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What should I do if I discover a typo in the title of my MS thesis after submission
After I submitted my thesis recently, I discovered that I made a very silly mistake in typing the title of my thesis; I missed one letter. Instead of implementation I typed "implemenation". The thesis is now printed and submitted.
I was very cautious but still, this typo slipped my attention, probably due to some technical issues that I had with my LaTeX editor and using separate files for title and body. Now the typos is there and I want to fix it. I found similar questions (here and  there) but it looks like my problem is different. Do you have any suggestions? For example, can I submit an erratum?

By the thesis is now published I mean it is printed, and the bound copies are prepared

People will probably blame the printer anyway... but yes, you should correct it so future copies don't have the unnecessary "errer". Typographical errors happen.  Spellcheckers help. Having friends proofread the document before you turn it in helps more. Call it another lesson learned.

Already passed.

First and foremost, I would strongly advise you to not worry too much about the printed copies.  Printed copies of any literature, not just your thesis, are largely vestigial these days: it is the electronic copy that people looking for literature will be able to discover, and it is the electronic copy that they will be generally capable of accessing.  In my experience, the current purposes of the printed copy are:

Fulfilling depository requirements of libraries, where paper is still the best known method for long-term archival storage (even plain text files rot quickly---ever heard of EBCDIC?).  In all likelihood, nobody will ever access these paper copies.
Giving "trophy" copies to people that you personally know, like your advisor, your family, or other mentors who have helped you.

Neither of these really needs correction: the library depository copies are likely write-only artifacts, and the trophy copies are going to people who already know you and are likely to laugh and sympathize with you over your typo rather than hold it against you.
What I think is worth getting corrected is any electronic version.  For that, you need to talk to whoever is in charge of maintaining the electronic depository at your institution.  Often, this is the librarians, and they will generally have a procedure for fixing errors---your error will by no means be the first or the most severe that they have dealt with.

Neither of my MSc thesis actually have any physical existence any more, just the electronic version. So, the electronic copy at the University library is definitely the one to correct. Also the easiest.

I just thought it appropriate to reflect on what was done in this situation before we had word processors and text editing tools. At that time a University regulation/procedure for correcting an error in a thesis specified cut and paste. Real cut and paste. You typed up the word for the correction, cut it out of the paper with scissors or a craft knife and pasted it into the thesis over the offending error. Book binders even had a method of correcting typos made in the gold embossing used on the spine or cover.
The university library, and other parts of the university responsible for a thesis, I am sure, will be pleased to take an errata which can be pasted inside the thesis, but may  also permit you to actually do cut and paste on the paper copy. They would want the copy preserved for all time to be correct.
However, like the other answerers, I would not be too concerned about this fault. It is very minor. I recently had the experience of OCR text recovery of my own thesis which was done before the days of word processing. I was shocked at the number of small typos that the OCR discovered that had been missed by the examiners, proof readers and myself. I have to live with the knowledge that all the typos are then in the paper copy in  the library vaults for all time.....

Regardless of whether your thesis is published in print form or electronic one, I think that you can and should contact the publisher and your university and/or school (usually, either one and/or both maintain university- and/or school-wide electronic repositories of defended dissertations and theses, which are considered as unpublished artifacts in a traditional, peer-reviewed outlet, sense) with request to make the appropriate correction or publish an errata.
In addition to that, if your thesis has been submitted to nationwide or global e-repositories, such as ProQuest (AFAIK, it's pretty much a standard, at least for US academia, for maintaining and distributing Ph.D. dissertations, not so sure about other geographical destinations and Master's theses), you can and should contact them as well with the same request as one, mentioned above.

By the thesis is now published I meant printed (sorry for that), which mean no publisher should be contacted. If I want to contact the university, should I inform the Dean or the Dept. chairman; or neither ? Does it mean I'll need to reprint the thesis again (the title page might be enough, I guess), how to tackle this after I the binding process is done?

@AlFagera: No problem - I understand, hence I listed that option as well. I'm not intimately familiar with details of the publishing process, but I would think that it makes no sense to contact the publisher, if the whole circulation has been published, otherwise it makes sense IMHO. As for this problem in the context of your university, it is difficult to advise on that, as it is most likely very university- or graduate school-dependent. However, I don't see any harm in asking. In any case, don't be too worried about it - if your thesis otherwise is of good quality, you should be fine.

If it is in the electronic repository, you can probably just directly contact whoever maintaibs the repository and ask to correct it; they're unlikely to mind if you explain it's an embarrassing typo & can provide a corrected version of the final file.

@Andrew: Correct, that is what I said in my answer. Perhaps, you wanted to direct your comment to the OP - in that case, you should have either directly commented on the question, or mentioned the OP here.

@AleksandrBlekh I think I may have used the wrong box in the SE app; it's a small screen :-)

@Andrew: I see. Then you're either too brave, or don't care enough about your vision (or both), if you use StackExchange on a small screen :-).

You should contact your thesis advisor and state briefly and clearly your mistake. They are the only person who can authoritatively tell you how to proceed and whether this could affect your grading at all.
Most likely, they will tell you to do nothing and regard the typo as a silly but minor mishap that could have occurred to anyone. As long as the rest of your thesis is flawless, don't fret.
If you worry about your thesis being published on a repository or university archive etc. with the flawed title page, your advisor can tell you whether it is possible to correct the "proof" before publication.

I don't think you need to worry: "implemenation" is similar enough to "implementation" that I don't think anybody will have any problem understanding what you intended (which is probably why nobody noticed the error earlier!), so I would leave it as is. If the typo is only on your front page, you can correct it by hand if you don't have too many copies to fix.

I've just distributed 7 copies out of 11. With cover page made form cardboard the title is written in large bold font, I don't how to mange this. Aside form writing it again on the abstract of each copy along with my name in default 12pt font.

I really wouldn't worry about it, then. If it was a typo that would confuse your audience, then I'd be concerned, but since it's very clear what you mean, I don't think it'll be a problem.


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What is the difference between a thesis and a dissertation?
I have seen some sites that distinguish a dissertation as what is written as the requirements of a doctoral degree.
Others that distinguish a thesis as a document written for the fulfillment of any degree (Bachelors, Masters or Doctoral) while a dissertation is a more general name for a document where someone is presenting findings.
I am curious if there is any more rigorous definition which distinguishes the two, but my more immediate question is this:
I am writing the document to fulfill a doctoral degree. Within the text of the document do I refer to it as a "Dissertation" or a "Thesis"?
For example: "A more thorough review of this analysis is presented in Chapter 5 of this ________."
Maybe the fact that the [thesis] is the tag used for all of these documents is an indication of the answer?
I've also seen this question on this site, but it doesn't seem to answer my question:
What are the main differences between undergraduate, master's, and doctoral theses?

I read somewhere that it is a "doctoral thesis" before it is approved and a "doctoral dissertation" afterwards.  This does not seem to be standard, though.

If you don't want to make a decision yet (postponing decisions is supposed to be good 1 2, sometimes!) then simply write {\thesis} in LaTeX or $thesis in anything else (unless you are an "advanced user" managing variables),  then you will be able to do a search&replace later. This doesn't solve the problem, but effectively postpones its solution in a harmless way IMHO.

What about just `in Chapter 5'?

A thesis has two humps; a dissertation has only one.

"Work" is just as good as either. There's no need for precision or rigor here. All three would be acceptable.

Follow the guidelines of your university's thesis office (or dissertation office, or whatever they call it). They'll probably have a format guide that specifies how to refer to the document, or if not, you can contact someone at the office and ask.
If they really don't tell you which one to use, you can probably use either, but it helps to be consistent.

Certainly be consistent! If you choose one, stick to it.

To lift from the definition provided here:

A Thesis is a scholarly written document of a smaller study on a
  particular topic in consistent with every details of Research
  Methodology. It's written usually for obtaining a Masters Degree.
A Dissertation is a scholarly document of a larger study on a
  particular topic in consistent with every details of research
  Methodology. It's written usually to obtain a Doctoral Degree.

Not a good definition. A dissertation is almost always written for a doctoral degree; the term "thesis" can be used at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral level.

@aeismail Clearly there is a cultural problem here. I would say exactly the reverse of your answer.

@JessicaB: My definition seems to apply to the US as well as many European countries. I have never heard anyone from anywhere ever say "bachelor's dissertation" or "master's dissertation."

@aeismail The UK must be different. When I just googled 'dissertation' the results I got seem to agree with me. Wikipedia says that one convention applies in some contexts and the reverse in others (without specifying what contexts these are).

There are also habilitation theses/dissertations.

@JeffE: I think the standard usage in that case is to call the process, the degree, and the document by "Habilitation."

That may be the standard formal usage, but I also regularly hear the document itself called a "thesis".  (This may be country dependent.)

@aeismail: For what it's worth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thesis#United_Kingdom

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What to do after missing the registration deadline for the GRE subject test in mathematics
Having missed the registration deadline for the GRE math subject test, I've been looking into the option of working for a year and then applying to math PhD programs once I have my test results. While I could try applying to the top programs I'm interested in this year, they generally say that my application will either be at a disadvantage or it will be disregarded entirely without a subject test score.
Since there are some (less competitive) US graduate programs that don't require the GRE, I was wondering if it would be a bad idea to attend one of them for a year and then try to transfer out? I thought it'd be a cost-effective way to take more math classes, but I read in this answer that:

It's difficult to transfer to a substantially more prestigious department. [...] No matter why you say you want to transfer, there will be some suspicion that your goal is to end up in a stronger department or a more desirable location. If you have another reason, you'll have to make a powerful argument for it.

So, I'm trying to figure out which idea is better: apply to a second-tier PhD program with the intent of transferring to a first-tier program, or find a job and just apply to schools after I take the subject test?
(Note: I recently asked a more general question about my options if I choose to take a gap year.)

You can try to take the October test on standby.  There is information on how to do this on the ets website.

@Rori Thank you! I did not know about that! I just called ETS and they told me to call again the Monday before the test, and they'll tell me which centers will be offering standby testing.

Although not a direct answer to the question, there is a third option:
Take the October test on standby
From the ETS website:

Standby testing may be available if sufficient space, test materials
  and staff are available at the test center. If you'd like to attempt
  to test as a standby, report to the test center by 8:15 a.m. with:
a completed Registration Form for the GRE Subject Tests (PDF) payment
  (including the registration and standby testing fee) acceptable photo
  ID Standby registration is not available for Monday testing, testing
  in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, India, or Iran, or those
  requesting disability or health-related testing accommodations.

I don't know how many standby seats are generally available, but it seems worth a shot rather than delaying your studies by a year.

For others reading this - after speaking with ETS, they advised me that standby test-takers should call ETS the Monday before the test date and check which centers will be available for standby testing, since not all centers may offer it.

@justin - Go for it!  //  If that doesn't work out, please apply for a master's program rather than a doctoral degree program.

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How much time should one spend refereeing a paper?
I finished my PhD about a year ago and every now and then I get asked to referee a paper (perhaps once every two months from a reputable journal). I tend to accept as many as possible (except from crappy so-called "predatory" publishers, which I decline immediately) because I find refereeing papers is a good way to force myself to learn new things. There is also the moral obligation to referee a peer's paper to compensate for the time your peers spend refereeing yours.
My problem is that, at this early stage in my career, I'm familiar with the work I did during my PhD and little else. Since I try to be as fair as possible (I hate it when I get a report from someone who has clearly not understood the paper or just skimmed through the text), this means I spend a lot of time reviewing literature and trying to understand a paper before submitting a report. For something very close to what I have done in the past, I could finish the report in half a day. For something further away, I could be looking at anywhere from one to three days, depending on how familiar I am with the methods used and the length of the manuscript. As everyone in the academic world knows, it sometimes gets very busy (just "normal" busy otherwise), and these breaks tend to disrupt my "paid" job routine (I understand reviewing is also part of my unpaid duties).
I guess reviewing will get easier and quicker as I gain experience, but is it usual to spend so much time refereeing papers? What would be an acceptable compromise between a rigorous review and reconciling it with your paid duties?

I would say, a full day is common early on in your career. 3 days sounds like too much. However, this is for my discipline. YMMV.

That being said, if it routinely takes you 3 days to review a paper, I would take it as an indicator that you often agree to reviews that are too far outside your expertise.

3 days is not common, but 2-3 days can happen if the paper is a combination of unfamiliar and not so good. When I referee bad papers I'm always afraid that it might be my lack of understanding making me think they're bad...

The answer is really field-dependent. It also depends somewhat on the length of the papers. In pure maths it is not uncommon to get highly technical papers running to 50 or 60 pages. There's a reason why maths journals sometimes offer up to 3 or 4 months to complete the refereeing: they don't expect you to actually take 3 months to read the paper, but they do expect that you may only be able to find the one or two weeks of "not busy" time in the next three months to sit down and read the paper carefully.

Relevant question with many answers: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/5793/386

The slightly unsatisfactory answer is "enough time". You should provide a constructive review and that might take time. How much, depends on, for example, the quality of the paper, the complexity of the paper and, of course, your own experience. As new to reviewing, you probably spend longer than what you would with experience. Having said this, I would say that between close to a full workday to maybe two might be expected from an average research article.
Since you are a beginner, I would also recommend that you take your time. A common beginner's "mistake" is to focus on details more than the larger perspective. You need to focus on both. A paper may be poorly written but contain good science (and vice versa) so attending to all perspectives of an article is necessary, and that takes time.
This may all sound like a chore no-one would want to do but reviewing can be a really positive experience since you get to read a paper in such detail as you would probably not do otherwise, you see new science and you get to contribute to science with your expertise in ways other than producing your own papers.


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How to get people to reply to emails and what to make of a no response?
Most people in research probably have first-hand experience regarding how difficult it is to get some people to reply to emails, e.g. (but not limited to) some reputed professors. It is also difficult to establish how to interpret a lack of response, because the person can be just busy and miss your email (i.e. "save for later" then forget about it) or might be purposely ignoring the email. I find the lack of response particularly annoying when contacting a listed "corresponding author" about their paper.
I have experienced several extremes: professors who reply within hours (or even minutes!); professors who failed to produce any response at all; even once I sent a job query and didn't get a response until after 2-3 months later, when the professor apologized about forgetting to reply and said he was very interested in my application.
The latter case almost cost me a job (luckily I had already secured a position elsewhere), and as it turned out later I could have resolved the situation by sending the professor a reminder that he had not replied to my earlier email. But how could I have interpreted his lack of response as either forgetfulness or disinterest?
The situation is usually better with postdocs and graduate students, who tend to reply, and when they do their replies tend to come faster.
Hence, my questions are:

How to improve the chances of getting a reply to one's email besides the obvious "be brief and to the point"
How to interpret the lack of response
When is it appropriate to send a reminder and tips to avoid annoying the recipient with it

Edit upon request:
The typical content of the emails I'm referring to would be regarding the work done by the email's recipient or at their lab (questions about papers published by them, for instance). Non-spam job applications or surveying possible collaboration could also be included here.

Currently this question is rather broad, and there are several questions on the site that deal with certain situations.  Can you narrow down the kind of email situations you have in mind?

If you don't know the professor, you should not interpret the lack of response, as it could mean many things.

As a professor, I would sometimes get mail from cranks.  I replied to one once: it seems I am even now on his mailing list after 20 years.

I think even secondary school kids get emails from Gabor Fekete.

If your question is about work done in their lab, then also realise that the professor might not be in a position to respond, e.g. when the first author of the paper was a PhD student and has moved on since. Particularly in large labs i would not expect this to occur more often.

Excellent question. A lack of response is always either rude or a sort of aggression. I always reply, unless it was not directed personally to me (because it simply is a spam). Exceptions are indeed professors who get literally too many emails per day.

related: Is ignoring emails acceptable in academia? https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9542/is-ignoring-emails-acceptable-in-academia?noredirect=1&lq=1

If you want to know why you get faster responses from grad students than professors, just take a look at this comparison of email volume when transitioning from student to professor.  Afterward the load just continues to rise (the number of emails I get per month is now much greater than anything shown there).
Many researchers -- particularly faculty -- have an email address that is publicly listed on the internet.  That means that anyone in the entire world can contact them about anything at any time.  Some well-known researchers get a huge amount of email, and could not possibly respond to it all even if they did nothing else.  Even a fairly ordinary mid-career professor with some research funds gets a pretty high volume of email from total strangers.  I'm not referring to outright spam but to things like applications for student/postdoc/researcher positions; requests for research assistance, or inquiries about research collaborations and so forth.  Replying to such email cannot trump essential duties like research, student advising, and teaching, so the time for it is limited.
Initial message
Given a queue of tasks (emails) that perhaps cannot ever be completed in the available time, one must prioritize.  If you are emailing a complete stranger, your email is not likely to be at the top of the queue.  The best way to make sure your email stands out is to

Ensure that it does not look like a form letter.  Currently, the only messages I don't reply to at all are those that look like the sender could have sent identical messages to everyone in my department (usually, they did).
Show that you have done your homework.  If you're applying for a job, do you have some research ideas that the professor would be interested in?  What makes you especially qualified for the job?  If you're looking for a collaboration, reference specific things in the contact's papers that are of interest to you.
Along the same lines, don't email a stranger asking them to do (home)work for you (yes, it happens a lot) or requesting information that you could find for yourself on the internet.
Be polite.  Recognize that you are interrupting a complete stranger without having been invited to do so.  You are not entitled to their time; you are requesting it.
Write clearly and concisely.  If it's a first contact and you want to ask questions, try to ask just one question.

Lost messages
It does happen that messages get lost, due to spam filters or by being buried under other newer messages.  If you don't get a reply, there is no way to know whether the message was lost or just didn't make it to the top of the queue.  If it was lost, a reminder may be appreciated by the recipient.
Reminders
Typically, I would wait at least a week before sending a reminder. I feel that a reminder to a total stranger after 2 days is not polite.  In your reminder:

Be extra polite.
Do not blame the recipient.  A good strategy is to say you are sending a follow-up in case your original message went to spam, or something similar.
Remember that you have no idea what is going on in the professional or personal life of the recipient, and you are certainly in no position to  judge their actions.

If you are corresponding with a collaborator, the above rules still apply.  Last month, a friend and collaborator suddenly stopped replying to emails just when we had nearly completed a manuscript.  I waited two weeks, then sent a message just asking if she was okay.  In fact, it turned out that a major personal issue had arisen that -- among other things -- prevented her from doing any work during that time.

Yes, indeed, especially worth emphasizing that every single work-day one may have a queue of new emails too long to go through even if that's all one did all day long. So, yes, again, addressing the recipient by name, specific-explanatory subject line, etc., to distinguish it from bulk emails.

It's not just time-limiting though - receiving so many emails means that some legitimate emails (especially from unrecognised senders) will be deleted by accident.  This may be masde worse by an overly-aggressive spam filter intended to keep some of the cranks at bay.  The net effect is that your message may have been deleted for some reason (and it's worth assuming that no-one checks their spam folder unless looking for a message they were expecting).

One hint that I found useful: having only one question - if there is a question - doubles the chance of getting a reply compared to having two. If the answer can be short, that will be better .

Thanks for the good comments; I have incorporated them into the answer.

First, I never shy away from the brief polite reminder 2-7 days later, depending on the urgency of the issue. Being polite is important: introducing the email with "Dear [title, name]," and ending with "Thank you, [your name]".
For example: "Dear Professor Jabberwocky, I'm writing to follow up on the below email. Thank you, Lewis."
You already wrote the professor once. No need to add details and make them read more than necessary.
Second, if the issue is important and I do not get a response, I will ask a colleague or advisor who personally knows the person I've emailed to connect us. That has never failed.
Third, if possible, a phone call or in-person meeting is always much more reliable than emailing, even if (or because) it takes a bit more physical and social effort on your part.

Good points, I would just add a fourth: cover your bases. Do not rely on any one person for a reference, particularly if that person is known to be non-responsive. Or put differently, check your potential references for such issues.

@jabberwocky, I am interested in your advice on this too.  Could you give us an example of what you might put in between the salutation and the closing?  Thanks.

Yes, politeness is important. A salutation using title and name never hurts! An actual closing, identifying yourself, is very good. Maybe phone calls are not so good...

@aparente001 Simple is good. "Dear Professor Jabberwocky, I'm writing to follow up on the below email. Thank you, Lewis."

@jabberwocky Thanks for filling it in.  I will try your text.

@jabberwocky just that one line? Is it too simple?

@Ooker You already wrote the professor an email, now you're just following up. No need to repeat anything or make the professor read more than necessary.

In addition to the excellent answer of David Ketcheson I would add:
Make a specific request in your mail. Ask for some bit of information or the answer to a question. Otherwise the mail may just be interpreted as a "For Your Information" note, not requiring a reply. Many busy people won't respond with just "thank you for your note" assuming that no thanks are necessary and not wanting to take the time to compose it.
Make the request clear, such as at the very end, rather than burying it in the text. Make it simple (as the linked post suggests).
Then, after a suitable delay, a follow up is warranted.

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text:
Does a department have any obligation to respond to a student petition against a teacher?
If all students of a class sign a petition claiming that a professor of a course is unqualified to teach, does the department/faculty change that professor?
Do students have this right? and what is the procedure to do so?
When ALL students sign a letter that they do not learn in the class of a professor, what is the responsibility of the department/university?
Some mentioned the need for solid evidence. What evidence students can provide that they do not learn anything in a class?
Isn't it the university responsibility to satisfy students by offering high quality education?

You should probably be talking to the department head about an issue like this. Similar to this: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/40055/profs-neurological-health-is-declining-rapidly-what-can-i-ta-do

Be aware that if your reasons for disliking the professor are petty, filing such a petition might reflect poorly on you and your classmates. Are you sure this is a battle worth fighting?

At my alma mater a newer professor was teaching a course for the first time. Being a small institution, my friends were on good terms with the department chair. They took issue with how the course was being taught, and laid out their concerns to the Chair in a clear manner. They included lecture notes and exams and showed that there were entirely uncovered subjects they had been tested on. The end result was a different professor took over the course for the remainder of the semester. Your mileage in a situation like this may vary.

Such a petition is something that a department head or dean would take seriously.  But at most universities, it would be their decision what action to take, if any; a petition wouldn't obligate them to make a change.
Consider that if such petitions were binding, it would give the students an undue amount of leverage over the professor; if they got a difficult homework assignment or something else they just didn't like, they could threaten to submit a petition to get the professor removed.
There is a principle of "academic freedom" that the administration will generally avoid interfering with how courses are taught, within reason, so it would probably take a pretty egregious deficiency for the administration to take the disruptive step of removing a professor in the  middle of a course.
It is likely to be more effective to start with one or two students having an informal discussion with the department head about the situation; a petition doesn't leave much opportunity for dialogue or compromise.
Note also that the department head's decision would likely be based less on the students' opinion of the course, and more on objective information about what the professor is actually doing.  So it would be more helpful to avoid phrases like "everyone hates this class" and prefer specific examples: "the professor did this and this, and here is why we think this is a problem".

@ff524: Yes, I meant this as a first step, and I've clarified.  But ultimately, I think the decision is not going to be based on how many students think the professor's teaching is problematic, but rather whether the students can provide evidence to convince the department head that the teaching is objectively problematic.

Depending on the university, there may be nothing the higher authorities can do. In my alma mater, the courses were distributed by inside each department by personal preference by rank, and no one can force any change upon that. That lead to some extremely absurd situations.

You don't have elections to choose student representatives in your universities?

@Federico: Can you explain what you have in mind? In US universities, there is usually a university wide "Associated Students" organization with elected representatives, but they wouldn't have a role in a situation like this.

@NateEldredge Here in Italy, there are elected student representatives in the board that organizes every degree program, as well as in the institute council. These boards have a meeting every couple of months. I agree that it would be weird to discuss this matter in the council, but the representatives are already engaged in open conversations about the teaching with the dean and the head of the program, so they are in a better position to discuss these matters.

@Federico: In the US there usually isn't such direct student involvement in academic matters, certainly not at the level of a department. The Associated Students groups are usually concerned with non-academic campus issues.

@NateEldredge Interesting, I didn't know. The students representatives here are far from having the numbers to really pull a weight in the council, but at least they have an opportunity to state their opinion on many aspects of the organization of a course of study.

I faced this as a student. A small group of us went to the head. Getting someone else to take over the course during the term is rarely an option. It's not like there is someone else who knows the material and is teaching one course less than a full load just waiting to be asked to take this on. However the department can assign a TA to reduce marking workload (or increase marking fairness) and help students during extra tutorials, they can reduce some of the prof's other duties to allow more time to be spent prepping your course, and they can generally tell the prof "pull up your socks." These things may help you a lot more than getting the prof turfed and having the course taught by a contract lecturer.
If you intend to go to the administration, here are some tips:

go with a problem (our prof is not doing a good job) not a solution (please fire this prof). Let your head or chair come up with solutions
go early rather than later. I understand you need some time to be sure there's a problem, but every week that goes by people are not learning and flexibility is diminishing
two or three leaders should go. As an undergrad we had "class reps" for this, but it should be easy to get a small group who can meet the head.
do not bring petitions or other "we all think this" artifacts. You want to discuss a problem early and listen to the head's plan to deal with it. Petitions set the wrong tone.
Remember your true goal is to get a good education. Not to win a political battle, get someone fired, or be awarded a mark you don't deserve.
be there to listen as much as to talk. Your head may surprise you
don't assume your unanimity gives you power. You think they can't fail the entire class? Think again. You will live on in legend like the entire fourth year class at my undergrad alma mater who failed and were expelled. Not for trying to turf a prof, to be fair, but for deciding they didn't need to do assignments since "they can't fail all of us."

Decades later, I filled in for someone during his sabbatical and taught one course for one term. I had triple the normal enrollment. Everybody had to take the course; nobody wanted to take it from him. The department never gave it back to him :-). So another option may be to drop this course and see if someone else offers it in the future.

In some cases, all it takes is the prof realizing there's a problem. I had a class where some students went to the prof midterm, and he clarified the goals he had but also revised some stuff amd the course became much easier to understand.

I would tread carefully with this situation. It seems as though you dislike this professor, and without detailed information as to why, it comes across as that you just don't like them and want them changed.
I also don't think you've given enough information to help us formulate a strong response, so I'm going to just have to go with the bare minimum that you've provided.
My questions to you:

Why do you feel that you are not effectively learning in this course? Have you been doing your assigned readings and putting enough time and effort with your assessments? Have you been attending office hours of the professor or TA to help your learning with topics that you are struggling with?
What is it specifically about this particular course that you feel the professor is doing a poor job in teaching? Are they not explaining concepts clearly enough? Do you not like the structure of the content? Is the professor displaying any behaviours that are sexist/racist etc and making you feel uncomfortable? Is there a large gap between the course content taught, and how you are assessed (i.e. are you being tested on material never covered, either in the lecture or in your reading packages?). Are you utilising other services in the university, such as language and writing services (if you are writing essays) or are you expecting the professor to help you with everything and not taking responsibility for your education?
Are you receiving poor marks on your assessment? Do you feel that you are not receiving enough feedback? Is this frustration about your marks and not necessarily about the professor, in which you are blaming the professor for your performance? Are the students as a collective receiving poor marks across the board (i.e. are all students failing?)?
How much of this 'collective' regarding how students feel about the professor is, in part, a truthful perspective? Sometimes, a person's voice which is the loudest can influence others to feel the same way but is not reflective of reality.
Is this actually about their teaching, or do you just not like the professor? Are they challenging you more than others have? Is the teacher young and female, or of an ethnicity/race that does not conform to the standard white, middle-class heterosexual male? There are studies that have shown on multiple occasions that students are much more likely to disrespect young female professors/professors of colour and believe that they lack the competency to teach. Do you think this could be the case if the above is true?
What kind of university/college are you attending? Some universities are teaching orientated, while others are research orientated. This means that how content is taught and assessed with dramatically vary.

My response based on the limited information you've provided:

Complaining about a professor, even as a group, will be regarded with a high level of scepticism, especially if students are not able to provide objective evidence to support their claims.  If the course content matches what you are assessed with, and it comes to light that as a student, you have not attended office hours or put in the extra effort to improve your learning, your concerns will be disregarded. If; however, the content does not match that which is assessed, and the lectures are found to be sporadic and unhelpful, you have a case that should be considered.
If you decide to go meet with the head of school or dean, you need to prepare a list of reasons that can be objectively assessed (i.e. evidence of the lectures and assessments, examples of feedback on your assessments, and so on). You also need to be prepared that if you are doing poorly in the course, that you have evidence that you have done everything you can as a student to try and improve (i.e. meeting with the professor to go over poor assessments) and so on. One suggestion that you can give, or might be met with, is having a member of staff sit in on the class to evaluate the professor's teaching. They will have the expertise to effectively determine whether or not the course content and the lectures are accessible for students.
One thing students seem to forget, and struggle with, is that this is not high school where you might have been (what we call) 'spoonfed.' At university, there is an expectation that you are mostly an independent learner/ A professor is not going to identify you as a student if you are struggling, you have to take responsibility for that yourself.

Some things to think about. I'm not suggesting that you don't go to the head of school or the dean if you really think that something is wrong. What I am asking you to do is think more objectively about why you want to remove a professor from a course, and whether you have a legitimate cause, or if you are just frustrated.

I had this happen. The teacher in question had some personal problems that caused him to drink (alcohol) to excess.  Mostly it did not really impact his teaching. Then one day he came into the class falling-down drunk.
Our class representative went to the head of school's office and brought him (or perhaps it was a trusted colleague; this was 30 years ago) into the class to view what was happening.
In this particular case, the teacher was reprimanded and was given a leave of absence to get over his personal problems. He returned in a later semester and was a much better teacher then.

What I like about this approach is its immediacy - no handwringing, petition gathering, is this bad enough to worry about yet - just go get someone to see how bad it is and act on it. It is worth keeping in mind that not everything requires a month or two of due process. Many students would feel the social contract that requires you to stay in the classroom would keep them from going and getting the head on the spot, but clearly that was the right thing to do.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
How to ask professor to post more example?
My professor always posts solved problems on the course website but for the last chapter, he did not post any solved problems. Although we have our textbook, I think solved problems help me understand the chapters better. But now I could not understand the last chapter deeply, and I have difficulties to do assignments.
Could I ask him to post one or two solved problems? If yes, how should I ask?

It is almost always proper to ask. It is possible that there is no time for him to do it, but asking is a good thing. I hope he also gives you a lot of unsolved problems as well.

why unsolved problems?

Because you learn better by solving problems with the material, not by reading solutions. Work is what changes your brain. Learning is an active sport, not a spectator sport.

@Buffy - learning is a contact sport! You have to grapple with the problem, not just walk around with it!

@JonCuster, maybe I'll disagree. Tai Chi isn't a contact sport, but a saying is that you need 10,000 repetitions of a move to truly learn and understand it. But I won't fight with you over it. ;)

As this is the final chapter, perhaps the prof has deliberately not provided problems for you all to hone your own skills that you have been developing up to this point.

@buffy But students also learn better when they have concrete examples of exactly what the instructor expects, rather than waiting for feedback.  Seeing a solved problem isn't useful for learning to solve that specific problem, but it can be very useful for learning to solve that kind of problem.

@JeffE, again, only if you practice. Learning comes from practice.

Well as simple as you explained the problem in the question. start by explaining how his solved examples helped you understand X and Y ( e specific as much as you can). Then ask for solved example related to Z ( again be specific ) end with simple show of appreciation.
Good Luck!


text:
Should I contact the reviewers I suggested during the submission if the manuscript is still under review after one year?
In order to publish my paper at The Journal the cover letter should include four (4) experts in the field as potential reviewers for the manuscript. I ask some professors to have their permission to include their name as reviewers and find 4. I sent their details to the Journal. I didn’t hear anything back from the journal after 8 months, then I sent an email asking about the status of my manuscript and they indicated that they received one review for this time and they are waiting for the second. Now almost one year has passed for my manuscript, and the Journal is still waiting for the second review.
Should I send an email to the reviewers to ask them to read my manuscript?

A year in review?!!!  What kind of journal is this and why would you ever submit your work there?  There's not a single journal in the world that advertises on their website that "we'll get back to you within a year".  So definitely bug the editor, you should have done this 10 months ago.

@warship that's way more common than you believe, including for serious journals. Journals promising that reviews will be done in less than a month are the ones to avoid... roro, you shouldn't need to ask professors their permission, they can easily decline if and when the editor contacts them.

@MarcGlisse Most serious journals (the very high impact ones), let you know within a week if your article passes editorial board review and proceeds on to referees (reviewers).  Then, it takes between 1-2.5 months to get the first round of revisions back.  From OP's post, I understand that he hasn't received the editor's first round of revisions (usually composed of  reviews from 2-3 referees), which is highly suspicious.  But, all in all, a paper can be in review for over a year.  Been there done that.  But not first round of revisions.  Ever... at least in my field.

@MarcGlisse,@warship I already sent them an email and I am waiting for their response. What do you suggest I do if the manuscript is still under review, should I withdraw the submission? Thank you for your help and time

No.
You don't (and shouldn't) know who your reviewers are.  The editor could have ignored your suggestions entirely, or even used them as a list of conflicted people not to ask to review your paper.
Feel free to bug the editor again, but leave it to the editor to bug the referee(s).

Lists of suggested reviewers considered harmful.

But do contact the journal. Shameful as it may seem, editors sometimes just let a paper slip through the cracks, or they procrastinate on hassling a reviewer who's many months late, or they just keep waiting and hoping a reviewer will magically show up. Obviously you shouldn't imply any of that in your letter; just send a friendly note and see if something coincidentally happens shortly thereafter.

@octern I already sent them an email and I am waiting for their response. What do you suggest I do if the manuscript is still under review, should I withdraw the submission? Thank you for your help and time

I'd be comfortable saying that the journal is failing to do right by you and your field, but that doesn't mean you should withdraw. There's no way I can give you advice on the practical question of what will be best for advancing your career. You should ask one or more professors in your own field.

@octern Ok, Thank you for your time I appreciate your help.


text:
Motivate students to work on exercises if solutions are provided
I am in the following situation. I got a class with theory an exercise once a week. The students do the exercises at home and have the opportunity to discuss them at the exercise sessions. In each session, there is a test about the exercises from the previous week (similar, but different questions).
I am unsure if I should provide the solutions of the exercises directly after the session, the week before the test.
Pros: They could see if they solved the exercises correctly before the test. (They may think they got them correct and don’t ask). Unfortunately, I cannot correct all exercises individually as there are too many students. I have about 130 students and 2 TAs.
Cons: There is little motivation to work hard on the exercises, as they see the solution before the test. (Yes, good students know they should do them on their own. The problem are the not-so-good students.)
Is there better solution that encourage students to work on exercises on their own?

What subject is this?

How can you be unsure about providing solutions to the exercises directly after the session, the week before the test or anywhen else? Is that not laid down by your school or area or education authority?
If it's not laid down already, why not gather together teachers in similar situations and make a joint policy?

I moved the discussion about the best student/TA ratio to chat. Please read this FAQ before posting another comment.

@RobbieGoodwin, I wouldn't expect that to be obviously a matter of policy.  We have no such policy at my university, and, given the different pedagogical approaches of my colleagues, neither I nor they would want to be bound to a single way of approaching problems and solutions.

@LSpice Are you suggesting "Motivating students to work on exercises if solutions are provided" or "providing solutions to the exercises directly after the session" mean being "bound to a single way of approaching problems and solutions…" or what?

@RobbieGoodwin, yes, I am saying that I would feel, if required always to provide solutions to exercises immediately after a session, unduly bound by policy.  (I don't think that there's anything wrong with it, just that it shouldn't be required.  I would not feel unduly bound by a policy requiring me to try to motivate my students, but I would feel it was a pretty silly policy.)

The way for a "not so good" student to become better is to work harder and solve more exercises. Reading a solution is not at all like finding a solution. Your test becomes one of memorization rather than skill if you test on exercises for which the students have already seen correct solutions.
I would suggest that if you provide solutions, rather than individual help on finding solutions and seeing where the students went wrong, that you post them after the test.
And, the key, post those answers with additional exercises for those who did poorly on the test to get some additional practice. If you want to incentivize them to solve those exercises, provide some bonus to the test scores for submitting correct solutions to the follow-up exercises.
But you have an additional problem in that your "practice sessions" are probably ineffective if they depend on students knowing that their supposed solutions are wrong and that they need help. Students have misconceptions often enough and need to be pushed past them. If they "solve" exercises but no one checks the solutions, then they are unlikely to see where they made a mistake. The exam only tells them that the are wrong, but may not indicate why and it probably won't help them dispel those misconceptions for the next try.
The combination of a bit of stick and a bit of carrot might help. You have the stick (the exam) but you are missing the carrot. Give points not just for success but for hard work, even if it is re-work.
I often learned lots of math by doing lots of exercises beyond what was required. It was only through that extra work that I was able to achieve insight. Luckily I was self motivated in those instances, but not everyone is. In another course the professor provided lots of external "motivation" through "pop quizzes" which we hated but knowing they were coming, forced us to be ready every day. Remember "flash cards" from early elementary school? Lots of repetition. Lots of feedback.

An option that I've never used, but might consider in your situation is to require that students who did below a certain mark on one weekly quiz, submit their work for review in the following week (or two). This might reduce the number of papers you need to give feedback on and also make it feel like a reward for the better students who don't need to submit. Or even, make submission optional to everyone. And comment on the papers you do get.
With TAs, have them comment on exercise papers and pass them to you for review.

Tip: Don't describe extra work as, "required if your test score is too low." Describe it as, "optional if your test score is high enough."

@Brian, actually, I am referring to the normally assigned exercises, not any additional ones. Submitting them permits the instructor to provide feedback.

If the exercise is always required, making submission optional is not a "reward for the better students who don't need to submit." Mind you, I would hesitate to call something "required" if you aren't even asking students to submit it.

The underlying concern that you raise seems to be how you can best engage students to become self-motivated in their own learning processes, especially "the not so good students", with the resources that you have at hand.
Perhaps you might first reframe this as a question back to the students. What will help you (students) become more self-motivated in your own learning processes? After all, what good will you ultimately do in your quest to give away anything that is either not desired, not understood, or not appreciated for its intent? You may also discover that what you believe about the desire of your students to be self-motivated in their own learning processes is a chimera compared to the desire of your students to just get a good grade in your class. As disappointing as the latter finding is, it can serve as a reality check to recalibrate where you might better spend your time to reach those students who sincerely want to do what is needed to learn and yet still be honest with those students who are just passing through your course for whatever reason.
One solution is to provide no solutions to the exercises at any point in time. Instead, give the exams with questions drawn directly from a portion of the exercises. The self-motivation is the commensurate statement "If you do all of these exercises, you will have done at least X% of the upcoming exam questions". Finally, you could address your desire to motivate self-learning by having an open-door policy to students who want to review the answers to their work.
Another solution is to provide all solutions to all exercises at some point. Realize that, in this day of internet and with the interactions that occur among students, the minute that you open this door for even one student or one portion of the class, you have essentially opened the door for all students at that moment and for all students in advance for all future offerings of your course. You can in this case address your desire to motivate self-learning by stating that exams will have a (smaller) Y% of the questions from the exercises and a corresponding Z% of questions that stay within the scope of the course but go beyond the exercises. Essentially, exam questions from the exercises would test how well students know the material (even if that is only rote memorization) while exam questions not from the exercises would be designed to test their mastery of (knowledge of, understanding of, and ability to apply) the material.
Finally, an intermediate solution is to give only a portion of the answers to the exercises. Again, with reference that students will have these next time around, when you decide this option, you may as well give the selected answers directly along with the exercises. Here, you can also balance how you distribute the questions for the exams. One potential advantage of this approach is that you can reserve some questions from the exercises that you do not give answers so that you can use them on exams. You might also simply give some exam questions that are already answered as exercises just to discover how many students will not even commit to studying what they are given to know it let alone studying to learn it.
In summary, each of the above three options has its own balance of resources and outcomes. I think that none of them are inherently wrong or right. I think that your first calibration point to decide which option you will use is first to discover what your students believe about the concepts of self-motivation as applied to learning.

exam questions not from the exercises would test their UNDERSTANDING of the material — "Understanding" is the wrong target. The right target is mastery of (for facility with) the material—not what they "understand", but what they can actually DO.

@JeffE I've restated accordingly. Thanks.

As an instructor, I can assign readings to students, but I cannot actually force students to read. I can only provide consequences in the form of good/bad grades by, for instance, testing students over the reading. I believe it would help you to similarly identify which actions you have control over with regards to giving practice exercises.
Students who attempt the exercises before comparing their answer to the solutions could benefit from formative self-assessment, i.e. identifying where they went wrong and how to correct it, or validating correct approaches.

You could withhold solutions, which would make it difficult for students to self-assess their work, but would also prevent students from only reading the solutions without attempting the exercises.
You can provide the solutions as well as instructions on how students should use them for the best learning. You cannot force students to follow those instructions, but the reward of good grades (assuming your exam assesses the desired learning outcomes) is a motivation you can provide.

You are doing two things wrong. (1) You have been provided with two TAs, but you are not using them to give students feedback on their exercises. (2) You are not handing out solutions.
The result of this is that students are operating in a complete vacuum. On the day they walk into an exam, they have absolutely no information about whether their own work has been correct.
You complain that "I cannot correct all exercises individually as there are too many students." No. You have 130 students and 2 TAs. That is a very generous level of support. You may not be able to give detailed feedback to every student on a large number of problems, but you can certainly give detailed feedback on some fraction of the problems, or less detailed feedback on all of them.

There is little motivation to work hard on the exercises, as they see the solution before the test. (Yes, good students know they should do them on their own. The problem are the not-so-good students.)

This is why you have been provided with two TAs. Their job is to grade the exercises in order to provide this motivation for the less mature students.
Depending on what this class is, you may also be deluding yourself about whether students already have access to solutions. For lower-division math and physics classes, for example, any student who pays $20/month for a chegg account has access to essentially every homework problem in every popular textbook.

Note that not everywhere can one use TAs to check students' homework. In some places, TAs may be required to do other duties.

Generally I think it's good for the students to get some but not all solutions. It is sometimes helpful to see how an exercise is done properly, for orientation, and for learning certain things (including how to write). On the other hand providing too many solutions implicitly communicates that the exercises are not about "exercising" but about knowing the right answers, which in my view they are not. Also it will encourage the idea that studying is about learning what's right rather than about understanding and developing one's own thinking. (I regularly have exercises that don't only have one unique true solution, and I don't want to communicate through an official solution that "this is how you have to do it all the time".)
I will only decide afterwards which solutions the students get, sometimes based on student requests (including doing surveys about "for which one of the five exercises do you want to have a fully worked through solution", of course after they have done them).
Another thing is that one can make active work on exercises a condition for passing the course in one way or another. Versions of this are "everyone has to present on own solution in class at some point", or giving marks on exercises that count toward the final course mark. I have given marks for "serious attempts to solve exercises" regardless of whether they are right or wrong, then only contributing a small percentage to the overall course mark, such as 10%.
Actually your tests do this in a way, but as you correctly state, the problem is then that students may be tempted to solve the test based on the given out solutions rather than their own work... so this approach combined with giving out all solutions is problematic exactly for the reason you state. Keeping the tests I'd probably publish selected solutions in a somewhat unpredictable manner, see above.

It depends on the subject, but in some of my physics classes for example, solutions were often provided for at least half the homework problems in advanced.
However, knowing the final value of a solution isn't the same as providing a walkthrough for how to complete the problem, which is itself more difficult and more important for having a grasp of the topic.
Often times, having the solution in hand was more incentive for me to work through the problem, because I would be able to tell if I ended up in the right spot, and if not, I would have to rethink how I approached the problem. Without a solution in hand, I was less likely to reevaluate my work, because I didn't know if I was converging or diverging from the correct solution.
tl;dr Providing the solutions can provide good motivation to complete the problems, depending on the subject.

I might be confused: what is a solution if not a walkthrough for how to complete the problem?

@DenisNardin For example a physics problem might ask you to solve for how far a cart will slide, so the answer in the book might be 2m. But this won't tell you how to set up for solving conservation of energy or momentum or what have you and working through, which is often a significant part of the grade as well.

Oh I understand what you mean. I think I would not consider those solutions (certainly I would give a student who provided only the numerical answer 0 points, while I could give full marks to a student who wrote a correct solution but did a silly arithmetic mistake in the last step). It's a bit moot for me, because almost none of the class I teach have such numerical answers.


text:
What should the course leader do if some students were given less time for a quiz?
I am the course leader for a course with more than 600 students.
This semester,
I decided to conduct our end-of-semester quiz
as a computer-based quiz using our school's learning management system.
We needed to reserve multiple computer lab rooms
due to the fact that the maximum capacity of a lab room is about 80 students.
Unfortunately,
we had always used a paper-based quiz in the past,
and it was the first time that we had ever used computer-based quiz,
so things did not go as smoothly as we would have liked.
We had requested that the students
should show up to the quiz venue 10 minutes early.
This would give them time to turn on the computers
and to log in to the quiz using
a special browser (Respondus LockDown Browser)
rather than the regular Internet Explorer browser.
Unfortunately, our instructions to the invigilators and the students
were not clear enough,
so even though most of the students showed up
to the quiz venue 10 minutes early as requested.
The invigilators did not make clear to the students
how to log into the computers and into the quiz,
so many of the students started the quiz 5-10 minutes late.
I attempted to communicate with the invigilators
to give the students 5 additional minutes to complete the quiz.
Unfortunately, due to miscommunication,
some of the invigilators ended the quiz on time
(so the students in their session had 50-55 minutes);
whereas some of the invigilators gave the students extra time
(so the students in their session had close to 60 minutes).
After the quiz was over,
some of the students who received 50-55 minutes complained to me
that they were disadvantaged because
they had less time to complete the quiz than other students.
It may or may not have been the student's fault
if he or she had less time for the quiz.

For some of these students,
they had less time because
they arrived late (which is their fault)
For other students,
they arrived on time.
However, because their computers booted up slowly,
or the invigilators did not make it clear
how to open the correct browser and how to start the quiz,
they started their quiz late by ~5 minutes
(this could have been avoided with better planning on our part).

Questions:

How should I respond to these student's complaints?
Is there anything that I should do to "fix" the situation?

Currently, I feel that the quiz was mostly fair to the students.
I am able to see in the learning management system that
fewer than 0.1% of the questions were not answered,
which means that 99.9% of the questions were submitted properly.
So although some students who had more time
had the benefit of double-checking their answers,
for the most part even students who only had 50 minutes
had enough time to complete all of the questions.

Can you explain whether the students were treated equally? It seems they were in some aspects of your question, whereas elsewhere it seems they weren't.

In my reading of this, students who were on time and followed instructions got the full time; those who were late or did things like opening the wrong browser did not.  Then there was an attempt to correct for this by allowing extra time, but, due to confusion, not all students who were late or failed to follow the instructions got the extra time.  Is that a fair summary?

@user2768 I completely rewrote my question to make things more clear. The students were not treated equally in the sense that some students had more time than other students, even if two students arrived at the same time. The time they had depended on which room they were assigned to, and whether the invigilator helped them to get start the quiz on time, and whether the invigilator ended the quiz on time or gave them a few extra minutes because they started late.

@BobBrown I completely rewrote my question to make things more clear. Students started late, depending on when they arrived, whether the invigilators' instructions were clear, whether the students were able to follow the instructions, and crucially whether the invigilator ended the quiz on time or gave them a few extra minutes because they started late. So students in some rooms had almost a full 60 minutes, but students in other rooms had around 52 minutes.

I think you start by looking to see if there is a statistical relationship between room assignment and how well students did on the quiz. If the score distribution is different, then you should be more inclined to correct. I would do so based on room, not individual students.

I believe there are a lot of circumstances that have to factor in to the decision, but to me, the most important initial detail is, do you have any way of reliably tracking whose time was cut short and who had the full time allotted? If not, it's going to be hard to analyze and correct the situation.
I'm assuming that, since it was a quiz, it's not a huge factor in their grade, so what I might do is either renormalize the grading or pro-rate it. Basically, if the quiz was supposed to take 60 minutes, and the most any students were shorted (by no fault of their own) was 10 minutes (still less than 20%), then the new baseline can be considered to be 50 minutes, or 83% of the original time.
To renormalize, multiply every student's grade by 1.2. For students over the new 100% mark, you could give extra credit or simply cap the score at 100%.
Or you can do a quick-and-dirty pro-rate by adding 17% to everybody's score, again, either up to a maximum of 100% or going over and giving extra credit.
I realize you have a huge class, which also implies you have a lot of early-undergrad students who might raise a bigger stink, but in my academic career, I've seen plenty of ex post facto shifting because of logistics, especially when a prof or the school is rolling out a new technological approach.

In my experience as an Academic Tutor at my University I frequently administer similar online tests. These tests make up a cornerstone of the topic and as such should be fair and consistent to all students. One difference that we have is we administer our tests over the duration of the week (in standard tutorial sessions) instead of everyone at once.
Note my University uses 'Moodle' as our software.
Now in terms of ensuring it is fair to all students we require the test to be done on campus in a designated computer lab. This ensures that all students can be monitored/invigilated appropriately. The tests that we use also include a timer within them. These timers are set as static for all students, though it does allow us to specify extra time for particular students (non-english speakers etc..) The final thing we do is set a password on the test. This password is changed after each tutorial session (the tutor/invigilator changes it). This means that we can administer the same test across multiple sessions Each student needs the password to access the test, and by changing it we ensure that students cannot go home and do the test and cannot tell another student at home the password and allow them to cheat.
Another policy you may find appropriate is a closed door policy. The rule I use is if the test has started you do not come in. You are late and you have therefore missed your opportunity to do the test. In the 'real' world being late could end in you being fired or worse. Therefore I expect all students to be on time. If they are late they may petition the topic co-ordinator with their excuse, if and only if the excuse is valid will they be permitted to sit the test 1 on 1 with a tutor. A closed door policy should be set up as follows:

Open exam room (10/15 min before exam)
Close the doors (5 min before exam)
Give pre-test speech
Start test (on time)
Conclude test

Any students who attempt to come in once the doors are closed should not be allowed in.
Finally some tips for invigilating tests/exams I recommend having a single point of reference for all students. For me I have a LCD at the front of the room which I can put notes on. It may be worthwhile printing out notes for your students. My notes will typically state the following:

When the test will open/begin (Time)
How to request assistance.
Any specific requests/procedures.
What to do when they are finished.
etc...
The password will be given out at the start of the test, with invigilators on hand to help students with entering the password (especially if it is complicated)

Lastly I recommend making sure that everyone is listening during the pre-test speech. Publicly call out students that are talking if necessary, but make sure everyone is listening. Then there can be no complaints they did not know the rules.
I believe your approach is spot on. It seems to me that the students were late due to their own fault, and therefore should be left as is.

"I believe your approach is spot on. It seems to me that the students were late due to their own fault, and therefore should be left as is." Seems to ignore "[some] students...arrived on time. However...they started their quiz late by ~5 minutes (this could have been avoided with better planning on our part)."

Thank you Reid for your answer. Indeed, the procedure used by your institution (e.g., a password for the test, a closed-door policy, printed instructions) are good ideas that we will use the next time that we have a similar quiz.