Help With This Dilemma With Professor

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>So my math professor started a test 10 minutes late. Promises to stay an extra 10 minutes until 9am although he needs to be somewhere. Then while I'm 80% done rechecking an answer i didn't feel confident with, decides to abruptly end the test. It was 8:51am! I went on to lose 5 points because I did make a simple computation mistake, but had I been able to finish, I would've caught it. He will not reason.</p>

<p>2nd issue is that he gives a quiz and states that it is only 2 questions, but that he added 2 bonus questions. I complete all 4 questions, lost 5 points because of another silly mistake, but figured that the extra credit would cover me. Even though I got the bonus questions correct, he decides to give no credit for it. At first, when approached, his answer is I don't know. but in private told me he was purposefully vague, because he knew some students would finish quickly and then start messing around on their phones and texting. I told him I devoted 12 minutes of my time to those extra credit questions, that I could have used that to go over my questions instead. He will not reason.</p>

<p>3rd issue is that he had stated several times during class that he will drop the lowest quiz grade. Now he says he may or may not, he says that students end up goofing off for one quiz if he makes it a strict rule! The dropping of this quiz grade means my grade will go from an 88 to a 93. </p>

<p>Do I have anything to stand on here. Talking to him has not resolved anything. I will bring it up with the dept head, but I don't want to sound like a whiny baby. But I feel that because this class has a lot of high schoolers in it from the attached high school, he is treating it like a high school class. He has even gone as far as offering extra credit work to those high school kids who flunked his test very badly. Any advice??</p>

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<p>It’s debatable as to whether anything will actually be done if you go over his head as it is my understanding that colleges give professors a tremendous amount of autonomy in the way they run their classes. You took the right first step by speaking with your professor first, and considering how this did not resolve the issue I see no problem with you speaking with the department head. Just make sure that it does not become a habit. Going over the head of several professors several times will certainly label you a “whiny baby.”</p>

<p>Let me ask you something: did the state that he would drop the lowest quiz grade in his syllabus? If he did, I think you will have a much stronger case in your meeting with the department head. Most of the time going over someone’s head does not yield results, but I still encourage you to do so. If this professor is really as inconsistent as you claim, I think it’s still worth it to speak up especially if more students come forward in the future.</p>

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<p>Issue #1: Nothing is going to happen about a test that ended 10 minutes early - that affected all students equally and it can’t be undone. Unless he drops the whole test, your scores will stay the way they are.</p>

<p>Issue #2: That quiz could theoretically get regraded if the professor felt inclined to. But I gotta ask: were those two extra questions actually labelled as “extra credit” or merely “bonus questions”? If you were not explicitly promised extra points, you cannot demand them afterwards. (I’ve had several professors who added interesting questions to the end of a test to entertain the stronger students who finished early, with no intention of giving extra credit.)</p>

<p>Issue #3: If it’s on the syllabus, you have a case. If it’s not on the syllabus, there isn’t much you can do. BUT CAUTION: even if you “force” your professor to drop the lowest grade by going to the department chair, your professor can get back at you by curving the course grades down. 93% could easily be converted into a B. You might be worse off in the end… </p>

<p>I understand how frustrating the situation is for you, but there really isn’t much you can do to change a professors testing/grading policy. Like othersidedixie said, going over someone’s head usually only makes things worse. Been there, done that, only made enemies… (If you ever want a letter of recommendation from anyone in the department, I suggest you don’t make enemies.)</p>

<p>A better way to approach the situation would be to play by the system. You said that your professor has offered extra credit opportunities to the high school students in the class. Have you inquired if that might be an option for you too?</p>

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<p>It actually only affected me. I was the last student left in the room. The next highest grade after mine was a 68. He offered 22 out of 31 students extra credit because they got below a 40. </p>

<p>Yes, they were labeled bonus questions, which he said to me he was “purposefully deceitful” to keep the other students doing busywork instead of getting on their phones.</p>

<p>No, it is not on the syllabus, but I’ve spoken to several students that have confirmed he said he would drop lowest grade. </p>

<p>Sigh, I guess I’m at a loss. How can I protect myself going forward against this kind of behavior. How can it be ok for a professor to say the test will last 50 minutes and then cut it short at 38 with no heads up because he has somewhere to be. I guess I believe to much in fairness and what is right, and this does not seem to be the rule for college. And how can a curve be graded down. I am currently the top student in the class despite all these issues. the majority of the class are 15-16 yr old kids who are begging for a d instead of an f.</p>

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<p>Look, I get that you are frustrated. I would be frustrated too. But as an adult, you have to learn which battles are worth fighting and when to lick your wounds and move on. This would be an opportunity to practice letting-go.</p>

<p>

Lessons learned the hard way: Don’t assume that “bonus questions”/“bonus work” is worth extra credit. (They usually aren’t.) Don’t assume that “extra credit” questions are worth any significant number of points unless explicitly stated otherwise. (The extra credit question might be worth 2 points when all regular questions are worth 10, even though the extra credit question might take twice as long to solve.) And don’t touch the extra credit questions until you are happy with the rest of your exam, unless you are absolutely certain that that’s worth your time. </p>

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Same way it can be graded up. There’s no law saying that 90% guarantees you an A or 80% a B. 80% might be worth an A in a tough class or a C in an easy class. Grades in college are often relative. That being said…</p>

<p>

If you really are the top student, you should have nothing to worry about. Seriously, making a big fuss about a few % when you are already at the top is not going to make you more popular. (Take it from a grad student TA who has graded her fair share of exams. I generally try to be nice and give my students the benefit of doubt, but if someone gets argumentative with me about every single point they lost, I’ll get nit-picky with them too. My department’s exam policy explicitly states that exams submitted for re-grading will be re-graded in their entirety…)</p>

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If the other students are really doing as poorly as you are saying, your grades will probably get curved up. And not dropping the lowest grade seems to hurt the other students much more than it hurts you, which is actually good for you curve-wise. </p>

<p>

Sounds like an inexperienced instructor. Yes, dropping the lowest quiz grade will mean that some students intentionally skip one. That’s taken for granted. Dropping the lowest grade is usually a good policy anyway: it means that instructors don’t have to offer make-up quizzes for students who miss a quiz for legitimate reasons (e.g. illness) and it rewards students who show an “upwards trend” in their performance. </p>

<p>Besides, it seems that your instructor did NOT say that he WON’T drop the lowest grade. He says that he won’t make that commitment because he doesn’t want to encourage students to fall behind. Sounds to me like he’ll probably drop the lowest grade anyway. (And if he doesn’t offer make-up quizzes, he is practically forced to drop the lowest grade…)</p>

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So, technically speaking, you already had more time than all of the other students and enough time to finish the exam (modulo proof-reading). I get that it’s frustrating not to have the full promised amount of time for proof-reading, but NO instructor is going to give you points back on the basis of “I might have caught this if only I had more time for proof-reading.”</p>