anything more to this than a slightly disgruntled student.

@xLeitix, Call it "borderline paranoid" if you want to, but I've seen curves thrown like this before in comparable situations that I've been privy to.  How one reacts in the first few seconds matters.  I was clear that this is probably (emphasize probably) not the case here but one never knows what one does not know.  It helps to be mentally ready for anything and a minute or two (no more) of quiet reflection in advance is all that is required.  No reason to look guilty or defensive when you are innocent.

I smiled while he felt lost in my office hour....  I do not plan on changing anything.

Students are sometimes quite vulnerable.  Sometimes we make things worse for them, unintentionally.  That doesn't make us a bad person -- unless we don't allow ourselves to feel any empathy.
Have you thought about utilizing mentorship and other university resources for honing and fine-tuning your teaching skills?
We all have room for improvement.

I'm not an academic, but I am a professional. You need to handle this professionally. What is the primary difference between a professional and an amateur? Well, okay, aside from the amount of time invested... It's discipline!
Professionals are disciplined. The approach you're taking is anything but disciplined. To be perfectly frank, you're kind of freaking out a little. I'll grant that it's better to freak out to US than to your department chair or the student, but it's best to remain rational the entire time.
You need to do three simple things:
1. Get the facts. Don't make any plans until you understand what you're being accused of, what the student wants done about it, etc. You seem to be assuming the worst, but honestly if it was seriously bad, you would already be in meetings to get to the bottom of it. But you're not, so it can't be that bad...
2. Accept that you were wrong. "Wrong?!" you're thinking. "I've done nothing wrong!" Well that can't be true or this complaint wouldn't have happened, logically. Just view this as a way to improve. What if you've been doing something that has been making students feel uncomfortable for years and you didn't know because they all just never said anything? Wouldn't you want to fix that?
3. Move past this. It's a small bump in what appears to be a road filled with accolades. Use this to influence both how you handle criticism in the future and how you interact with your students.
One last comment: your post seems to be an awful lot about you. You weren't the one who felt uncomfortable. Don't make this about you. This is about them. Keep it about them. If your passion for making a positive impact on students lives is as true as your post makes it out to be, you'll make sure you keep this one about the student that (for whatever reason, whether it's reasonable or not) felt you had a negative impact on theirs. You're the only one who can turn it around for them!

"What is the primary difference between a professional and an amateur" - one is paid, the other isn't. It's also the only difference. I hate how people attach all of this crazy baggage to common words to the point of making them completely useless.

No, davor, that's the difference between an employee and a hobbiest. There are many employees that are not professionals.

No, that is exactly the degradation of the word that I'm talking about. A professional is someone who earns money performing their profession. Muhammad Ali was a professional boxer, but he was a rude asshole to people all the time. People who distort the word professional would say that he wasn't very professional because of that.
I'm an amateur boxer, because I don't get paid, I do it for fun, and I'm not rude to people, I'm very polite to anyone who trains with me. And yet, I'm not professional.

Your explanation is quite ironic. Profession itself comes from the speaking of an oath (ancient guilds, the Masons, Hippocratic oath, etc) where you in order to be a sanctioned performer of a type of work, you must profess your loyalty to the code of that order. The actual utterance of the oath has fallen by the wayside, but what separates professionals from amateurs (as well as casual employees) is that professionals are bound by a code of conduct that, at one point in history, they would have had to verbally profess in order to perform. (cont...)

I was going to suggest the same thing, albeit in different wording: Don't see it as an attack, see it as an opportunity to better yourself. Take it seriously and make every effort to learn from the complaint. If it turns out the student was simply disgruntled over a bad grade and the complaint had no basis in reality, then you can dismiss it and move on. Try to remember that the complaint pertains to your work, it's not a personal attack!

-1 for "accept that you were wrong". That may or may not be the case, and to be blind to one of those possibilities is silly and counter-productive.

@DanielR.Collins what possibility... if someone files a complaint against you, you did something wrong. Something, somewhere, sometime. If you focus on all the things you did "right" you miss out on finding where you could have done it better. What is silly and counter productive is deluding yourself into thinking you could not have done better.

Disagree. Compare to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexander-kjerulf/top-5-reasons-customer-service_b_5145636.html

@corsiKa After my meeting with the chair, I still stand by my actions in my office hours. However, previous to the meeting, I did take your advice (with a grain of salt, I admit), and readied myself for the possibility that I had inadvertently done something wrong, which is hopefully what you meant.

@user49602 It wasn't. See, we as a society seem to think that we shouldn't be held accountable for things outside of our control. Common defenses are "There's no way I could have known the student would react that way." or "Based on the information I had at the time, I would take the same actions again." but this is a very poor way of approaching the problem. The real question is "How will you determine next time how to not make the student uncomfortable." The truth is, you're the one who needs to change here, because you're the one with an obligation to provide a welcoming environment.

@user49602 (cont) that's not to say that you need to drastically change everything you do to accomodate this one person. You have to be reasonable. But you have to ask your self "What did I miss when evaluating this student that would have made me know that this action made them uncomfortable", as well as "What other students have I potentially done this to and them not said anything".

@corsiKa I agree that there will be cases where I am wrong. After all, no one is perfect. But this was not it, so I will not apologize or change things. But as you say, I am indeed ready to admit wrongdoing, should one arise in the future.

"you're the one who needs to change here" Well, not necessarily.

I wish I could down vote more than once. This is a terrible answer and your latest comments show that you are the one who is unable to admit being wrong. Based on the update to the post it seems that what @user49602 did "wrong" was to try to teach this student.


text:
Can I take multiple GRE subject tests in the same day?
Is it possible for a student to sit for more than one GRE subject test in one sitting? For instance, back in high school, I was able to sit for multiple SAT subject tests in one sitting. I, along with other students, had the option of sitting 1, 2 or 3 tests of our choice. Is there a similar policy for the GRE subject tests?

Are you familiar with GRE subject tests? They're not really similar to the SAT subject tests...in particular, the VAST majority of test-takers will only ever need to take one subject test.

No, you may only take one test during a single session. Unlike the SAT subject tests, you get three hours to do one test, not the other way around.
Source: I've took a GRE subject test last year.

Generally, these tests are set at the same time. So it's impossible to take two tests at the same time.

...wouldn't that make it easier to take two tests at the same time than if they were set at different times?

@Anyon But most of the time we take sub tests to apply for master or PhD program and usually one good score from sub is enough. There is no point taking a lot of trivial tests to demonstrate your skills.

Right, giving ETS extra money just for the "fun" of taking more tests seems pointless. Yet taking several tests could be useful for someone applying to different kinds of programs, with different requirements. (Of course, even in that (unusual) case I think most would be better off taking them at different times, and focus on getting better scores.)

Right, all the tests start and finish at the same time on the same day; can't be in two places at once. This comment chain may also have some confusion between the GRE and the GRE subject tests -- the GRE subject tests are not trivial tests that any smart college student can pass in the way that the "regular" GRE is. \

I couldn't find an actual statement that only one subject test may be taken on a test day. However, in the FAQs, there is this question and answer:

How much time should I plan to be at the test center?
Plan to be at the test center up to three-and-a-half hours. Report to
  the test center no later than 8:30 a.m. If you arrive late, you might
  not be admitted and your test fee will be forfeited.

That implies that only one subject exam can be taken on a test day.

There is only one testing time per day, so you can't take more than one test in a day (ok, if you flew east across the international date line, you might be able to pull it off).
Theoretically, there are multiple testing times in the same week.  The GRE does offer Monday testing in addition to Saturday testing, though this is supposed to be only for religious and cultural purposes.  (I say 'supposed to be' because somehow my own subject test was scheduled for a Monday, which I realized after not being admitted to the testing center on Saturday.)

I think you are discussing the regular GRE. The GRE subject test is generally offered only 3 times a year in the US (and, IIRC, only ~1 time a year elsewhere).

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How to deal with arrogant e-mail of a student
I have sent the solutions of some assignments to the students of my class.
One of my students sent me a message that reads as follows (not greeting or anything, no closing, just the following):

The proposed solution of Exercise X is obviously wrong because of reason blah blah. An appropriate solution to your exercise would be such and such.

Now, the student in essence is actually correct: there is a slight error (but it does not alter the essence of the solution). It is just a small wording issue that might raise some confusion (but the calculations are clear).
What troubles me is the attitude, which I found kind of offensive (but I might be wrong).
Is it appropriate a student to behave like that? What would be the right approach to deal with this student?
I answered as politely as I could that the student is right, thanked the student for spotting it, and updated the solution manual. But I feel that the student would create similar issues and make similar comments if some typos are found in subsequent notes.
Note: The actual problem might be that the student might start bad-mouthing me to other students/professors and this might negatively influence other students in believing that I am doing a bad job and consequently this could be reflected on my teaching evaluations (given also that I try to get tenured). Maybe I am paranoid (hope so!), but in relatively small classes where everyone knows each other, the power of bad-mouthing can be great. I want a way to (a) avoid confrontation and (b) make it clear that these issues are completely minor (they are) and not worthy of such aggressive (which they might not be, but I do not want to take chances) messages.

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In some countries, this would be considered polite. In the U.K. it would be considered rude among the middle classes, but possibly normal at the extreme ends of the spectrum of society's social classes. So imho you need to tag with "United States" or whatever the country is.

It could be that the student has an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  Students with ASD (e.g. Aspergers) have a hard time in academia, so we should be considerate of their communications issues.

"a slight error (but it does not alter the essence of the solution)" - I think this is really bad for the students, if I answer something correctly and find out that the solution is different, I'll waste a lot of time thinking I was wrong. Everytime this happened to me, the professors dodged and said the same you are saying and I didn't earn anything for the time I lost with their mistakes.

The question would benefit from more email content. The quoted sentence is terse but not rude. Personally I prefer terse communication, instead someone writing: It came to my attention that there may be a slight inconsistency pertaining to the question X. If I'm not mistaken it would appear that the solution is possibly incorrect due to X being X' not. I reckon that the appropriate solution could be formulated as ..." what a pain in the neck reading something like that. As an educator you should encourage your students to communicate in a clear and unequivocal manner.

Please add a tag about the country where this happened.
If the country/cultural area where this happened was the Netherlands, then this was just local behavior, even the "obviously" that may sounds rude, it is just the emphatic way Dutch people use to talk. If not, it is just a way to cut short to the point, skipping the blahblah if needed (and therefore saving your time).
Therefore the accepted answer is the correct one.

There are several things which are not mentioned in the email but which can be assumed when processing such a message:

The student is actually trying to help everyone involved. Otherwise they wouldn't have bothered sending the correction.
How did the student get to this stage? It seems likely that they first solved the exercise correctly, only to find that their solution didn't match the proposed one. They might then have proceeded to use much more time (not necessarily wasted because of their increased understanding, but they might not see it that way) on trying to match the proposed solution, only to finally realise that they were right all along. This can be a frustrating experience, involving disappointment, erosion of (mistaken) belief in the infallibility of teachers, lost time, and opportunity cost. They then get in a bad mood. Time might be of the essence to make sure others don't repeat the process, so they fire off the quickest message they can to get closure and fix it for others.
On a completely different tack, they might be more used to text messages or the kind of ultra-condensed emails that are popular in certain work places. For example, I've seen people recommend acknowledging emails with a simple "Ack" or "Got it" in the subject line, with no body at all. They might simply be trying to avoid wasting your time with niceties.
As a software developer, this is the sort of style that I have learned to expect (and hope for) in bug reports. If that was a bug report the only bad style would have been the word "obviously".

With that in mind, you basically have two options:

Respond in kind, since that might be what they expect. "Thank you", "will be fixed", etc. They will likely format future emails in the same way.
Respond using the format you want them to use in the future. This should be a good enough hint on its own of what you expect, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Another obvious option, which I would not recommend, is to directly chastise them for not conforming to expectations. They will probably never report issues like this again.
Also: Don't worry. This wasn't even a complaint, just a correction. This sort of thing is only a problem if it keeps happening to many of your assignments, and coming from many students.
Finally, to anyone assuming that the student is either rude or bragging:

Research indicates that humans are really bad at judging the tone of written messages (1, 2, 3).
Sending a private message to the lecturer is pretty much the least bragging/bad-mouthing way possible to ensure the issue is fixed. The lecturer is free to correct the mistake in any way they see fit, and to credit the student or not. Conversely, universities have plenty of public forums where the student could have posted a similar message, which could have been justified by it then being fixed for everyone ASAP, but which could be interpreted as bragging and/or criticising the lecturer. The student showed good judgment by handling it this way.

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How to deal with this?

Dear [student],
Thank you for pointing this out.
[1 or 2 more sentences of explanation]
Sincerely, [your name].

What troubles me is the attitude, which I found it kind of offensive (but I might be wrong).

Maybe the email is offensive, or maybe the student just wrote an email from their phone. Maybe they are actively trying to be a jerk, or maybe they just don't know how to behave properly. Maybe they are just trying to be a troll. In all those cases, I have found the best way is just to not engage and write a neutral response that does not comment on the perceived rudeness.

If it's just a regular student writing an email from the phone, this does not create a conflict out of thin air.
If it's a jerk or troll, this does little to satisfy their hunger for drama.
If it's a student without manners, well, you are not their parent - don't make it your job to educate them on proper email etiquette.

What I certainly would not recommend is "inviting" them into your office for some sort of explanation, just for writing a factually correct but unfriendly email. You are, again, at worst creating a conflict where there is none, and at best spending significant energy trying to educate a fellow adult on basics of etiquette.

But I feel that the student would create same issues in case some typo is found in the subsequent notes and make similar comments.

So what? If they have a real concern, address them. If they make things up to feel important, either ignore the email or tell them that you do not see the issue.

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An arrogant sounding email does not mean that the person is arrogant. It is well-known that language and even the assumed personality in online communication differ from the real ones, sometimes very significantly (see e.g. internet troll and internet hero). There may be a bunch of other reasons why a person uses an offensive language without realising it, e.g. their first language may not be English. There is also a cultural dimension to it.
The bottom line suggestion is: don't form your opinion by reading email only. Ask student in for an office hour and explain the solution to them. You can offer advice about the communication style used in academia and also get to know the student better by seeing her/him in person.

This doesn't sound like a disrespectful email to me, just brusque (and using  email more like a 'text message' format).  Sure, people should learn to peruse their writing and the feeling of civil communication is better served by leaving out the adverbial modifiers: ' "obviously" wrong' which makes it seem more meanly stated than perhaps the student intended.

"Ask student in for an office hour and explain the solution to them". I'm sorry, but I disagree. First, because student seems to understand perfectly the solution. Thus, a meeting will be seen as a penalty for the mail, making impossible reach the target of "advice about communication style". Could be in future better chances appear for this objective.

@pasabaporaqui I guess, it depends on a culture of your institution. In where I work an extra hour of tutoring is not considered a punishment. And, obviously, someone arguing about a minor detail does not perfectly understand the thing.

The message was written in a minimalist style, and that is okay.
(Perhaps the obviously could have been omitted, but even that is not a huge deal.)
Now, that said, in the modern world of email, it is all too easy to get into unproductive, anxious wondering cycles of doubt about all kinds of email messages that one receives, and also about one's own email messages (is this too blunt, is this too flowery, etc., etc., editing and un-editing and starting fresh, until 2 am).  So, when in doubt, by all means, do ask colleagues, friends, Academia StackExchange (probably the Chat would be the best place for this), so you don't waste your time spinning your wheels about an email.
(I support the suggestion already given, that if it is not an online class, get to know your students better in the face-to-face arena, if possible.)

I realized, after reading Patricia's helpful comment, that I forgot to say:

Promptly email a corrected solution to your class list, giving a brief credit to the student who brought the mistake to your attention.  That might be a good opportunity to let your students know (as I hope you have done previously) that their corrections are much appreciated and you are always glad to receive comments and feedback.

@NajibIdrissi - Yes.  What I'm saying is: You are being unnecessarily sensitive about this particular email message; but given your doubts, you did the right think by asking.

And I am asking my colleagues @Academia Stack Exchange :) Notice that I am anxious this might be reflected in my teaching evaluation thus the question.

In this day and age, your anxiety is understandable, in general terms.  In the context of this particular email message, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to worry about.

@PsySp In my experience, most students tend to view the teaching evaluation as "just another assignment, except this one doesn't affect my grade," so most tend to put minor effort into them that does not affect you either way. What hurts is when one of the students who hates you (whether reasonably or unreasonably) happens to be among the minority who actually write up a "thoughtful" (used loosely) negative description about you. Odds are they won't, but it's a gamble that you have little control over. It is a crap shoot.

Minimalism still needs to mind its attitude ... especially including words like 'obviously' (when apparently it wasn't obvious).

@DanEsparza - In the math world, "clearly" is a socially acceptable adverb used when giving a proof or a logical argument.  "Obviously" is loosely synonymous.  In this case we just don't know how the student meant it.  The best thing to do is to note the anomaly and see how things develop, without fanning the flames, and without wasting emotional energy on it.

In an academic environment, one learns to make allowances for different flavors of English and different levels of mastery of nuances.  An email is a one-dimensional projection of something complex and multi-dimensional.  If we don't learn to suspend judgment about emails that sound a little weird, we will waste inordinate amounts of time spinning our wheels, wondering and going back and forth about the tone of a message.

@aparente001 All good points! But, from my experience, more usually than not the written tone is a direct reflection of one's mindset. But probably best is to mildly point out that it was not "obviously wrong", thank the student nevertheless and move on.

@PsySp - Leading by example is often the most effective way to influence others' behavior.  But let me ask you this.  Was the first solution you circulated wrong?  I mean, aside from the emotional tone of the words used, was the solution incorrect?  // We all make mistakes.  What differentiates the women from the girls and the men from the boys is how we move on after discovering a mistake.  It's okay to make a mistake, and it's okay to acknowledge a mistake.  It's even better if we can avoid overfocusing ...

... on the tone of the "I found a mistake" message, or appearing to knee-jerk point a finger at someone else at that moment.  You'll have plenty of opportunities in the semester to influence your students' communication style (mainly by modeling the style you'd like to elicit).

I agree "obviously" seems a little arrogant.  During my maths degree, it was a habit I picked up from the lecturers (and dropped as soon as I rejoined polite society).

Having the confidence to challenge your professor when they've made a mistake shouldn't be under-estimated.  Many people will be scared that they'll just look stupid.  Likewise, standing up infront of 500 students and saying you made a mistake also takes confidence.
I would take a leaf from their book and stand up to the class and highlight the mistake.  They won't feel angry that you did it; and if anything will be relieved that you highlighted the issue, as they were getting stressed that they might not be understanding the topic.
After that - who cares if a student is arrogant or not?  Why does that matter to you?  Your job is to teach them the subject not manners; so your reply should revolve around that.  If they really are arrogant and they step on someone's foot, later they'll learn another way that it's bad.

I agree, except I would not wait until class. Other students may be struggling with the same issue. An immediate e-mail to the whole class pointing out the correction would be better.

Re your last paragraph: perhaps a more positive way of encouraging detachment might be to suggest to OP to lead by example.

"Having the confidence to challenge your professor when they've made a mistake shouldn't be under-estimated."---well, yes. But it also shouldn't be overestimated!

Unfortunately,  many professors (or anyone in a position of power ) care a lot when underlings are arrogant.  I pointed out blatantly inconsistent evaluation methods in my grad school department's procedure for pass/fail the qualifiers, and got nothing more than abuse heaped on me by the department chair.

After reading the student's email several times, I think the student is neither being arrogant nor aggressive (as you say), but concise: in a "WhatsApp" like style. They go directly to the fact and its correction.
It is true that some words could be selected in a more polite way ("obviously erroneous"), but in this context and after the first answer has been sent, it is not the moment to remark on this (I always suggest humor for these kinds of issues: Thanks for pointing out this issue, it is more difficult to catch these editorial or minor errors than mosquitoes in the summer even if they are "obvious" as you say ...).
I must however remark a contradiction in your text "The actual problem might be that the student might start ...". I'm sorry, but if it is a "might start" it is not an "actual problem" but a "possible hypothetical problem". A teacher must always act taking into account facts not feelings nor opinions.

I do not see the student's email as arrogant. I can see how someone could assume arrogance in it or think that there could have been an arrogant mindset, but the email itself is not blatantly arrogant.
If you make a mistake, and a student catches it for you, that benefits you, that student, the rest of the class, and possibly future instances of the class if you re-use the material. You should say thank you.
However, because of the low amount of diplomacy and tact in the student's email, I would not try to seem overly thankful. After stating "Though the process was correct, there was indeed a mistake in my wording." you can simply say "Thanks." or "Good catch, thanks." or "Thanks for pointing that out." or similar.
As for the use of "obviously," which seems to be the balancing point for most people here, please realize that the word usage could go either way: polite or rude. It could easily be that the student thought "I don't want to offend my teacher, so I will toss in the word 'obviously' to indicate that it is a minor mistake on their part that they would agree with me on, and not that I am questioning their ability." Or, obviously, it can be read as "I doubt this teacher even cares about us or this work since he made such a trivial mistake that is obviously wrong." It can be read as either very polite or very rude; you just cannot know.

About your concern of this student spreading bad news about you; there is nothing you can do about that. I recall both from my days as a student and my teaching days that this was bound to happen no matter what you do. If you are truly a good teacher, then usually there will be less of it, but you cannot avoid it entirely. I saw some awesome teachers, much better than I was, who still received some complaints and persuaded students to avoid their classes. It is sad that we have to deal with this unfortunate truth, but there is little you can do about it other than minimizing it by doing a good job.

Downvoter care to comment on what I could improve?

yeah, i guess the point is that I get disappointed that after putting too many hours scribing notes and giving them numerous examples/homeworks (with detailed solutions) that they won't find in any textbook, someone "complained" about it and, even worse, for a trivial reason. I also agree with you that if the student (which btw never comes to class) wants to bad-mouth me s/he will in any case.

I try to tackle issues of this sort by reminding me of the following points:

There is no tone of voice in written communication. If some tone is being heard, this is in the reader's mind, and such tone is actually owned by the reader. Sometimes I feel that my reading is loaded by some situational reactivity of mine.
To keep this in check, I read the text aloud by faking  exaggerated versions of the way I perceived, once by exaggerated excess (say, an extremely annoying tone delivery) and once by exaggerated defect (say, an extremely soothing one). This is a calibration exercise, to clear the biases of the moment.
So I try to avoid projecting my state of mind onto perceived attitudes of the counterpart (unless I know him/her so well that I am reasonably confident that it's no projection, rather established knowledge of the other's self and mine)
In written communication, it is the word choice that shows the perspective of the writer, with due consideration for what he/she could, would, might, should do with writing --- a rich playing field indeed, sometimes so vast that it is unreasonable to dwell on assumptions and hypotheses on the situations at point of writing. Above a certain critical mass, however, these speculations get liable to Ockham-razoring.
Rather, it is up to writer to decide whether a core message should be buffered by, and anchored to, context information. But that's style, and outside the reader's control --- at least, until the tables are turned and the reader writes about his/her reading experience, of course, perhaps ad infinitum...

As a result of this, I come to realise that most probably there is neither insult nor injury in what I read. Also, when the tables are turned, I try to use these guidelines to allay the feelings that my writing has awakened, provided the counterpart has bothered about sharing them. In that situation, I review my word choice and put forward corrections or confirmations based on what I get to understand from the feedback.
A useful first-aid resource to frame these communication questions are the Grice's maxims:

https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/dravling/grice.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle

The assumption of this is that there is willingness to communicate. Not answering is also an option. But interpreting absence of signals is much more uncertain, and can even be taxing depending on the expected value of an answer. Intriguingly, this value is often revealed by the tone of voice we read the incoming messages with.

I wouldn't take this as obnoxious or arrogant. If there is an error, you've just found a way to spot which students are able to see it, and capable of saying so. In many disciplines those are skills worth having. Positive features.
Nobody's work is immune from mistakes and pointing them out (even tersely) isn't a hostile act.
As an educator and mentor, why throw cold water on them, and discourage them from engaging with the material, to the extent they sound like they are doing?
You have a range of replies that will work fine, but unless you know more about the students attitude to show a real problem, this is the one I'd choose.

Thank them as you would any helpful colleague (even though a student you can use the tone you would to a colleague), and assume a motive of trying to give useful feedback. "Thanks, well spotted! Extra marks and its been fixed"

There is a second reason to handle it differently than you are thinking:
Think how it may be felt by a student: suppose the student gets a message that is negative in tone, will they think that they have a teacher who, when a mistake happens, doesn't want to acknowledge it and is annoyed at the person who noticed it. The student may worry about how they are seen, with more good reason (their future life is in your hands!). Perhaps the student will think "maybe the teacher doesn't like me now, and will unfairly mark my work negatively". Now you've created a bad impression and worry for both of you. You've also taught them "if you see a problem or someone doing something wrong, keep quiet".

thank you! But I do not understand what you mean "throw cold water on them". As I said above, I am glad the students spot obscure errors, typos etc. Also, I said that I sincerely thanked the student for the effort, and updated the solution manual accordingly giving credit to the student. My question was about in case the student had any bad motive, and how to handle it because it might needed some delicate handling (but most probably i am overreacting)

"Throw cold water" - its an English phrase meaning to discourage someone. Like, a child or student comes to you because they are enthusiastic about something or they think they did something good and well done, but instead of supporting and saying "well done" the person acts annoyed or criticises them, so they go away feeling it wasn't so good, upset, or let down. Like you responded by turning away if they offered a handshake, to a person who greeted you, instead of welcoming them. Don't make the student feel like that!

In that case don't worry. Or explain to them why you are glad they spotted it, because it shows they are a good student. Smile and share the work - after all, its a subject you both choose to study!!

Thanks again! Yes, I know what "throw cold water" means, just I did not understand how you came to the conclusion that I wanted to act in that way. I never implied or hinted that I wanted to act in that way> on the contrary, I want to sincerely thank the student and at the same time hint that (unless s/he was in a hurry or something) s/he could have been more polite etc but doing so in such a way that a potentially frustrated student doesn't get more frustrated. But I get your point!

We have a policy - never assume an attitude in email. Some people are very direct people and while they don't mean to sound arrogant - that certainly could be the case in an email.

It seems people are not liking you for questioning the student's intent....but I definitely understand how you can interpret it the way you are.  As a former student who used to correct teachers when errors would arise, I would have to usually write according to the teacher's personality because teachers have this expectation of being cordial towards them and tend to get offended if you don't write as they expect you to write.
Many find that calling them out on an error with a problem is challenging their credentials, even if it is indeed a valid critique.  This is where it is a bit unfair to the students.  Not everyone has an agreeable personality.  Especially when it comes to the science and math domains.  We, (people in that aspect) tend to lack personality and why we gravitate towards fields in which our interactions are with non living objects or superficial through e-mails.
I have a friend who writes similar to your student and they do intend to correct for the sake of self gratification that they know more than others under the guise of "wanting things correct".  It's actually gotten so bad that no one really wants to hang out with him anymore, but that's a whole different story.
Point being, you should wait for a pattern to arise.  If he constantly e-mails you in a way that feels attacking, send him an e-mail or request to talk to him a moment after class if he has 5 minutes to spare.  Let him know that you appreciate him helping to correct issues he finds.
I had a teacher that always told students that they are more than happy to have students find errors and let him know.  So make sure the student understands, that act in itself is not an issue but that his e-mails give off the vibe of being arrogant or condescending and that you would appreciate it if he used a different tone.
No one should accept being talked to in a arrogant/condescending tone just because it's "their personality".  Many people forget that just because they are an instructor doesn't mean they are not human all of a sudden.
So for all the people telling you that you are over-reacting.  I do NOT agree with them.  People say you can't take emotion from written words, but then please explain why novels can bring people to tears, anger, laugh.  Written words do have tones and emotions.  Using words like "obviously" in a statement to the teacher has only one purpose... to state that the mistake he found was very obvious to anyone who is "of his level".  I think that if the error was that egregious, the teacher probably would have already corrected it before presenting the problem and/or shortly after presenting the problem.

Excellent answer and to the point! Thank you. I am certainly happy if students correct the mistakes (in any case we are talking about sample notes that are not textbook replacement) and give credit when one deserves one. I was just not sure how to react in the given situation in order to avoid any kind of confrontation in the future.

And another thing: it is not only the word "obvious" that troubled me but the whole format of the message.  I have never, and I mean ever, received such a "crude" message from anyone student or not, inside academia.

@PsySp It depends on how far you want to see it go.  I would personally let it go if it is the first time.  Maybe he is having a bad day, maybe he was rushed for time.  If this is a pattern though, I would definitely approach him and explain to them what would be considered as an acceptable e-mail format.  You may also want to spend time during the first class of each semester while going over class rules and expectations about e-mail etiquette.  I definitely agree that the email was crude.  Only thing you really can do is approach him about it if it is a pattern.

Indeed. As I said above, I answered politely, thanking her/him for letting me know and even giving credit to that student. Hope s/he got the hint on how to answer on academic mails, even in case of frustration. I guess I will have to wait and see how things will evolve, if they do. Thanks again.

@PsySp When I was the head tutor of my college and also being a T.A., I had to on several occasions educate students and other younger tutors about proper workplace etiquette.  Some of them simply don't know due to their upbringing or in those causes, their first jobs.  It's definitely a sensitive area that needs to be handled with care.

In these kinds of situations, it's important to distinguish between pragmatism and ethics.
If someone acts disrespectfully toward their superiors, this will undermine their academic and career potential. Ergo, it unpragmatic; it doesn't work. But it's not at all clear that being disrespectful towards one's superiors is morally wrong. And some philosophies (I use this term as loosely synonymous with "worldview") hold that hierarchy is unethical despite its current ubiquity. Further to this, it's easy to relate to someone whom holds that being disrespectful towards one's superiors is morally obligatory, whether or not we agree with this position. I think it's good to keep that in mind.

Is it appropriate a student to behave like that?

The word "appropriate" is ambiguous. It sometimes means "ethical." Other times, it means "consistent with the norms of a particular culture, in a particular time or place." In my opinion, these aren't the same thing.

What would be the right approach to deal with this student?

Treat them like they're an intelligent, rational being, potentially with a strong distaste for hierarchy, but good inside nonetheless.
For example:

Thanks for point this out.
However, I found your email a little too pointed for comfort, and the tone, though ambiguous, could be construed as disrespectful.
I think an important ethical principle is consistency. If, for example, you wish to reserve the right to write with whatever tone you like, fine, but if so, you must forfeit, in all circumstances, the right to object to other people's tone as fair consequence.
Assuming you don't wish to forfeit this right, I'd like to ask you intentionally go out of your way to soften your tone from here onwards. As a general rule, I think that going out of our way to speak and write with an intentionally respectful tone goes a long way towards making this world a nicer place for everyone.
Also, I respectfully disagree with the position that the given solution was "obviously wrong." You're correct that the phrasing was a bit weak, but [whatever you want to write here.]
In any event, I appreciate that you reported this and I'm strongly in favor of the willingness to report such things in future. A lot of people wouldn't have the courage to bring something like this up, which is a shame, because it means problems take longer to fix.
Good luck with the rest of the assignment.

Although I think I agree in general with what you write, it might be a too on the nose (if indeed the motive was to be rude, the student might very well be even more upset).

I think this could come across as more arrogant than the initial email! A well-meaning student could read this and think, "I tried to help, and I got chastised for it." Too much explanation for too little an offense, imho – if there even was an offense. I'd wait for a few more instances before I took things this far, or save a response like this for an email that is more obviously arrogant.

It could be that the student has an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) such as Aspergers, in which case it is likely that ther is no arrogance or rudeness intended, just direct factual language.  It is worth academics having a reasonable understanding of the communication issues arising from ASD as it is not uncommon in maths, science and engineering.  It is important that we don't discriminate against them because we over-interpret their overly-direct communication and read a subtext into it that is not there.  The reply sounds fine.
Try not to worry too much about errors in teaching materials.  We are all only human and no matter how hard you try, there will always be imperfections.  In my experience, students are quite forgiving of mistakes, provided you "own" them (rather than minimising their importance) and are eager to fix them when they are detected.

thanks - indeed there was!  I am happy to own my mistake ;o)

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text:
What do you do if your PhD advisor tells to publish your work alone without his name?
I am working with an advisor, but I don’t really understand him. He replies to my questions and suggests things. He also provides documents to help me in my research.
However, when it comes to publishing (which is important), he excludes me from his papers. I feel like my name is a shame if appeared next to his name. Last time he clearly said: “Try to publish by yourself.” What does this mean? How to handle such a situation? All I want is to take my degree and end this struggle.
Edited:
Thanks all for your answers. As many asked if I did contribute something and my advisor took the work without mentioning my name? No, this did not happen. But, I have done research work by myself and came up with conclusions supported with experiments/simulations/derivations ... etc and I feel like they are publishable. I am, I compare my work to recently published papers in the same area and I see that, sometimes I have better quality. But, my advisor is a perfectionist and it takes him years to write something which is absolutely unusual in my area of study. Plus, he doesn't have enough funds.
So, I have two scenarios in my mind: 1: He is afraid to perish his name with me 2:He doesn't have money to pay for publication fees/charges
Both scenarios are bad. Again, I can't clearly ask questions. The advisor is impulsive person with everyday mood. Not friendly at all.

Can you please [edit] your question to clarify whether you contributed to what you denote as his papers?

He's not putting his name on your papers, or you're not able to put your name on his papers?  The title and body of this question seem to conflict.

To answer the title question: Publish your work alone without his name!

Could you also mention which field you are in? In some fields, in particular areas of Philosophy and Mathematics, publishing on your own is normal.

If you did not make a substantial contribution to one of his papers, it would be intellectually dishonest for him to put your name on it.
On the other hand, if you did make a substantial contribution, he should definitely put your name on it.  From your question, I can't tell which of these two possibilities is the case.

If your only goal is to receive the degree without doing your own research, it's not going to happen.  It sounds like you should reconsider your motives and goals.

Can you clarify the situation a bit? From what you've written I can't tell if he's excluding your name from papers you should rightfully be on because you were involved in the work leading up to them, or if you're trying to get your name attached to projects you weren't involved in in order to graduate quickly. (Yes, that latter is a very unsympathetic interpretation; my point is just that without more details, I really can't tell what the situation you're in is, so can't give good advice.)

All I want is to take my degree Then why are you worried about publishing at all?

Consider the possibility that you are seeing things emotionally rather than rationally. Additionally, you should critically reflect whether your expectations of the operational principles of doing a PhD are realistic. Based on the little information you provide, it appears that your supervisor is doing a fairly good job. He is answering questions and helping you out in your work. In a nutshell, this is the kind of support you should expect.
It is per se not your supervisor's job to "include you in his papers". This has almost certainly nothing to do with him being "ashamed" of you. Authorship in papers is not a courtesy that is, or should not, be granted based on friendship, but due to intellectual contributions. If you are not contributing to these papers, why would your supervisor add you to the author list?
Of course you could ask the question why your supervisor is not inviting you to help with his papers. This may be because your expertise is not necessary for the papers (which is not the same as that he does not respect you!), or maybe the papers have developed from a longer ongoing collaboration. You should not fault your supervisor for not warping his projects just so that you can fit in them somehow.

What does this mean? How to handle such a situation?

It means that he wants you to be an independent researcher, as you should be. Why do you think there is something to handle, other than to heed his advice and look into publishing your own papers?
In many disciplines, it is fairly common that PhD students are expected to publish their own research without their supervisors. Have you actually attempted to do so? Have you talked to your supervisor in what capacity (helping with experiments and arguments, structuring and presentation, reviewing drafts?) he would be willing and able to help should you go ahead and publish your own work?

"In many disciplines, it is fairly common that PhD students are expected to publish their own research without their supervisors." In others not. The discipline of the questioner here is unknown, so we don't know what is the norm.

@Trilarion Yes, but OP's supervisor has told him to publish their own research, so ...

"...OP's supervisor has told him to publish their own research, so..." You mean this means he/she must be from a discipline where this is the norm, not that the supervisor is some kind of crazy guy? Well, I think it is not so evident. Could be, could not be.

A tangential question: is a PhD expected to have ability to do research independently, or just need to have a specialized knowledge? Because while the latter usually implies the former, I think anyone can do research alone

@Ooker I am not following. Certainly, doing (valuable) research alone is not something that everybody can do? If that were the case, why would students even need advisors?

His papers are his. Only if you considerably contribute to a paper should you be included as an author.
Apparently you like to start a joined project with him, and he does not. Do not take this personally. Profs are busy people, and they need to prioritize. Maybe he works best alone, or your subject is not his primary interest, or...
So if he says you should publish yourself, then that is what you should do. Maybe, you can find an experienced PhD student or postdoc to collaborate with.

"Profs are busy people, and they need to prioritize." Yes. And their own PhD students should be very high on their list of priorities!

"Profs are busy people, and they need to prioritize." If he is not willing to collaborate with his student he should not have taken him on. The rest is good, but I think this particular line of reasoning is against the spirit of being a supervisor, in my opinion.

Generally, and regardless of supervisor-supervisee relations, the rule for authorship is:

Whoever made significant direct contributions to the research findings presented should be listed as an author.

Now, when someone is supervising you, they have enough of an influence on what you do and how your work develops to justify their being added as authors to most publications you are writing "yourself". Thus in many (most?) institutions and most disciplines, your advisor gets to be an author on your "own" papers (for an example of when this is not the case see this answer). At the very least, you need to ask your advisor what's the customary thing to do. I wouldn't ask him/her "do you want your name on this-or-that paper?" because then, saying "Yes" sounds kind of vain.
The other way around, i.e. an advisee having his/her name added to a paper of his/her advisor without significant contribution - is unlikely to occur and is basically unjustifiable. If you didn't contribute directly to something your supervisor is doing, you should not be listed as an author of a paper about it, nor should you want to be. Doing so would basically be lying to people - pretending to have done something you didn't.
If we're talking about research work that you have contributed to, then it is a grave ethical and moral offense for him not to add your name as an author. But since you referred to "his" papers, I'm assuming that's not the case.

So your advisor gets to be an author on your "own" papers. -- No. no, no, a thousand times no!

@JeffE: I read the guidelines at the answer you linked to. unfortunately, it is almost always the case that an advisor passes well beyond the activities which do not merit authorship.

Check the second link, too.

@JeffE: Didn't notice the second link - they're tricky to notice...

@JeffE: Amended my answer in accordance with the links. Although now it's a bit muddled rhetorically.

It is not clear what was meant when the PhD student states, "he excludes me from his papers... All I want is to take my degree and end this struggle". I am not certain, but from former experience I suspect the concern is that the PhD student did a considerable amount of research or time spent gathering data/articles and/or performed research that was used in the professor's publication(s). And therefore, felt that he (the PhD student) should get credit (as a co-author) for his contribution.
Unfortunately, It is common practice for Professors to use Graduate-Student(s), PhD-student(s), as low-paid clerical labor to do much or all of the grunt work. And consider the graduate-student's efforts as merely that of a contract-laborer. Accordingly, It is common practice to not give the Graduate-student/PhD-student any credit in the professor's publications.
Professors frequently regard themselves as the brains behind the project/publication. And, therefore he/she justifies taking all the credit for him/herself... whether right or wrong.
The professor is clearly in a position of power over the PhD student which can be, and is often, abused. My father was in this situation, while working toward his PhD degree. My father had an advisory professor at UCSD who had a multi-year Department of Defense (DOD) contract awarded to him (worth several hundred thousand dollars) to do certain research.
The professor wasted most the time and money doing little or nothing to fulfill the contract obligations. In comes my father (a Graduate-student/PhD-student) at the time, who was told to perform all the research work and complete the contract requirements.
My father had to set aside his PhD work, for several years, and perform all or nearly-all the work necessary to complete the contract. Upon it's completion, The professor took all the credit and my father (who did all the work) got none.
Meanwhile, my father was no further ahead in the completion of his PhD degree... putting him further behind in Life and further in debt with more money to repay his ever-increasing student loans.
Hence, the author's comment..."he excludes me from [from co-authorship in] his papers [while I do much of the research/work]... All I want is to take my degree and end this struggle".

I should have also described his position as such: He is tired of being taken advantage of by the professor --doing much of the research work and getting no Credit (i.e. No co-authorship on the professor's publication). "How to handle such a situation?" Saying, that he is tired of getting screwed-over by the professor. So..."All I want is to take my degree and end this struggle"... and Get on with my life.

What's the point of this answer? It offers no concrete advice whatsoever...

@goblin Agreed, this is an essay, not an answer.


text:
Decision after first round of peer review
I submitted an article, after the first round of peer review, i received a letter from the editor saying "Your paper should become acceptable for publication pending suitable minor revision and modification of the article in light of the appended reviewer comments". What does this means, after submitting the revision, will it still be sent for another round of peer review or the editor will handle it himself? Just curious since the revision is not much and straight to the point

Both options are possible. Sometimes editors handle minor revisions themselves, sometimes manuscripts are sent for a quick (hopefully) review to (some of) the reviewers.


text:
The Real "Cost" of Open Educational Resources
Open Educational Resources (OER's) are seeing a rise in popularity in institutions of higher ed, as both colleges and state-and-local governments strive to address textbook affordability and other costs associated with education.
These resources are advertised with positive aspects, including:

OER's are free to students.
Instructors can edit OER's and share them (Creative Commons license type depending) freely.

Criticisms include:

Because many OER's are created without any funding structure, they don't receive periodic upkeep/revisions as commercial texts do. Hence, they may be unreliable as a resource.
OER's undercut commercial products and therefore hurt job opportunities for people in publishing industry (authors, editors, etc.). Hence, there is a financial cost to adopting OER's, paid by those who lose job prospects.
Pressure to use OER's (from colleges and local governments) creates tension inside academic departments because it restricts academic freedom. Therefore, instructors may be told to use a textbook because it's free, and not necessarily because it's good.
OER's stigmatize authors in academia from creating materials and taking them to market. Hence, authors may no longer feel that selling their own texts/materials is appropriate, receiving shame for not offering to give away their work.

So...I want to know  the real costs of OER's.
First, is the above list of criticisms correct, and do you know about any evidence to support them?

Are OER's damaging publishing markets? If so, do we know any particulars (numbers, examples)?
Have any institutions adopted an OER text, only to have it become unusable because of a lack of editing attention?
Are any faculty forced to use bad OER's in order to cut costs? Are they receiving pressure or stigma for wanting to use for-pay, commercial texts?

And...are there other costs associated with OER's not mentioned above? Please note that I am not positing as true any of the above positives or criticisms -- rather, these are things I have heard in conversation with other instructors.
Thank you in advance for your help here.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

I will refer to your criticism by number, hoping that any updates to the list will be additive...

Criticism 1 (maintenance) is, in a theoretical sense, true, but open materials are often addressing it in their own way: with collaborative tools like github/gitlab and bug trackers that make reporting of errors and improvements easy. Meanwhile, publishers aren't always great at quality control, particularly when it would require them to reprint their books often (see, e.g., Hefferon's gitlab). For example, Serge Lang's Algebra is famous for its amount of mistakes and lack of polish, despite having seen three editions. My impression is that printed books are rarely revised to improve quality; instead re-editions often include new chapters, permute existing chapters, and try to dumb down some material so that it can fit more courses. Anecdotally, this is being done in order to make the old editions incompatible and thus scorch the used-book market; of course, intent is hard to prove in this question.
Criticism 2 (job killing) can be (and is) levied at pretty much any innovation. But this is how the world is supposed to move forward, by making formerly hard and costly things trivial and automatic! (And history, so far, has always shown that those who want to work will never run out of things to do. Getting paid for them is a different story... But medieval stasis cannot be the answer.)
Criticism 3 (pressure) is not happening anywhere around me (and I'm generally gravitating towards OA-friendly places). I have been using open texts whenever I could, but I don't see anyone pressuring me into doing that. (Students have occasionally thanked me for it, though I've more often been critiqued for not assigning a text that could be consistently read. Needless to say, with a subject properly covered by open-access texts, you can get the best of both worlds.) I suspect that intercollegiate pressure is much more a function of the climate at one's institution than of whatever is happening in publishing.
Criticism 4 (stigma) is probably a real effect. Once again, however, shifting standards are a consequence of any sort of improvement! LED lights have been stigmatizing old-fashioned lightbulb makers in just the same way. In many ways, book writing has already taken a large reputational hit before the Internet came along, and general advice in the academic community seems to be that the main purpose of writing a book is "so you can show your grandpa" (meaning that even the generation currently in their 40-50s will not see it as a particular milestone). The main reason seems to be the proliferation of books and the ease of publishing one (even with the established presses), not the advent of open access sources.

As you are asking for further criticisms, let me throw a couple in the air, although (being an OA advocate myself) I do not view them as heavily important:

Criticism 5: The free might drive out the good. I.e., if the best openly available materials are inferior to some printed books, some teachers will nevertheless pick the former for their free availability. I suspect this is a real issue occasionally, but mostly a temporary one. At least on the undergraduate level of my disciplines (algebra and combinatorics), there are usually freely available sources of the highest quality I know (when it comes to linear algebra, I even consider them superior). Finding good free texts gets harder the more advanced (and rarely taught) the class is, but most teachers don't assign bad texts just because they are free.
Criticism 6: Free resources might enable monocultures. If every lecturer has a choice between (say) 10 popular linear algebra texts of roughly equal quality, then you might expect each of these texts to have a popularity of roughly 10%. If someone writes a free text of comparable quality, you will suddenly see lots of lecturers adopting that free text purely because it is free. Subjects that are not covered in that text will disappear from classes; people's viewpoints will differ less (which is not a good thing for academia, whether or not students accept it). Note, however, that the same thing happens whenever a really good textbook comes out (say "analysis" and you will hear "Rudin"; say "differential geometry" and you will hear "Spivak"). In such cases, open access may actually disrupt that equilibrium even as publishers may lack the courage to do so.

All good stuff. I might add that course syllabi’s and lecture notes have been easily available for more than 20 years, yet a large variety continues to exist. Also, there are any number of classics in various fields that were perfected decades ago, yet people continue to publish less useful ones. Dover reprints were great, and cheap, for many courses.

Point 2 seems to be related to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

@darij grinberg  ...though I've more often been critiqued for not assigning a text that could be consistently read. Would you explain what you mean by "consistently read"? Do you mean that you've chosen a book that may not be used in the next course in a sequence?

@user138719: I mean a text that I am (more or less) consistently following (as opposed to a patchwork of chapters from different sources, or lecture notes I'm writing that come out with a delay, or even no notes) and that the students could read in case they missed or misunderstood something in my lecture.


text:
How do I find a job that actually uses what I learned in school?
Many of my peers in my program, Computer Engineering, are of the opinion that what you do in school is a "head-fake", that you take all this intense math and science essentially to prove that you can accomplish difficult tasks quickly. A "real job" doesn't actually use any of that junk except for a few select classes.
I suppose I understand that sentiment, but my issue is that after something like 20 years of math, Stockholm Syndrome has kicked in and I really enjoy it. I will miss it. I just finished one of the hardest classes at my University with an A because Fourier Transform just makes sense to me. Learning how to operate some software program is not the same as learning how to build a differential amplifier. Not all learning is equal. I have had two fantastic Co-Op (internship) rotations with some big name companies working on great projects, but the most intense math I used was division and that makes me sad. While my peers cannot wait to graduate and start their lives, it feels like it is the end of mine.
It seems that industry, for every 1 person actually producing something, there are 20 people doing documentation, management, talking to the customer, supply chain, etc etc. (edit: and I do not mean that in a derogatory manner, I am actually getting an MBA as well at the moment. I just mean that the one person who uses their academic knowledge is followed by a slew of people who do not use it).
So, the obvious answer is to go through a PhD and enter Academia but I do not think that is the right path for me considering I have no desire to teach and I also really enjoy making the money I do now. Putting my fiscal life on hold for another 4-5 years seems like quite a lot as I am already in debt.
My question then, is, how do I use what I learned in school while in industry? Or should I leave industry and pursue academia? Should I still go for a PhD but do industry research? How can I continue to learn while I am working in industry?
Apologies if this question is unclear, it's very nebulous and if this gets removed or -1 I understand.

Getting at least a Master's degree will help with putting you in play for more cutting-edge technical positions; also, getting a PhD doesn't mean you have to stay in academia ... a lot of folks with PhDs go into industry in R&D roles, for instance.

Academia.se won't be of much help for questions regarding industry. However, if you like math and you can get over your problems with working in academia, there are several fields where you can pursue your love for mathematics. Computational neuroscience and MR physics for example.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's about finding a job in industry, not academia.

@mhwombat I understand that logic, however, the reason I put it here is that this is from the perspective of academia and I do not know that I want to leave it. I am also wondering about job prospects in academia.

It depends on the the field of your company... if you work for a company that mostly does mobile apps, your master is completely wasted. If you like analysis (at least this is the only kind of math you mentioned...) then working for a more engineering oriented company may achieve what you want. I'm pretty sure who develops the softwares that engineer use to design and simulate stuff has to use quite a lot of that stuff, and so does who writes things like Photoshop, or real-time rendering algorithms.

This is a standard question.  However, it's not about the 'tools' you learned at university.  It is about the fundamental concepts you've learnt and higher order thinking skills.   With these concepts in hand, you'll find that you are able to digest similar but new concepts better and faster.  An appreciation for the power of a tool is also very important. In the industry you will want to wield a tool effectively.  So my advice to you, with any jobs, find the relevant skills in your degree and tell the prospective employer how you can contribute!

What you'll find is that most positions—whether in academia or in industry—you will not be directly applying most of the skills you learned in school.
As a "knowledge professional," the most important "skill" you'll use is learning how to learn: you'll likely be placed in situations where you have to figure out what you need to solve, and how to come up with a solution. Your background will provide help in figuring out the problem—after all, the principles are the same—but you'll typically have to simplify your analysis (because of time or resource constraints, and so on). Or you might have to branch out into new areas that you haven't learned before: being able to do so quickly will give you a big advantage over the "competition" (whoever or whatever that may be).

More than 30 years after getting my bachelor's degree, and with a PhD in a different, albeit somewhat related, area, I have books from undergraduate courses on my bookshelf that get pulled down at least once a week. But, as you say, the base skills in learning and applying new things are relied on all the time.

If you haven't looked into cryptography, you should. It requires a lot of complicated math along with computer science, and it pays quite well.

I have looked into it before. What steered me away - and I don't know how true this is - is that I was told the more I know about it, the more likely I am to work for the government.

While a lot of the top jobs in the field are for the government (intelligence/defense almost entirely) there are plenty of private positions available too. And since the supply of people like you is so limited, it's pretty easy to get hired almost anywhere.