How was your attendance?
Fine.
There weren’t discussion sections that you didn’t go to, or anything like that, were there? I remember hearing about someone at my college who didn’t go to the discussion sections for his calculus class. It turns out that’s where all the quizzes were being given, which counted for a substantial fraction of the class grade :smack:
Could you be more specific? What you call “fine” may not be fine by your instructor. Some classes require mandatory attendance at every class and can dock points for missing even one (or for being late).
Did you miss any classes at all? What does your syllabus say about attendance?
I went to all of my classes.
Well then it comes down to your presentations, I suppose. I think you’re just going to have to ask your instructor.
My husband once got an unintentionally hilarious e-mail from one of his students, All we can assume is the student must have gotten drunk and belligerent one night and fired off a missive that he wouldn’t have sent otherwise.
The guy was a piss-poor student. His papers were incoherent with gross spelling and punctuation errors, and he had at best a nodding acquaintance with grammar. He did not understand how to write a paper using facts and data-- all he could do was present his opinon. His best grade on one of the tests was a C.* It was painfully obvious that he put no effort into the assignments.
On his last paper, he recieved a failing grade. Hubby had sat down with him time and again and explained patiently what he was doing wrong. The student repeated the errors every time, so Hubby gave the student the grade he deserved, figuring he’d given the guy plenty of chances.
The e-mail came the night after the paper was given back. The guy wrote that he “DEMANDED” that his grade be changed and that he had given the paper to a friend of his who went to another school but was taking the same course and his friend agreed the paper deserved “at LEAST” a B. He had paid “a LOT of money” for this course and he wasn’t going to be treated like this. He knew he had been graded poorly because he was a Christian and that offended Hubby’s liberal sentiments.
Hubby wrote back that he was sorry the student felt that way, and if he liked, Hubby would meet with the student and the head of the department to discuss his work. The student should bring with him all of his papers so they could be reviewed, and the dept. head would decide if the grade had been fair. We never heard from him again.
Every quarter, at least a couple of people ask for grade changes, and Hubby always looks at their performance record before deciding. If an otherwise excellent student had a crisis and got a lower grade because of it, he’ll sometimes give them a little bit of leeway, such as letting them retake an exam. If there’s a genuine error (which happens sometimes no matter how careful you are) he corrects it was quickly as he can. He doesn’t, however, change grades for students who had consistently poor work. He tries very hard to be fair in grading his students.
*Now, mind you, these tests are very easy. Hubby uses me as a test subject. Not knowing anything about the subject, I’m usually able to get a C myself, just by reading all of the questions and using the data in them to make a good guess.
Do you still have your syllabus you received when the class started? That should explicitly spell out how your grade is calculated and what the requirements (re: attendance, etc) are for the class. If the professor did not return grades as he said he would in the syllabus, you may be able to work something out.
I only tried to get a grade changed once and I was unsuccessful. I was taking an Intor ot Logic course and had one of the highest grades in the class. Nothing under an A on either homework or the test. However, I received a B in the class because the professor counted any tardies as being half an absence and after three absences, he automatically dropped you down an entire letter grade for the course. It was stupid (I mean, c’mon, I obviously knew the material) and I argued about it but the policy had been stated in the syllabus and I was out of luck.
I had a final grade changed on less-than-justifable reasons. However, I had several things going for me:
1–Good attendance
2–Good test scores
3–Respectful communications and emails (“hey, can’t make it to class tonight, gotta work, sorry”)
4–Excellent projects (I went way above & beyond the requirements and put it upon myself to beat the professor’s architectural design performance-wise, and did.)
I didn’t ask for the grade, I simply felt like I owed the professor an apology for not turning a project in that would’ve counted for 25% of my grade (below 80% was failing). He cut me slack and gave me an I without my asking. I’m positive he wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t already have a good track record to that point.
Wow. Your professors can change a grade on your final exams?
In my university, if there is some reason why you think you would do badly on an exam (illness, stress, personal reasons, not having studied enough) you are advised not to sit the paper, but to either try and re-schedule it, or to sit the Supplemental exam in September with those who failed (if the Supplemental is your first go, and you fail, you can re-sit the exam in a Super-Supplemental).
Final grades are NEVER changed once an exam has been marked, unless it can be proven that there was a fault with the marking (multiple choice paper not read properly by the autoscanner, marks incorrectly added, that kind of thing).
My university does allow you to recieve a breakdown of the marks awarded in a paper, and possibly the chance to see what you wrote. You can certainly always ask why you did badly- however, there is absolutely no chance of ever having that mark changed.
I started reading this, did a double take, then read the poster’s name… ah. European. Hi there! waves north
In Spain, one of my college professors refused to change my grade (they could) because it “would make him look bad”. He messed up because he was in a hurry, but I paid for it. Should have been a 70% (60% was pass), got a 0%! My grade in the next try was a 100%, but that 0 had my father murderously angry, he couldn’t talk to me without barking for a month and threatened with pulling me out of college.
Another one wanted to fail me for cheating; we had to write a computer program as a class project, he knew I’d written the program for my team and claimed that “a girl who doesn’t even own a computer” (emphasis his, poking me on the ‘girl’) couldn’t have written a program for that particular problem that took 1/3 of the memory and 1/2 the time of all previous versions. So, he basically was jealous. Problem is, a fail on “character grounds” would have been eternal; I would never have been able to graduate. I was reasonable for a while, finally got real pissed and challenged him to give me anothe problem: I’d write the program in his office, with him watching, type it with him watching, and like the one I’d already done, it would work on the first try except for typos. He folded 
but I couldn’t have challenged him like that if I hadn’t been 2500% sure that I was a much better programmer than him.
When I was a TA, I would “drop” the lowest partial grades (from the daily exercises) on grounds that anybody can have a bad day. But the one way to make sure your grades would not be reviewed upwards would be to come yelling “you have to give me an A+! I’m going to be a doctor!” U-hu… not with a mathematical average of 53% after drops, no sir…
Not much advice I can give besides the obvious: Keep all your work nice and organized, set up a time that’s convenient for your teacher, and be polite. Always remember that teachers at all levels are not only underpaid and have to work long hours, they have to take an ungodly amount of crap from students and parents alike. It wears on a person, and it can cause even the most conscientious educator to make mistakes. If you’re right and courteous about it, you can get justice.
Me, I had two high D’s bumped up to C’s. The first was a Business 100 course, and the teacher was impressed enough by my perfect attendance and being a nice guy all around to give me those few extra points. The other was my second Statistics course, which was a monster; the teacher thought I was working very hard and decided to be nice. The funny thing is, I never made any request; I never even cared that much. I wouldn’t have been all that upset with a D in the former and would’ve gladly accepted it for the latter.
I have grade change requests so frequently and with such little basis (i.e., “But, Professor, I NEED at least a B- so I can keep my financial aid!”, like a little studying before this point wouldn’t have taken care of that problem) that I’ve started to wonder if this isn’t some well-thought out policy.
Actually, in terms of time-efficiency, it makes sense. If I were trying to do as little studying as possible, and if I had as little shame as possible, here’s what I would do: Try to skate by in each course, putting in a modicum of work. In some courses, you could luck out, or get a generous instructor, or both, but in other courses, go into the professor’s office and complain, create a holy hell, insist the grade is unfair, argue that the prof. is biased. Even if you get a bump upward only some of the time, by a prof eager to get you out of his office (adjuncts especially dont want to field grade complaints in the chair’s office, reasoning that taking up hours of the chairman’s time is a good way to get thought of as a problem instructor), that half-hour or so spent bitching about your grade is worth days or even weeks of studying.
I actually have begun to think that there’s some website or something out there couseling party-students to do this, because of all the students who come in with complaints about their grades with no evidence other than they woud LIKE a better grade.
(My bolding)
What particular subject are you seeking advice about? I really hope it isn’t English, because in which case, you don’t have a grammatical leg to stand on so to speak.
:dubious:
Actually, especially in English composition classes, it’s very effective for me to ask the student to address his complaint in writing to the chair of my department, which often provides me with more than sufficient evidence in itself for the low grade.
The best one was a letter from a non-native speaker (who insisted on taking my non-ESL section of freshman comp but then bitched about having failed the course) headed “Why get I F?”
(The title was perhaps the least flawed sentence in the letter of complaint, but sufficed for my chairman.)
I have. Having not handed in a high school geography essay I borrowed a friend’s and copied it. When I got it back it had received a barely passing grade. This was a shock since I had copied quality work. I approached my teacher and instigated a conversation like this:
Me: Can you tell me why I received such a low grade for this assignment?
Him: Well, it is clearly inadequate. You’re lucky to get a pass.
Me: Well why was the same essay worth so much more when ______ submitted it 3 weeks ago?
My reward was a suspension. And a regrade to 0.
I’ve got to say, don’t ask, that you just wrote either the greatest whoosh I’ve ever read, or I’m absolutely speechless.
If you really didn’t get a grade, score, or indication of how you were doing on your work over the course of the semester, you had a very poor instructor.
Pretty weird, huh? She’s not the only instructor in my program who does not give feedback during the semester. 
Why didn’t you (or one of the other students) complain during the semester? I can’t imagine not giving someone any feedback at all, even a written sheet saying “here’s your grade so far” if they don’t use numbers. Usually I come down on the professor’s side in cases like this, but if you really got no feedback then I think you have cause to complain. At least ask to see their grading system and their notes about you. And if this happens again, ask! I’m pretty sure profs are obligated to tell you how you’re doing.