<p>What do you guys think about this? Like at my school, it's not uncommon for a teacher to bump up at 89.3 or 89.4 since 89.5 is the cutoff for an A, but it's also not uncommon for someone to have an 87 or 88 and complain that it's unfair. A girl I was talking to said she hates 87's because they're basically A's.
My Algebra 2 teacher refused to bump up grades, but after the final, if you were close, she would average out your grades because at my school, the whole semester grade is based on a chart where someone who gets two 80's for the quarters and a 60 on the exam gets the same grade and someone who gets two 89's for the quarters and an 100 on the exam. We also have a rule where teachers are not allowed to give you less than 50% (except for 0's).</p>
<p>So what do you guys think of these policies? What are your thoughts on grade grubbing?</p>
<p>No, at my school an 89.5 is automatically an A so students want that .2 more to have an A.</p>
<p>And the 50% rule is stupid because it’s basically to keep kids from failing. I basically got an A in AP US Gov because of that rule. But it’s unfair that if I know 50% of the material that someone who only knows 30% should get the same grade as me.</p>
<p>Yeah, I just hate how some kids get an 88 and expect to be rounded up. </p>
<p>In AP Chem, first quarter, I’d had an A all quarter until one test dropped me down (we only had 2 tests) to an 88.9 and I was really upset. My AP Chem teacher gave a little quiz at the end which didn’t count, just a little extra and rounded up my 88.9 which was SO nice of her. But another kid, who I don’t like because he’s arrogant, ended with an 87.5 and begged my teacher to round him up. Just no.</p>
<p>For grades in the 89.0-89.4 range, I have asked to have it bumped up or for something I could do to get it to 89.5. I’ve always gotten a yes. There’s one teacher who does it automatically if you’re a good student. (If you have an 88, 78, etc., he’s willing to bump it if he knows you tried.)</p>
<p>meh I think if someone has an 89.4, it’s fair to bump it to like an 89.5 for an A- at my school…of course I hear most teachers won’t do that. bumping an 88 or 87 is just way too much though. My freshman history teacher voluntarily did it for me because she thought I was a hard worker though :’)</p>
<p>O.o What is this? An EXPECTATION that marks should be bumped up? Our teachers don’t generally bump marks up, and I would feel horrible asking for my mark to be bumped up because if I got an 88, then I earned an 88, not a 90. Isn’t it better to be pleasantly surprised one day to see that your 89.4% or whatever is now a 90% than to expect it?</p>
<p>Well if you mean “Grade Grubbing” as asking for extra credit for the purpose of pushing up your grade, yeah, that’s stupid.
However, I’ve seen it used for people that did well on a test but will still ask about questions they’re unsure of, wondering if the teacher possibly made a mistake. I do this sometimes (particularly with my calc teacher, since he makes mistakes constantly), but only because I want the grade I earned. Not to mention that an extra point makes my life come exam time one point easier.</p>
<p>it depends on how you define grade grubbing. if a student actually notices that a teacher made a mistake or genuinely believes that he/she might deserve better, then they should discuss it with the teacher.</p>
<p>if a student complains because he/she feels entitled to a grade or is just upset because it’s borderline, then they should just work harder.</p>
<p>No student deserves better than what they have already gotten, unless what they have gotten was given in error. And any teacher that allows this “grade-grubbing” should be ashamed of him/herself.</p>
<p>Until grading becomes an exact science, this is always the case. Every day of class, every assignment a teacher selects, every event in a student’s life — these all introduce noise into the calculus.</p>
<p>Schooling shouldn’t be this intense jockeying for grades that being strict about it would help foster. A teacher, more than a summation of test scores, knows how good a student was in her class. Who are you to call a teacher shameful? Who are you to think you know more about how a class should be run? Do you have a degree in education?</p>
<p>I’ve gone up to teachers to get a better explanation on what I have done wrong and ended up with more points, not because I asked, but because they see a mistake. I’ve also had teachers take multiple points off for the same mistake or made a mistake and I ask them about it. But I don’t think it’s fair that if I earn my A that someone who earns an 88 or 89 gets an A.
And I’ve had teachers bump me before, but it wasn’t because I begged, it was because they felt they should bump me up. Oh, except for once when I asked my AP US Gov teacher when I had gotten a B first quarter and an A on the exam and the thing keeping me from an A was an 89.4.</p>
<p>The grade grubbing at my school is simply terrible. I admit to doing it at times, but there are kids here that never seem to do their homework or attempt to understand the material and still claim they deserve As.</p>
<p>Schooling shouldn’t be an intense jockeying for grades, but it also shouldn’t be a place of teacher politicking and grade-lobbying. School is a place where we are to gain an education that will go beyond the letter (or number) we get on a report card. So obsession over grades and teachers’ subjective judgement of students takes away from that. </p>
<p>And grading may not be a perfect science, but test scores are a far better way to assign grades than participation, homework and favoritism. Performance should always be the deciding factor, not “he works hard” or “she puts in effort.” If one cannot produce, then no one should care how much effort one puts in. It’s all about the final result. </p>
<p>And don’t tell me what to do. I’ll take whatever “clap” I want to.</p>