<p>I got B in a class completely due to absences. Although the course's official description emphasized that students should actively participate in class, the professor's actual syllabus does not mention a word on attendance policy. No where does she say that grade would be affected by absences. From my past experiences, there is always a clear distinction between what a professor expects and what he/she requires. For example, a professor may expect you to do your homework early but you will never get points off for doing the hw the night before. But if he requires you to turn in the hw at 5pm, then your grade will suffer if you don't. The course grade, according to her syllabus, is completely based on several assignments and projects, on all of which I got A's. The student code of the university also says that the professor should include attendance policy in his/her syllabus. If I had known that missing classes would put my grade in jeopardy in this course, I would have never done it. </p>
<p>I missed 8 lectures out of 34. I am very positive about this number. But the professor says in her reply to my grade inquiry that "I rarely attend class" although she never kept attendance record (it's a small class, 18 people). She might have got this impression because the majority of my absences happened in the last semester, plus she couldn't be present herself for a couple classes due to conferences. So she didn't see me very often for a while. </p>
<p>She also wasn't happy about my failing to attend my fellow classmates' final presentations. And she would have liked me to present a different day and had to reschedule my presentation according to the one day when I was present. But the fact is that she never gave us a list of names which determines the order, who goes first and second...When I was there on the first day and the third day of the presentations, every one had the impression that it was completely arbitrary and she simply picked on whoever was there. </p>
<p>Even if she didn't like my missing others' presentations and if she decided to take points off my own presentation, which is worth 30% of the whole course, say giving it a B instead of A (~85% * 30% ) that shouldn't change my grade by a whole letter. </p>
<p>I did very well on all of the assignments. In fact for our first project, mine was one of the few that met her requirements and deserved an A although she decided to be nice and give everyone an A on the first project (she told us this in class). </p>
<p>I feel that I deserve better than a B. But apparently she doesn't agree. She seemed to have abandoned her own printed grading policy and decided to go extremely subjective on this matter. Do you guys think I am justified in asking her to change my grade?</p>
<p>She could argue that your presentation grade has a strong correlation with how you respond to your peers’ presentations. Most professors feel that part of the learning process is exchanging ideas with your peers. </p>
<p>If you got an A for everything else then that may only be an 85%. If a B is 84%, then it would not require huge changes to your presentation grade to dip your mark by one percent.</p>
<p>She could have just failed you for that presentation solely on not showing up and not have agreed to reschedule you.</p>
<p>If anything, not specifying an attendance policy probably works in her favor. It’s a different matter if she says attendance is worth 5% of your grade and then you’re still deducted a letter grade .</p>
<p>However, not specifying one means she didn’t technically go against anything. </p>
<p>You can certainly try to go against your professor - you probably won’t end up in a worse position than you are now, but I wouldn’t expect favorable results.</p>
<p>I guess I wasn’t clear. What I meant by the equation, ~85% * 30%, is that the presentation is worth 30% of the whole course, if I got B on it, then it would only contribute about ~85%*30% = 25.5% to my whole course grade instead, which shouldn’t make a huge difference since I got A on everyting else and according to her math, if you got an A on an assighment, you got 100% on it. (it’s a humanities class)</p>
<p>Actively participate—how can you actively participate if you’re not in the classroom?
Why didn’t you attend the classes when your peers were presenting their work? Often times, when students present their work, part of the presentation is fielding questions from other students in the classroom. Many student presentations also include written feedback and comments from the other students. If you weren’t there to listen to the presentations then you weren’t there to participate.</p>
<p>all classes I have ever taken have a Grade rubric breakdown of how the grade in the class will be determined
like
70% tests
10% hw
10%quiz
10% project</p>
<p>If attendance is not listed in her breakdown, thats the end of it.</p>
<p>you presented your project to her.</p>
<p>on a side note i have taken many class where there IS a percent explicitly added to this breakdown labeled as participation…not sure if It is part of your syllabus or not…in fact ive had a humanities class where it was 20% of grade and we were not told of our participation grade, we only saw it reflected in our overall final grade.</p>
<p>For example even in my Linear algebra class, it was written in syllabus that all students are expected to participate in class and attend all lectures…blah blah, only 5 students showed up because of the extreme boredom, but just because it is expected of us doesnt mean we were graded on it.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that’s not the end of it. PARTICIPATION is in her syllabus. Failing to attend class, I reckon, is the ultimate form of failing to participate. You can’t do any worse than that. It doesn’t matter if you feel like the only form of participation during presentation is “applause” - participation isn’t always about running your mouth, it is also about being engaged in the learning experience other ways. And I imagine listening to your peers’ presentations is part of that engagement.</p>
<p>Even if participation or some form of it is in no way specified in the grade breakdown, she could very well have chosen to fail you for rescheduling your presentation. You missed. Your final. Presentation. You knew there was no rhyme or reason to who went when, and yet you still felt safe enough to skip class. You are lucky she did not fail you, considering it was 35% of your grade.</p>
<p>Sorry that I have ABSOLUTELY no sympathy. I received an F in a course for absences. My grades gave me an A - 94% - but 10 absences (in a class that met three times a week) gave me a big, stinking F.</p>
<p>At least I took it like a man. I know what risks I take when I try to snake through the system. I’m no cheater. </p>
<p>You’re whining like a sissy over a B. Get over yourself. Jeez, rubrics and technicalities aside, why do students feel so entitled? You missed over 20% of that class, yet you still think you deserve an “A” - the grade reserved for the highest achiever, that ones that contribute most to the learning community. I mean, morally, can you really live with being so bratty?</p>
<p>(Now if you missed these classes for reasons other than deeming the class ‘a waste of your time’ - so what if it is? - i.e. you were sick or had some legitimate, real excuse, that’s another story…but you don’t mention that…so.)</p>
<p>You can certainly try to challenge the grade, but it probably won’t help. I had a similar situation where I had As on all the coursework and ended up with a B because of attendance. In my case the issue was gas pushing $5/gal with a 70 mile a day commute and no job. But I didn’t challenge it, I just wished I had taken a different prof.</p>
<p>I did challenge a grade once. The prof who was supposed to teach the class ended up in the hospital and was replaced at the last minute by a grad student from another college. Two weeks into the class (of a five week summer session) the guy said he wasn’t getting paid enough to teach us and literally quit teaching. He missed at least one class session a week and the last three weeks was devoted to student presentations that didn’t even deal with the course. He emailed us a bunch of power points the night before the final and tested us on the power points and the contents of a book that wasn’t even the book assigned to our class. I know he based his exam on a different book because when I googled some of the questions the exact wording came directly from the book. </p>
<p>I put together a 20-page packet of proof that included our book, his exam, all my class notes, information about the book the questions came from, the dated emails for the power points, and the syllabus (which didn’t show us needing any other book than the one we were assigned). Three other students filed the appeal with me. The appeal was denied. The moral here is that the department will most likely stand behind the instructor.</p>
<p>“I put together a 20-page packet of proof that included our book, his exam, all my class notes, information about the book the questions came from, the dated emails for the power points, and the syllabus (which didn’t show us needing any other book than the one we were assigned). Three other students filed the appeal with me. The appeal was denied. The moral here is that the department will most likely stand behind the instructor.”</p>
You were obviously <em>not</em> supposed to see that book beforehand. What kind of exam would that be if it took questions directly from your textbook?</p>
<p>I am sorry though that you didn’t get much out of the class. The university/department/grad student should have handled the professor’s absence differently. Sucks for you that you paid for a class and got a grad student who didn’t put much effort into teaching.</p>
<p>I think the implication is that the MATERIAL wasn’t covered in the textbook assigned. And since he did not teach, the exam was unfair. </p>
<p>Summer classes are downright expensive and this kind of behavior by a “professor” is absolutely shocking and shouldn’t be allowed. He wasn’t just a bad teacher - he refused to teach, telling his class so verbatim! This was theft of student’s money, plain and clear.</p>
<p>Of course, I don’t have the whole story, so. Eh. But if it’s true, I would have demanded my money and my grade back from that course, most certainly (you can’t really demand an A if your argument is that it was a non-class, but you can demand to get the mark revoked completely). Although that doesn’t count for all of the other associated travel costs and opportunity costs. The tuition and then some is owed to the students. Maybe a free class next summer in addition to a refund.</p>
<p>Unless there was a reasonable excuse for missing the classes such as doctors appts or prolonged sickness then you likely don’t have much of a case. The school/dept will stand behind their professors/TA’s, and you usually must have a bulletproof case that shows that the prof/TA acted in manner which will look bad for the uni. Some professors that a lot of prime in their work and if you don’t want to attend their class then they take it personally. One lecutre I was in the prof caught someone texting so they pretty much told them to get the hell out and not to come back. And they are allowed to grade how they see fit, and a syllabus can be seen as a general guideline and can change it whenver they want without notification. </p>
<p>to the OP- You missed 8/34 classes which equals about 24%, without any credible or communicated excuses. Chalk this up as a life lesson. Not every detail will be spelled out to you in adult life. Professors expect you to show up, especially if that “participation” word is used, and the class has only 18 students. </p>