Professor gave unfair final grade, what do I do?

Okay so for starters, I do not feel in any way shape and form that I am entitled to good grades.

I am a 4.0 student in my fourth semester of university. I received a D in this intro to anthropology class I took.

I showed up to every class, thoroughly followed all of my profs directions, handed everything in on time, paid attention, took notes, recorded his lectures. There was no book, he lectured the entire class time, wrote nothing down on the board or posted anything online. There were two exams (1 75 points and 1 85 points) and two papers (both 15 points).

I kid you not for his exams he said to write verbatim and not to change any of his words and I have him saying that recorded.

He sends us emails with the questions for the exam, and we reviewed them in class and did them at home. I answered all parts of the questions. They were questions he did himself.

I recorded his lecture during the first exam when he did the review, and he nit picked everything I wrote (which were HIS WORDS he took points off for) and received a 72% on the exam, which I had to redo and never received a grade back for. I got 100s on both papers as well. Never received the final exam grade back either. His grading style makes no sense and he will find everything and anything wrong with the exam, even if you do answer the question directly and correctly. I even have him recorded saying he will take off points depending on his mood while he’s grading.

I’m not sure about how everyone else did in the class, as judging from the first exam I did better than most people I talked to (who also followed directions and wrote verbatim). Everyone seemed to despise my prof.

I did everything RIGHT and received a D, which I am highly upset about and I feel I need to take this up with my professor and ultimately the dean if I need to. I feel his grading is ridiculous and ultimately unfair and he’s tarnished the GPA I worked so hard to get for no good reason. I just either want my grade changed or dropped. How should I go about this?

You answered your own question:

The above is what you need to do. You need to follow the procedures set forth by the college, which in almost every instance will mean speaking with the instructor first.

  1. Get a copy of the syllabus.
  2. Go quickly to the professor's office and ask to see your final exam (them keeping them is common when they reuse tests)
  3. talk to the professor about this...
  4. If that is unsatisfactory, go to the Head of the Department and say that this is a sophomore (is it? like does it have a 200 number?) class that had no text, no notes, and only two tests and two lectures. Say that he emphasized to write verbatim his words and when I did he took off points. Say that you understand that this is not normal and usually you are trying to analyze and synthesize information, but if the professor says to only write what he says, then you tried to do so.

I find it hard to believe that a college professor would require students to write verbatim what he said in lecture on an exam. Very hard to believe.

There are wacky professors out there. I had a similar anthropology professor…no book and he would talk…like this…so you could write…everything he said…in your notes.
But it was a pretty easy A if you showed up. Optional final if you had an A going into the final.

TomSr it doesn’t matter if you decide to believe it or not. That is the reality I dealt with from this class. Dude is retiring soon, I doubt he gives a damn.

I will say that the grading setup (heavy emphasis on 2 exams) is pretty common. But I agree with @skieurope — you need to see the prof immediate, and escalate to a dean if you don’t get satisfaction. You still may not get your grade revised. But I’d raise the issue for sure.

I actually am not super surprised to hear a professor wants to see his own words verbatim, or words from the textbook verbatim, on an exam. I have TA’d for or witnessed some professors with unreasonable expectations like that before. Not all professors are actually good teachers; many of them think simply regurgitating what they have told you means that you’ve learned it.

There are two kinds of “unfair” grades potentially in play here. Situation A is the kind of situation in which you actually followed the rules of the class and the professor graded you unfairly despite you actually doing what you needed to do. Situation B is when the class itself is structured so unfairly that it’s nearly impossible for any student to adequately complete the course requirements in such a way that you can get a good grade. This sounds more like a Situation B.

I will state, though, that simply showing up to class, following all of the directions, handing things in on time, paying attention, taking notes, and recording lectures doesn’t guarantee you a good job. I have had several students who did that and still did not get good grades…because they didn’t learn and understand the material.

Nevertheless, you need to begin by speaking with your professor - politely. Gather your materials, set up an appointment with him, and ask him to talk to you about how he calculated his grade for you. Even a good professor is likely to be irritated by the request: not because it’s not valid, but just because grading and turning in grades is a mess - particularly in May, when everyone’s trying to get off campus. Most professors balk at having their grading questioned. So this may not be an entirely pleasant experience, but try to maintain your calm and be polite and respectful. You get more flies with honey etc. etc.

If you don’t get a satisfactory response, then take it up with the next level. At some schools you’d talk to the department chair before going to the dean - it really just depends. If you have an advisor or advising dean, you can ask them instead.

I find the professor to be a bit emotional and erratic. I would try to talk to the professor first. Ask him to go over your exam(s) to see what you could have done to do better. I would try to be as nice as possible to get him to change your grade. Maybe he had few drinks, had a fight with someone, and mistakenly gave you a bad grade. If he agreed to change to your grade then you are done, otherwise take it up with your dean. The fact you had 4.0 GPA would help your case. What’s a chance a 4.0 student getting a D in anthropology, especially if you could show you did all of your work.

It sounds like he must have given you a failing grade on your final exam, given your two perfect paper grades and the C (?) on your midterm. You obviously need to see your final exam before deciding what next steps to take. I hope it works out for you, since this sounds like one of those recurring bad dreams most of us adults have way too often.