We were given a take home exam and no one did good on it so the professor told us do it as many times as we would like. I turned it in via email as we were supposed to before the due date. But, the email was never received by the professor due to probably some error in the server. Since it wasn’t received it didn’t get graded and it affected my final grade. It was supposed to be a B and I made a C+. It just pissed me off. He didn’t grade it because the final grades were already posted and in my email with the submission I wrote please confirm that you have received the email. Since I didn’t follow up when he didn’t give me a confirmation, he is saying that I should have followed up and he is not gonna grade the exam.
He is not even considering the fact that the server didn’t send my email through. That is just so unfair. I hate that. I am afraid to appeal for the grade because I have two classes with him next semester including senior design and it is my last semester. I don’t want to lose the reputation and respect. But on the other hand, it is not my fault that the email didn’t go through. The exam should have been graded. I worked on it for 2 weeks. It is so aggravating.
I don’t know what to do. Please help. Should I appeal or not?
How do you know your grade was going to be a B if he’d graded your exam?
Do you have proof that the college’s email server failed rather than your own system? If there was no verifiable error, then you have no proof that you actually submitted the exam when you say you did, and the professor has the right to ignore your exam.
There is proof of submission if the student can show the email in their sent items, correct? It’s a tough situation. Seems like there was already an appeal and the prof denied it. I wouldn’t take it any further since you have 2 more classes with him.
Almost all of my syllabi have stated something to the affect of “HW/papers/take homes are due by XX:YY on the due date. However, do not wait to the last minute, because your computer/server problems are not my problem.”
No one ever said life is fair. You can certainly appeal it, and he can certainly deny your appeal.
It sounds like the professor was already being over-the-top generous by allowing people take and retake this exam as many times as they wanted. I don’t blame him for not wanting to read yet another exam that a student swears they turned in on time.
And allowing multiple retakes of the test is beyond fair. The OP needs to see the situation for what it is–this professor sounds like the fairest in the world. He allowed them to take the exam multiple times and, when not receiving the OP’s latest test, went ahead and submitted grades. Now the OP, after receiving their grade, is asking the professor to regrade yet another version of the test and then submit a retroactive grade change. That’s asking for quite a lot at this point.
Because I have talked to him about my question many times prior to the submission. I almost had it correct. I am very much sure that it would bump up to a B. Yes I did send him the proof as an image with the date and time stamp from the email, and that is how he was able to tell me that I didn’t follow up.
If you say he is the fairest then you are totally wrong. He allowed the retake because everyone failed the exam the first time. I had the highest in that failing grade. He grading is awful and he expects everyone to do good on it. He puts one question that no one can do and if that’s wrong then everything remains ungraded. None of the students like him. I did until now, but now I don’t either. If the best students fails it, then something is wrong with the professor.
I am not saying that it is his fault that the email didn’t go through. But, atleast be nice enough to grade it when your student has put so much effort and you know about it too. It’s more about the principle then being about the grade.
@MMishere Consider it a learning experience and move on. Sending an mail that requests the person confirm receipt does not drop the ball in their court. When you received no reply, you really should have followed up. In the future, consider sending read receipts if that option is available to you.
@paveyourpath I understand what you are saying but the point here is not me following up but the email server not sending him the email. What if I hadn’t asked for a confirmation. Then what? He would had to change the grade because he wouldn’t have had any other option. My hard work is worthless? Doesn’t that what it means? A little consideration? No? It would have taken him max of an hour to grade the exam. Having a phd doesn’t mean that he is god. I know many of the other teachers would have graded it. If you ask me how do I know, then I say I do because I am a senior and I have had every teacher and they know me well.
@TomSrOfBoston I can understand why you feel that I am a complainer. Obviously you don’t know me as a student, and it would be hard to explain what I have gone through since last four years. It’s alright if you think that. From this conversation it does seem like I am a complainer. I am not actually. I am the student who resists every hit and doesn’t fight back. But, I am also the one who would not resist wrong, and try to fight back provided that all the factors are in my favor.
Honestly speaking, I was not going to appeal. I just posted this question to ask everyone’s opinion. I don’t want to lose the respect over a grade. It’s not worth it. Also, you can’t feel what I am feeling anyways, so it’s easy to say it, then to actually be in the shoes.
I’ve been in your shoes, know exactly how you are feeling and learned from it. You keep saying it’s not your fault, but it is. You could’ve called/emailed and asked for a confirmation PRIOR to the deadline to ensure your final was received. Whether or not you asked for a confirmation is irrelevant, if you hadn’t asked for confirmation in your email, I doubt his decision would have been any different.
@Fishnlines29 Thanks for your response. I am going to drop this appealing of my grade thing, and accept the grade I received.
Unfair is what I have dealt with since last four years and one more I can take. I am just trying to keep my GPA about the same, and now in this last semester I would have to work at my best to not lose it because now I can with one bad grade. And it would kill me to have maintained it for four years and lose it in the very last semester.
I have confidence that I can do it, and that is all I need. I will keep this incident in mind. However don’t you think, it is weird that a gmail server failed like this? I mean what are the chances, really? If he accidentally deleted it, then …who knows?
“What if I hadn’t asked for a confirmation. Then what? He would had to change the grade because he wouldn’t have had any other option. My hard work is worthless? Doesn’t that what it means? A little consideration? No? It would have taken him max of an hour to grade the exam. Having a phd doesn’t mean that he is god.”
I agree with you that because he has a phd doesn’t mean that he is god. Your belief that if you had not asked for confirmation he would have no other option to change the grade is not accurate and that is the point you fail to understand. This was a retake because the class did poorly. You were not entitled to a retake, it was an option available to you. You are not now entitled to an hour of his time.
I am not sure how you have determined this to be server error but based on what you have not said, it seems the server error was not on the professor’s end. If the server was down, it would have pushed through the emails when the server was back up.
I realize this is upsetting to you but as you said you don’t intend to appeal this any further with the professor so you will just move forward with an experience that will benefit you in the future.
Yep, it really sucks, it does. But again, that has helped me tremendously in business. I never expect someone has received very important information until I actually confirm it with them. Just sending isn’t enough! It’s a good lesson to learn early. I’m sure you can work on pulling up your GPA, it’s unfortunate you have other classes with this professor, I’m guessing you have no other options?
I absolutely don’t. This is a new program so we are the first students to graduate in it. We are the first ones to be enrolled in these classes. He is the only one teaching it.
I don’t know what kind of professor he is, true, but when I come across a student who complains constantly about “fairness” and whines about things not being fair, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that the student is not acting like an adult. Adults don’t complain about “fair.” This professor allowed everyone to retake the test so that they might do better on it, and that is fair. As far as he knows, you didn’t get yours in on time. It’s also fair that he won’t grade it, then.
At what point did he assert that having a PhD makes him “god”? You seem to be the one who’s hung up on his credentials here, not him. And yeah, asking for an additional hour from someone who’s just been through a finals grading period is asking A LOT.