How do I ask a TA to Raise a grade nicely?

<p>Unfortunately, I did not receive a grade that I liked for one of my classes even though I know the TA quite well, and he seeks me trying in the class; I got a B+ in this class, much to my chagrin. How should I ask nicely to get the grade raised? Since its technically break, would emailing the TA be inappropriate?</p>

<p>Highschool is where you can get at A for effort, not college…</p>

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This. TAs put a lot of time and effort into grading things, far more than most undergrads realize. The grades each student receives are awarded for a reason. </p>

<p>If your TA is anything like me, his reaction to such an email would be extreme annoyance.</p>

<p>I think I got my passing grade for effort in religious studies (taking p/f b/c it’s elective), although I’m pretty sure I failed it (below C-), and so did most of the class. But I think this situation is extremely rare. Not just the leniency in the final grade, but also the ridiculous things he wanted us to learn. It was an intro class for crying out loud…</p>

<p>You don’t. You earn your grade through class work, not through kissing up to someone.</p>

<p>If there’s a mistake it’s one thing. If you think your grade should be higher I wouldn’t bother…it won’t get changed no matter what you say.</p>

<p>If you just want a higher grade with no substantial justification (effort doesn’t count), don’t say anything. But if you have objective stats to back up your request, I would send an email. I recently received a grade that was a lot lower than the scores I had received on essays and exams, so I emailed the professor asking (very politely) to explain the discrepancy. Turns out I hadn’t done as well on the final exam as I thought, but the professor still agreed my final grade for the course was too harsh and raised it. If you’ve got a decent reason it can’t hurt to ask.</p>

<p>You don’t ask your TA to raise the grade. You accept the grade that you EARNED.</p>

<p>If you feel like there was some kind of mistake, then just approach your TA and ask if he/she can review the material with you again. I did that with one of my essays because I followed the rubric and I did not get the grade that the rubric promised me. It turns out one of the TAs made a mistake. But I agree with some that if there really isn’t anything wrong with the grading itself, then I wouldn’t even bother going to the TA because that would be annoying.</p>