<p>Seriously…? You got an 89%. That’s a B+. Congrats. Now move along and don’t annoy your poor professor with pleas for an A-. If I were your prof (or TA) and you did that to me, you’d see your grade drop to a B-! (Hey, I would have changed half the grade just as you requested – a + to a -.) Grade grubbing only alienates people. Have some boundaries. You didn’t do as well as you hoped. Deal with it. If you needed extra help you should have asked earlier. Maybe professors should just start using a coin toss to decide borderline grades… Anything 89-91% is an A- if heads, B+ if tails… I’m all for dropping some 90.9% students down to a B+. Anyone else up for that? [/sarcasm]</p>
<p>a very timely question. </p>
<p>i will work with any student to correct any mistakes on my part. if a grade has been overlook or entered into a gradebook incorrectly, i want to make sure that it is corrected. the sooner the student brings it to my attention the better.</p>
<p>i gave my last final exam today, and all week long i have been flooded with the usual emails: i can’t have a D, i can’t fail a class, i have to have a C, i worked really hard and only missed a few assignments, whatever, whatever whatever. i have never and i will never give a student a grade. the students will get the grade that they earn. </p>
<p>it is always unfortunate when the grade you want is not the grade you earned, but the end of the semester is not the time to be questioning a grade. it’s a little too late for that.</p>
<p>It is one thing to point to mistake. Prof. is a human being who can make mistakes as the rest of humanity. It is totally different thing to solicit a higher grade. It is simply not even fair to your classmates.</p>
<p>I don’t think you earn a grade, you’re just given a grade based on how you perform on tests and other assignments. More often than not, admissions to medical school, professional school, job interviews and other entities are just a part of a “game” that has developed. I don’t see anything unethical with being generous to students by bumping border line grades as long as it was consistent to all students. </p>
<p>If a grade would bump you from a 3.25 to a 3.5 and it was less than a point difference between letter grades, why wouldn’t you try to talk to the professor? I wouldn’t argue, but I would talk to the professor.</p>
<p>I decided not to email the prof. I am happy with my 3.85 this semester, and 3.8 overall for freshman year. I also couldn’t figure out how to word the email without sounding like a complete ******bag…hahahaha</p>
<p>smart choice, colleges. Congrats on the awesome first year.</p>
<p>But before taking your next course, please note that Emory has a mean gpa of ~3.4, so few will buy a C- course mean…</p>
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<p>Out of fairness for the other students (both current and previous classes). Bumping grades up is a violation of the integrity of your grading system. Some profs will round test scores and such up throughout the semester (i.e., 89.5 on a 100-pt test becomes a 90/100 when put in the gradebook) and that seems a bit different as 1) it is done across the board and 2) it’s much less major (i.e., 0.5 pts not 0.5% of the class’s points, which could be an entire assignment).</p>
<p>The suggestion that students “do not earn grades” is ridiculous. It’s not some “game” we have to play. Put forth the effort and you can perform well. People vary in aptitude, so (aptitude^2 * effort^2 * course interest)/(professor’s difficulty * course difficulty) = your grade. You can’t change your aptitude, but you certainly can change your attitude toward the coure and the effort you put into it.</p>
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<p>Good. I don’t think there probably was anyway to write an email like w/o coming off poorly.</p>
<p>bluebayou, do you have a link for Emory’s mean gpa as many others have cited a gpa around 3.25. Also, intro chem does have a C- average on tests scores at Emory, however, the class grade average is usually a B-.</p>
<p>^^check out gradeinflation.com,</p>
<p>And yes, I get that some/many college science tests might have a mean of 50-60%, which in HS parlance, it typically an D/F. But after the statistical curve is applied to the TOTAL course, it becomes a C+/B-/B (or A-?) or whatever the prof curves the the total course to. (It takes Frosh awhile to figure this out sometimes.)</p>
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Haha, Yes, in my original post, I meant to say test average of C-, at the time I didn’t know the class average because the professor hadn’t posted it up yet. I need to seriously go back and reread my posts (too much effort though). The intro to chem class includes “boost-up grades” (like labs and hw) which together amount to 30 percent of the total grade So tests(including the final) are only 70 percent of the total grade. As a result, with these “boost-up” grades, there is no reason to curve the class. None of my test throughout the semester were curved. Anyway the class average in the course according to my prof.'s post was a C+. Here is the breakdown for the class averages:</p>
<p>Test 1 Class Average - 72 (worth 16 percent of your grade)
Test 2 Class Average -75 (worth 16 percent of your grade)
Test 3 Class Average - 69 (worth 16 percent of your grade)
Class Average on the Final Exam - 71 (worth 22 percent of your grade)
Lab Class Average - 87.7 (worth 20 percent of your grade)-----“Boost-up grade”
HW/Class Participation - 92.30 (worth 10 percent of your grade) ------ “Boost-up grade”</p>
<p>Class Average in Course approx. 76…</p>
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<p>^^^ Even though my professor seemed “harder” then other professors, I really liked my prof’s teaching style, he really took the time to explain tough concepts, which is why I think his class is easier than other professors.</p>
<p>I personally hated chemistry in high school, so I will settle for a B+ in the class…</p>
<p>I’d say do it. You have nothing to lose if you’re not going to see the prof again, and even if you are, you won’t regret it. Maybe he will, maybe he won’t but you’ll never know if you don’t ask. As for approaching him, just tell him why you think you deserve it. It’s not high school, so you can’t do extra credit ; ] but I would still try to ask him for the grade change.</p>
<p>^Did you actually read this thread? The OP has everything to lose and little to gain. The difference between B+ and A- (or even an A and a B for that matter)<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<your reputation with a given prof (esp. one in a dept crucial to your success as a premed).</p>
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<p>I don’t think you understood my argument. Your effort value in a class is correlated to how you achieve, but in most cases it’s not a direct correlation, therefore, my opinion is that you don’t ‘earn’ your grades. I think it’s idealistic to a fault to say that you earn your grades. I did state that a professor shouldn’t give favoritism to any one student; it is ethically wrong in my opinion. But I don’t think that if many students have approached a professor over the years, and they were within a point or so of an A, that a professor couldn’t be generous with bumping all students that were within a point, to the next letter grade. Asking for favoritism would be the wrong approach, but, I do think lobbying for a better grade can be done if you’re serious and you have a legitimate point.</p>
<p>^So you’re saying we should compromise the integrity of the grading system. You do earn grades. To think otherwise is nothing but playing the blame game. If you aren’t the one who made the difference between your score and the straight-A kid next to you, who did? You both shared a prof. You both took the same tests. You both had the same opportunities. Your effort and aptitude are crucial elements in how you do in a course.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, I’d say it’s compromising that professor’s integrity to go about changing everyone’s grade at a certain score just because some student went and asked for it. Now, if there was a legitimate mistake made or the professor realized the test was simply too difficult or something, that’s different. However, to adjust the grades in a given class simply to get an individual’s score up to an A- does nothing but increase grade inflation and feed students’ rampant entitlement issues. It also devalues the work of those students who actually earned their As or A-s instead of complaining to the professor at the end of the class about how “impossible” it was.</p>
<p>this thread is premed as helll</p>
<p>wah i want a good grade without having to work for it wahhh</p>
<p>hey guys, new to this site. I prepared a letter im planning to send to my professor. I was wondering if you had any comments on it (btw its a sincere letter, its not BS):</p>
<p>Dear Professor
I know that it is probably too late to ask this, and I probably dont deserve this, but I would like to talk to you about the grade that I have received. I would not normally ask this but I am desperate. The reason for my poor performance this semester is that I have been having a lot of trouble due to personal issues which has affected my performance in all of my courses. I know this does sound vague, laughable, and probably pitiful but it is true. I could discuss this further with you in if you need proof. The reason why I am asking you this is that since I switched my major to psychology last year I have had to catch up with courses and overload in these coming summer sessions. As the requirements say that I need to have a C as a minimum, I puts me in a dreadful situation, which I acknowledge is entirely my fault, but I would probably not be able to graduate as I would have one course which I would not be able to complete. I understand that you dont owe me anything, but my position forces me to ask you if you could look over my grades and see if it is possible for me to merit a C grade.</p>
<p>Please use old threads for information only. Use the New Thread button to start a new thread to ask your question.</p>