> If you don't do homework, it is only on you.

The issue with this policy is hyperbolic discounting — students are fine choosing not to do homework when the consequences (EDIT: that is, doing poorly on the exam) are still in the future, but less so when they become present.

Then they lash out at the instructor, even if it’s really their fault.

Maybe it's changed, but when I went to Berkeley, it was really common that the homework counted for next to nothing and it was on you to do it since the majority of your grade (if not all) was on mid-terms and finals. No one really complained back then...maybe it's changed a lot, but if so, I'd say they should go back to their roots ;)

>> In-class exams, either written or oral. If you don't do homework, it is only on you. And with paper and pen, the next semester, yes.

> The issue with this policy is hyperbolic discounting — students are fine choosing not to do homework when the consequences are still in the future, but less so when they become present.

For me at least, in most of my classes, the homework was a tiny part of the grade. Just enough to maybe get over what you're talking about, but not enough to really matter.

> Then they lash out at the instructor, even if it’s really their fault

I'd put great value, as an employer, in a degree that does nothing but weed out these people.

True. It was true when I was doing my classes and I have to imagine it did not get much better. And with math, there is very easy way to tell if you are anywhere close to understanding it.

Homework assignments ungraded but mandatory.

Then an in-class oral exam on a random subject drawn at exam entry.

Works great in my country.

At the end of the day, the responsibility is on the student to study.