How do you handle this situation with grades?

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf
1) We did not get our grade breakdown until ~55% of our grade had already been calculated. I do not see how this can be acceptable.

Are you one of those clowns that doesn't put as much effort into assignment X because it's only worth 5% of your grade?

2) The professor was unable to tell us our grades at any time during the semester.

Not uncommon.

3) The professor did not provide any criteria for assignments, yet graded against us for not following it.

And? You didn't go to her office hour (And don't make excuses I had to work, take the initiative to schedule a time)

4) According to the student handbook, an appeal may be filed if "the grade was based on factors contrary to those stated in the course syllabus or a reasonable interpretation of it. "Since we did not have one in the first place....

Waaahhhhhhh

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: tfinch2

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf
1) We did not get our grade breakdown until ~55% of our grade had already been calculated. I do not see how this can be acceptable.

Are you one of those clowns that doesn't put as much effort into assignment X because it's only worth 5% of your grade?

2) The professor was unable to tell us our grades at any time during the semester.

Not uncommon.

3) The professor did not provide any criteria for assignments, yet graded against us for not following it.

And? You didn't go to her office hour (And don't make excuses I had to work, take the initiative to schedule a time)

4) According to the student handbook, an appeal may be filed if "the grade was based on factors contrary to those stated in the course syllabus or a reasonable interpretation of it. "Since we did not have one in the first place....

Waaahhhhhhh

So finch, why are you acting this way? Why should a student not be able to expect that their professor does their job?

 

[slsmnaz]

Would knowing the weight of each assignment have changed the way you did your work? If yes then you should have tried harder. If no then you got what you deserved.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: slsmnaz
Would knowing the weight of each assignment have changed the way you did your work? If yes then you should have tried harder. If no then you got what you deserved.

I do not know what I got on 70% of the assignments.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: tfinch2

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf
1) We did not get our grade breakdown until ~55% of our grade had already been calculated. I do not see how this can be acceptable.

Are you one of those clowns that doesn't put as much effort into assignment X because it's only worth 5% of your grade?

2) The professor was unable to tell us our grades at any time during the semester.

Not uncommon.

3) The professor did not provide any criteria for assignments, yet graded against us for not following it.

And? You didn't go to her office hour (And don't make excuses I had to work, take the initiative to schedule a time)

4) According to the student handbook, an appeal may be filed if "the grade was based on factors contrary to those stated in the course syllabus or a reasonable interpretation of it. "Since we did not have one in the first place....

Waaahhhhhhh

So finch, why are you acting this way? Why should a student not be able to expect that their professor does their job?

Totally agree with you OP.

I had an upper division finance class prof who seemingly gave out grades at random on a semester-long writing assignment we had. We all knew the guy was totally imcompetent but when his ineptitude affected me and my friends' grades, we called him on it and a few of us got our grades changed.

Keep after this.

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: tfinch2

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf
1) We did not get our grade breakdown until ~55% of our grade had already been calculated. I do not see how this can be acceptable.

Are you one of those clowns that doesn't put as much effort into assignment X because it's only worth 5% of your grade?

2) The professor was unable to tell us our grades at any time during the semester.

Not uncommon.

3) The professor did not provide any criteria for assignments, yet graded against us for not following it.

And? You didn't go to her office hour (And don't make excuses I had to work, take the initiative to schedule a time)

4) According to the student handbook, an appeal may be filed if "the grade was based on factors contrary to those stated in the course syllabus or a reasonable interpretation of it. "Since we did not have one in the first place....

Waaahhhhhhh

So finch, why are you acting this way? Why should a student not be able to expect that their professor does their job?

A student should be able to expect that a professor does their job, but the only reason you're making a big sh!t about this is because you got a BC. If you were to get an A, you wouldn't even have a problem, would you? You would have just taken it and gone on like nothing ever happened. If you were so concerned about the quality of education rather than just your grade, you would have done something before the whole school "shut down" and grades came out.

 

[slsmnaz]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: slsmnaz
Would knowing the weight of each assignment have changed the way you did your work? If yes then you should have tried harder. If no then you got what you deserved.

I do not know what I got on 70% of the assignments.

Did you bother to try and find out? You could know the exact score and that doesn't always mean you get an A/B/C etc. because of a curve. That's very common.

It was EXTREMELY difficult to do assignments where we literally had no idea what we were supposed to be doing.

Sorry to burst your bubble but that's just life.

 

[MajinWade]

Based on the assumption that you deserve better and it's a BS grade, my friends and I have discovered through experience it is good to go talk to the professor and have him/her explain the grade. If she pretty much made up the grade, she would probably say something like, "You're person X, right? Well that's weird, you should have got grade Y. Let me submit the paperwork for you" This is probably easier for them than to actually grade. You may have to occasionally remind them since if they didn't really bother to calculate grades, they are lazy.

 

[Shawn]

BC? Is that like a C+ or a B-?

 

[EmperorIQ]

Originally posted by: tfinch2

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: tfinch2

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: TuxDave
Did you at least figure out how you got the BC? What was the breakdown?

With the grading system the prof uses, it is hard to tell.

Final paper-35% (unknown, turned in the last day)
6 exercises ? 20% (used some weird check system, no clue what I got)
Class object interview ? 10% (C+)
7 day object interview ? 10% (Got a C, don't agree with at all)
Archive paper ? 15% (never got it back)
Class participation ? 10% (somehow got a B on this, not sure how, should have an A)



Basically, I not only disagree with my final grade, but the grades received on my assignments. For instance, here is what she told us for the final paper:

1) Should be 7-9 pages
2) Should be a sort of ethnography (though to get out of doing an IRB, we will only be gathering data).
3) We should "read though the book chapters to get an idea of what questions they asked)


That is literally it. We had no direction whatsoever.

Did you ever go to her office hours for assignment clarification or anything else? I've had some classes like that, and that is what was required for us to do.

I spoke to her after class on a couple of different occassions (her only office hours were when I was working). I attempted to get clarification at that time. In fact, on the class object interview assignment I asked if I could redo it, and she said yes. I had asked for the reason behind the CD I got on it, and she said that the majority of points that were lost were because I did not do the "what did you learn from this" part. I added that in and my grade went from a CD to a C+, which did not make sense. It was EXTREMELY difficult to do assignments where we literally had no idea what we were supposed to be doing. I would not say my work was fantastic, but it was certainly worthy of a B (and under normal circumstances, an AB).

You still haven't said anything that makes it sound like you deserve a better grade.

i keep thinking that myself. All i hear is: "I deserve better, and if I got low grades it because she couldn't teach and didn't tell us how to do the assignments.
"

 

[Yossarian]

You deserve what you get for not speaking up earlier in the semester. You could have gotten clarification on assignments, you could have escalated the grade issue earlier and gone to the dean if necessary. Too late now.

 

[fishmonger12]

You're SOL. I don't think a professor is going to care if you approach him/her at the very end of the semester, having never done so before, arguing about your grade. The prof is going to say, "This student doesn't care about the subject, only his/her grade." and will promptly tell you to fsck off. Now, if you went to the prof's office hours during the semester, at least pretended to be interested in the material, and inquired about your grade, I think the teacher would say, "This student actually cares." Then the professor would be more a lenient grader, give you the benefit of the doubt on assignments/tests, and be more open with you about the grading policy etc.