<p>In my inorgo class of 40 people, only 2 people got A's.
The prof curved the class, so there were no fixed grade ranges in the beginning. Since I did at least 20% better than average for midterms and final, I expected to get an A.
My overall percentage fell short of an A by only 2% and I ended up getting an A- instead.
I emailed the prof to bump me up to an A, but he said that doing that won't be fair to other people in the class.
So I asked him instead to widen the range or boundary of A's, A-'s, and so on. He replied that the grades won't change. </p>
<p>I visited this prof's office hours often and he knows me by name.
It really maddens me to miss an A by 2%!!!!</p>
<p>Any effective way of making your prof bump you up a grade?</p>
<p>My final percentage was 67.8% and the A cutoff was 69.8%. The prof's curving is a bit weird, nothing like what I experienced previously in other curved classes.</p>
<p>Once a professor has set what the grade scale will be, its hard to impossible to change their minds. I had an 89.7 in a class before and the teacher grade scale said 90> is an A.</p>
<p>But there as a very small error on my final though. So you might want to look through all your exams and labs to find anything worth arguing over.</p>
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My overall percentage fell short of an A by only 2% and I ended up getting an A- instead.
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</p>
<p>sucks for you, maybe it'll teach you to try harder next time</p>
<p>
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I emailed the prof to bump me up to an A, but he said that doing that won't be fair to other people in the class.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>he's absolutely right</p>
<p>
[quote]
So I asked him instead to widen the range or boundary of A's, A-'s, and so on.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>thats also unfair, can't change the rules after the game is over</p>
<p>
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He replied that the grades won't change.</p>
<p>I visited this prof's office hours often and he knows me by name.
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</p>
<p>so now you neither have the A nor will you be able to ask this prof, who knows you by name, for a rec because he now thinks/knows that you are a "persistent" (i'd rather not use stronger language) grade grubber. Sounds like it was a complete lose lose situation for you.... next time you should probably just bang your head against the wall and move on with your life</p>
<p>An A- isn't the end of the world. And that grade distribution sounds about typical of an orgo class that big. Long run= not a big deal to get an A-.</p>
<p>Fighting over something so petty with a professor just makes you look bad, and as you get older the professors are probably going to cave in less and less. Even though the range per letter grade is probably bigger than usual because it's on a weird curve, norcalguy is right that typically an A- is only a couple of percentage points away from an A. Would you be as irritated if it was a typical grade distribution?</p>
<p>2% is quite significant in calculating an overall grade. Your professor won't bump your grade up, nor should he. Tough luck, you'll just have to deal with it; everybody does at some point (or several points). I hate grade grubbing.</p>