<p>Grade Delay “GD.” Assigned temporarily when grade posting is delayed for administrative reasons. Students who see “GD” on their grade report or transcript should contact their instructor for clarification. The GD may be because your professor may not have submitted the grades yet.</p>
<p>No class is impossible to pass. It is a matter of how much effort you put in and your capacity to comprehend the material. Please do not blame the professor for your lack of effort or incompetency. I have seen this once too often. Last quarter when I took a lower division course, I saw first hand how lazy and underachieving most of the freshmen and sophomores were. The majority of the class were scoring Ds and Fs on the exams and essays, while on the other hand I was scoring As on everything. And the most ridiculous part is that the material was not difficult (the midterm covered only 2 chapters and was a multiple choice test). But the professor pitied these slackers and curved the mid-term by 20 pts, yet even after that most of the students were at a C average. </p>
<p>The professor should not have given such an unreasonably generous curve to boost the grades of underachievers because it cheated the students who put forth the effort and time to perform well on the exams, but it also cheated the underachieving students as well because it does not foster proper work ethic and it is setting those individuals up for failure. College isn’t meant for everyone, if the individual cannot perform, then it is the duty of the professor to indicate it to him through the grades; it is not the duty of the professor to massage the egos of underachieving students through the inflation of grades.</p>
<p>The reading material is not too demanding, many of my professors from the upper division courses assigned us graduate material to read (academic journal publications ranging from 40-100+ pages). And every week we would have to read at least 3-5 articles. So get used to it. </p>
<p>And many professors do not care to create a study guide for students. This is not High School, the professors are not here to hold your hand and tell you what you need to study or how to study. Because you will never learn like that (that is basically the rant my professors have given to the foolish people who asked for a study guide when the professors did not specify that they will offer one). You have to do it yourself! Take this as a lesson and learn to prep for midterms in advance and create your own study guides if the professor does not offer one. </p>
<p>Good luck with the attempt to appeal the grade. Right now you come off as one of the underachieving students who is complaining about his grades despite his lack of effort. Show some dignity and accept your grade for what it is. You will need to try harder in justifying why your grade should be overturned and the board reviewing your request will be more brutal than I was in my post. It is almost impossible to overturn grades unless the professor committed some sort of computational error in inputting the grades. </p>
<p>If you requested that course to be grades on the basis of pass/fail then you will probably receive a fail since you received Ds on your exams. You need a C or better to receive a pass. Also, although the pass/fail system can boost your GPA, try not to opt for pass/fail too often if you plan on graduate school, because the ad-board frowns upon candidates who have many pass/fails. </p>
<p>*Disclaimer: I did not intend to insult you, powerforce, in my post. I am just tired of seeing people complaining about so and so professor for their lack of effort. The little rant is applicable to all students.</p>