I often get asked this question immediately after students turn in an exam. They want to know when grades will be posted and when they will have the results. I can understand that a lot of students are anxious about finding out how well they did. This is especially true towards the end of the semester, where they might need a certain grade on the exam to get the grade they want in the course.
However, it can be a really difficult question to answer. The truth is, I don’t know when I will have them graded. I also have three other courses that I need to grade for, lessons I need to plan, emails I need to answer, and at some point I should probably spend some time with my family. I personally try to prioritize getting exams back as soon as I can, but that doesn’t always work out the way I would like. Students have to remember that professors are people too. We understand that you want to know how you did. We will get to it as soon as we can. But this isn’t the only task on our increasingly long to-do list.