<p>So my situation is a little complicated.
In one of my classes for the semester, our grade is 33% final, 33% midterm, and 33% two short assignments. I got A's on the final and the midterm, and an A on one assignment and an A- on the other assignment. When my final grade was posted it was a B+. I e-mailed my professor about it, and he gave me the wrong grade and said he would fix it. So the grade was fixed, but my grade is an A-, but I really feel like I deserve an A because I put a lot of work in the class and mathematically, I don't see how my final grade is an A-. I've already feel like I bothered him about changing my grade once, I feel bad bothering him again. Should I contact him again about my grade or should I just be happy with my A-? He is the head of one of my major's department, although I probably won't have another class with him so I'm not sure what to do. Any advice would be appreciated!</p>
<p>Well, its obvious that you feel resentment with this issue. If you KNOW you put the time and effort into the class, email him again and ask him for reasoning or to change the grade to an A. You shouldn’t feel bad for wanting a grade you feel you deserve.</p>
<p>How much work you put into the class is irrelevant. You’re being graded on your performance, not your effort.</p>
<p>Did you get a number grade that was converted to a letter grade, or was the letter grade the only thing there was? If you got low As on the first assignment and the exams and a low A- on the other exam, it would be easy for your final grade to work out to be an A-. If you were being graded on a 4-point scale, on the other hand, the obvious ways to calculate the final grade would probably give you an A. There are ways that you could come up with an A-, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for clarification if you have no information about where you were within the A and A- ranges.</p>
<p>I would not, however, go in there using the word “unfair.” He will almost certainly assume you are there not because you want clarification but because you want your grade changed, and I would be surprised if he weren’t annoyed – at best – about that. </p>
<p>If it were me, I would go in there, apologize for bothering him a second time, and explicitly say I wanted to understand how the grade was calculated and that I wasn’t there to try to persuade him to change the grade. If he miscalculated, and it’s possible that he did and that he just assumed that he didn’t miscalculate as badly as he did, then when he explains to you how he calculated the grade he will figure out his error and he’ll persuade himself to change the grade. If he didn’t miscalculate (or if he is one of the minority of professors who wouldn’t admit that he miscalculated even if it’s obvious), then your attempts to persuade him to change the grade won’t work anyway. You won’t benefit from coming off like a stereotypical grade-grubber, and there may be an occasion in the future when you want him to have a good opinion of you, so I would definitely try to make it as clear as possible that I would be willing to go away satisfied with an explanation of the grade I’d earned.</p>
<p>We were never given numerical equivalents on any of our assignments, just A or A-, so I would assume each A is worth the same. </p>
<p>I definitely don’t want to come across as a grade grubber, because if he can offer me a fair explanation of why I got an A-, I will accept it. It’s just annoying because I know people who got Bs and B+'s all semester ended up with A-'s as their final grade and I got mostly A’s all semester and I’m getting the same grade as they are. The only problem is that it’s winter break so neither of us are on campus until we return to school in mid January. Would it be better to wait until second semester and talk to him in person, or try to do it over e-mail. I feel that over e-mail I’m not sure how to phrase it without coming across as entitled or grade grubbing. However, it may be harder for him to change the grade if I wait a month.</p>