Is it worth asking my teacher to raise my grade from an A- to an A?

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
1

Hello,

This semester in college, I took honors Political Science. It was a small class of only 20 students compared to a class with 100+ students, so my professor knew our names. Our grades consisted of participation, homework, attendance, and 5 essays, which included a midterm and a final essay. There were no tests. The distribution was 15% homework, participation, and attendance, 20% for the 3 paper essays, 30% for the midterm essay, and 35% for the final essay.

I knew that going into this class that I would need to work extremely hard because the essays pretty much make up my grade. I knew the 15% was already achieved because I always came to class, participated, and did the homework. On the 3 essays, I got an A, B, and B+. On all 3 essays, I went to the writing center at least 2 times just to make sure my essay was the best it could be. When I did receive my grades for them, I talked to my professor about what I could do better, but she didn’t give me any helpful advice other than to “just do better next time”.

When it came to the midterm essay, I got a B. On the midterm, I went to the writing center 3 times for help. I showed my professor all 3 rough drafts I had when I went to the writing center. She saw how hard I worked and how much time I put into it, but in the end, she stuck with the B that she gave me. She gave me a sample of an A essay and told me to look at how this person did it.

After initially not finding any meaningful difference between my midterm and the midterm she gave me, I decided to copy the format of the “A” person on the final. I don’t know what I got on the final essay. All my professor said was that it was “Excellent, thoughtful and really well done”. I assume that’s an A, but I don’t know for sure.

I feel like I worked too hard in this class not to deserve an A. But I talked to my professor before over my concerns about my grade, and she told me that these grades that I get in this class won’t matter in the future. I understand what she is saying, but I still believe that I should have gotten an A for this class instead of an A-. Should I email her about this now that finals are over, or should I just keep the A-? Thank you.

2

No.

3

Nope, let it go. “I feel like I worked too hard in this class not to deserve an A” is NOT a valid argument. I worked frigging hard in an architectural design class and got a C! That’s life. You do your best and accept the grade.

4

ok then

5

If you feel justified in your claim that you deserve and A then go for it. However, keep in mind that teachers usually have a very fair and specific grading process they go through. If it is something personal that the teacher has against you, then you should bring it up to her but if not, it’s better to stay calm. I understand that you’ve really put a lot of effort into the course, but in the long run it won’t really matter if you got an A or B. Good luck!

6

“working hard” does NOT equate to “deserving an A.”

It’s about the results, not the effort.

7

“It’s about the results, not the effort.”

How can you get the results if you don’t put in the effort? That doesn’t make any sense.

8

If you study for 12 hours and still fail a test, that doesn’t mean you deserve to have that F changed to an A. Hypothetical You didn’t know the material. That’s the result. That’s what matters. Maybe the study hours weren’t as efficient as they could have been. Maybe they weren’t spent studying the right things. But they don’t make you “deserve” an A.

For essays it may be less clear-cut. The red flag for me is when you “didn’t see any difference” between the A essay and yours. Clearly the prof thought there was significant difference. If you didn’t see any, that’s a problem; therefore, your work hours were not spent efficiently (working towards what the prof wanted). They still don’t make up for the grades you earned.

9

Might I ask why this in the home schooling and college section? Perhaps moving it to the college life section would be best…

10

Bonehead180 wrote’ “It’s about the results, not the effort.”

How can you get the results if you don’t put in the effort? That doesn’t make any sense.’

Sure it make sense. Lots of people get by with minimal effort. They’re gifted naturally, or they come to the course with a stronger background, or they cheat, or they find some other way of getting by. It happens all the time. There’s a kid in my 4th period class who takes no notes and frequently daydreams, but still manages to do fine on his math tests. Minimal effort, solid results.

But that’s not my point.

My point is that the statement from the OP that “I feel like I worked too hard in this class not to deserve an A” is simply wrong. This isn’t 8 year olds playing soccer, where everyone gets a trophy for showing up. If she worked hard and didn’t get her A, then she should have worked harder or smarter or gotten more extra help or taken a different course. I’m sorry that her hard work didn’t pay off the way she hoped. But no one is grading your hard work. They’re grading how well you know the material. Going to the writing center 3 times still didn’t get her an A. So, for whatever reason, she didn’t internalize just how the essay should have been written. Some kids in the class undoubtedly got it on the first try, without any trips to the writing center. They put in less effort. That doesn’t mean that they didn’t earn the grades they got, merely that this is a course where she needed to work harder than they did for the same result.

11

Ok then, I see why some people can just win with talent alone. I guess we’ll see how well they do in life relying only on talent.

12

It’s not a competition-- all or nothing, them versus you, talent versus a work ethic.

But at this level, after we’ve gotten all the soccer trophies safely stored away, it’s about results, not effort.

13

The grade should have nothing to do with effort at all. Someone very competent in a topic may barely crack a book and get 100s. That is an A. Another may sweat it out and end up with a “C”, Its about demonstrating mastery of the material. That is all. As previous posters have said, the idea of everyone getting a trophy for being a good boy or girl should have ended in grade school. High school still rewards for effort and trying. College, nope! Given the grades you have listed, seem like a A- is a gift anyway. I’d think twice about asking for a grade change. Even if the instructor changes it, which I doubt, the instructor’ respect for you will be diminished. A letter of rec some day may be more valuable to you then the difference between an A-And an A. Instructors hate grade grubbers.

14

A gift? You don’t know anything about how much time I put into the class. If it were a gift, then I should have just blown off this class and focused more on my other classes.

15

I think you know what was meant in people’s response here. The fact that it was harshly written, does not discount the point being made. Ideally, if one puts the effort, the results follow, in lower, middle, upper school, college, grad school, and finally in the work place. Those who are most committed, focused and diligent often get the highest grades, well-deserved promotions, raises, etc. However, it is not always the perfect world. There will be a few cases where someone is naturally talented OR simply lucky and get a perfect score after accidentally having slept through the night before finals; and alternatively, there will be those that despite putting in more than the average effort, just did not study the optimal way, or was simply unlucky, so they got a B instead of an A. But such is life, while in general there is a good correlation between effort and results, when there is discrepancy, unfortunately, results often prevail. Unless of course, the teacher specifically earmarks a significant percentage of the final grade on “effort”. Occasionally, there are a few of those courses, where teamwork, first and second drafts of a final paper, amount of research done are part of the final grade.

So, personally, if I got a B average in my tests, and it was clear that test results are the basis of my final grade, I would not feel that I would have enough reasons to ask for a grade change. What I would be doing though is reflect on this–what could I have done better? How can I avoid another effort-versus-results-discrepancy such as this one?

I realize it is very upsetting to not get a grade that you worked so hard for. But think about it in 2 other ways:

  1. I am sure that there are subjects, now or in the past, where you either found it “too easy” or you were lucky that you aced the finals without putting much effort into it, and you got an A. Would you go back to your teacher/professor and say “I did not really put a lot of effort on your course, I really deserve a B”. Of course not! Take the A and pat yourself in the back.
  2. Whenever I am really upset at something, I always ask the “5 year question” which is: Does/Will this currently upsetting situation likely affect me and my life in 5 years? If the answer to that is yes, then it might really be worth worrying about, and I would likely try to do something to save it. If the answer is no, then its best to move on.

Hope this helps!

16

Keep your integrity intact and do not ask for a grade change.

17

And probably would have ended up with a much lower grade than A-… :confused:

18

Ok, let me get this straight…"On the 3 essays, I got an A, B, and B+. …midterm essay, I got a B. "

Even if you got a A on the final, no way does that add up to an A overall. You’re lucky the prof cut you a break and gave you an A-; you could have just as easily gotten a B+

19

@bodangles who knows maybe if I had just written something the night before, I would have gotten a better grade on it. According to one of the other posters, some people can just do it without any help. Maybe I should have given that a try instead of spending countless hours at the writing center…

@LoveTheBard check the grade distributions. Not each one is worth the same.

20

The problem is is that everytime I went to my professor to ask what was wrong with my papers, I didn’t get a clear cut response. I even offered her to send my paper to her for her to look at before hand instead of the writing center because clearly my strategy wasn’t working. She said no. So I get the horrible grades on something and I don’t even know why I got it. All she kept telling me to do was do better on the next essay…I’m sorry but how can I do better on the next essay if I don’t even know where to fix my mistakes?