<p>I currently have a 90% in my English Honors class. There are two grades left -- participation (50 points) and an essay (100 points). I am certain I did poorly on the essay. Regardless, I've only gotten 84%'s on her essays. (It's as if she only has three grades...74,84,94?) I calculated my grade with 50/50 participation and it is pretty much impossible I will keep my A. I will land between 87 and 88 depending on my essay grade. (I plugged in numbers ranging from 70/100 - 84/100 on my essay) There are only two days left of school. I need to figure out how I will approach her regarding my grade. </p>
<p>Advices? Tips? I've never had to talk to a teacher about my grade before. This will be my first B. </p>
<p>Is it worth a try to tell her I felt sick the day I wrote my essay? I was indeed sick that day but felt pressured to come to school for the essay, other tests, etc. I am certain I will get around ~70%ish or worse on the essay (and my essay average is 84%), so it is obvious my sickness affected my writing. I really couldn't think well that day. </p>
<p>What else can I say/ask? What words to use and in what order? By the way, her class has zero extra credit, no rounding, no more assignments. So there is nothing I can do. Nothing I can propose. </p>
<p>No use asking to look over the essay by the way. Even with my usual 84% I would have a B+ in the class. </p>
<p>On her impression of me... I don't really know. Probably just a typical student to her. I am a good student, organized, etc. She knows I am in ASB. I am usually known as the class clown (not my choice, for some reason people usually laugh at what I say especially in her class.) She doesn't really know me on a personal level. </p>
<p>I know it's not the end of the world, but I want to try something. Especially since my grade will be determined by a single essay...while I worked hard all year in that class. </p>
<p>There’s almost a zero percent chance a teacher’s going to bump it up by three percent.</p>
<p>@mrnephew Thought so. It’ll probably be closer to an 88%. </p>
<p>Actually, my AP computer science teacher bumped a kid’s grade by over 5% because he was really hard working and the teacher is very generous.</p>
<p>Worth a shot. </p>
<p>It definitely is worth a shot, and you never know. But I wouldn’t be expecting a two percent raise.</p>
<p>A kid was literally .01 percent off an A and didn’t get it after asking. Some teachers are like that, some are more generous.</p>
<p>@mrnephew Any advice on what to say? Start off with a question? What words and in what order? </p>
<p>Or does it not matter? Should I just get to the point about my grade? “I have an 88%. Would I be able to get an A-?” </p>
<p>As I have both a success story and a not-so successful story, it really depends on how well you know the teacher and have show that over the course of the year that you’ve proven that you have the work ethic of an A student.</p>
<p>I would ease in into asking your teacher(not to much of course since they’ll probably be stacked with essays/final exams to grade) and then go into the question of raising your grade seeing if you can do any last minute revisions/assignments.</p>
<p>In the end it really as @mrnewphew stated above about how generous your teacher is. Also I’m guessing that when students laugh at whatever you say it usually during a class discussion or when you ask/answer a question(which is a good thing). In the story where I got a boost while I never did my homework I’d participated when we were going over it and always helped other students that had questions while he was working with someone else.</p>
<p>You likely won’t get the teacher to raise the grade, but I will say that this won’t affect you to the point of making sure you can’t get into the college of your desire. Michael Jordan once famously said that he missed over 9000 shots and 20+ game winning shots in his career, but such events allowed him to be great. Like MJ, you need to be able to rebound from this “miss” and continue to work hard. Next time, speak with them constantly, ask for extra credit immediately and always be courteous.</p>
<p>Unless it’s like as close as 89.5%, teachers won’t bump up your grade (sometimes they don’t even bump up 89.5s). Sometimes, you just have to live with a B+… it’s not the end of the world. I know how you feel though, English 10 honors was my only B last year, I was so close, 88.9%. </p>
<p>Yeah, that burns @Masterball. I once had to write a 15 page report on tectonic plate movement to get that bump from an 89.93 to a 90 though, so sometimes the bump isn’t even worth it</p>
<p>Just straight up ask them. It’s a yes or no question.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions/comments. I didn’t even end up asking for a grade up. Because right when I walked in to class the teacher said “Do not talk to me about grades unless there is a mistake. Do not email me or ask me to round.”</p>
<p>I ended with an 89% B+. </p>
<p>Well, there’s that. Sorry.</p>