<p>I'm a student at UCLA and have received a grade that I don't think was deserved by one of my professors. I attended at least 95% or more of the lectures and completed all assignments for the class. As a result I still received a D- .. the lowest grade I've ever received in my academic history. I do not think this grade reflects my performance in the class, especially the fact that I've made/put effort into complete assignments and go to the lectures. I'm starting to think perhaps the professor had a personal issue against me or this might be an issue of discrimination.</p>
<p>Has someone been through the process of reporting or disputing an undeserved grade? Is there even a process to do this?</p>
<p>Any help/feedback would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Putting effort into assignments doesn’t necessarily equate to satisfactory results, if the effort didn’t result in a work product acceptable to the professor.</p>
<p>Put another way: You can turn everything in and still get a horrible grade if everything you turned in was poor. Five Ds and an F don’t add up to a C.</p>
<p>You must have had some sense of your performance during the class, as you must have been getting those assignments back with bad marks. Did you seek out the professor and try to figure out what you were missing?</p>
<p>Without specific evidence of discrimination, you’re certain to lose any grade challenge. So don’t even bother.</p>
<p>^Now hold on polarscribe, don’t say don’t even bother yet, we don’t know the whole story. We need more details before we can judge one way or another, it’s possible that the student turned in all their assignments and got them back with good marks which makes this interesting. I’d like to hear some more info from OP</p>
<p>First ask the professor for what percentage you received in each area that contributed to the class grade. This is a good way to find where you were supposedly lacking in the class that led to the low grade. Sometimes mistakes do happen and it is best to go through the professor first. Did you receive any of the assignments back? Did they have grades on them? These sort of things will help your case. Sometimes grades may have been missed being entered or were entered in the incorrect location.</p>
<p>Do not begin by accusing the professor that the grade was unfair/undeserved. As the above poster mentioned, it could just be that you scored low on assignments or tests. Simply going to class and turning in assignments is not grounds for a decent grade. You must have done well on those assignments. I have a class right now that every assignment and exam must be completed with a passing grade to pass the class. One non-passing grade (59% or less) on any one assignment or exam is grounds for failure in the class even if all other assignments and exams were completed at 100%. Perhaps your class had something similar?</p>
<p>However, if there is animosity between you and the professor and you cannot speak with him/her, you will need to look up how to dispute a grade within the department this occurred. Speak to an adviser for that department and they will let you know what specifics you will need to provide. You often have a limited amount of time to dispute a grade, though, so I highly recommend that you begin the process immediately. Do not begin by accusing the professor of discrimination if you have no evidence to support it.</p>
<p>What did you get on your major assignments, midterm and final exam? Look at your syllabus. It should break down how much each part of the class counts, including attendance and participation. It might also include what grade you can expect for certain levels of work completed.</p>
<p>As URichmond said, we’d need to know what your syllabus said for grade distribution and % from each assignment/exam.</p>
<p>I personally have (successfully) disputed a grade from a B to an A in the past, but that was due to a simple error in grade recording.</p>
<p>Also, in college you don’t get grades for “effort” unless that’s specifically mentioned as part of a participation grade. You spend 20 hours working on one assignment but still bomb it? Tough luck.</p>
<p>Find out how you did on the final. Get out all your old graded tests, quizzes, and assignments and the grading formula explained on the syllabus. Calculate as much of the grade as you can, and then figure out what grades you probably got for anything where the grade wasn’t written down and handed to you (like attendance and participation). Pay attention to any rules about how many classes you missed or penalties for work submitted late and whether it is possible to be marked as absent if you are in the classroom but arrive late, leave early, or do something that suggests you aren’t paying attention.</p>
<p>Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to tell if there’s a problem: if you got a lousy attendance grade despite being there and attentive 95% of the time or if attendance and participation didn’t figure into it and there was a problem with the calculation, you can go to the professor and ask why your attendance grade was so low or ask the professor to recalculate your grade. You don’t need to make accusations of personal animus or discrimination. You just need to make sure that your grade was calculated correctly according to the rules. If the professor can’t explain why you did badly and won’t change the grade, you can follow the rules in the student handbook for filing a formal grade challenge.</p>
<p>Of course, it’s also possible that when you do the math you’ll figure out exactly how you earned a D-. Sometimes students think they’re doing better than they really are. But at least you’ll know for sure that you weren’t treated unfairly.</p>