i am six points away from a b out of a possible 500 points in calc based physics. this teacher is notoriously hard and i am going to have to take him for the modern and elec/magnetism classes too. do you think it will be awkward if i ask him and he says no then i have to go through two more classes with him?? what should i do. how should i word the email?
I wouldn’t. The grading scale should have been given to you in the syllabus at the beginning of the schedule. You didn’t make the A. These things happen. A B is still a good grade, and the more important thing is that you feel that you understand the material.
im six points away from a b. i have a c right now
Study hard for the final.
Grades are earned, not given.
Was the grading scale clearly indicated in the syllabus? If you think it’s worth your time, then go for it. However, grades are earned. Your number of points indicates that you earned a C. Odds are that the professor will say the same thing.
General answer: should you ask him to “give” you the bump? No. You might, however, ask him what you can possibly do to show your improved understanding and possibly qualify for some extra points. One is a freebie. Why should he? The other you earn.
And you should ask in person.
For six points, I wouldn’t even bother. Maybe if you were sitting on a half point toward a B, I could see you having a potential shot at convincing him.
As @lookingforward said, you would have to give him some kind of legitimate justification for bumping up your grade, otherwise it wouldn’t be fair to the other students who were probably 7, 5, 4, 3, or 2 points away from a B.
I would not use email for a start. I would not suggest asking for the bump at all, but if you did, do it in person.
I agree, it’s best to ask in person.
?
Is asking for a bump uncommon in everyone else’s school? There’s around a 10% success rate, but it’s almost always worth it if the professor liked you.
I always use an email. Example (that didn’t get me the grade bump, but this is how I structured it and it worked for a class last semester–although last semester I mentioned interest in a research project associated w/ the class and the prof loved me):
The “It is always worth a try” line stuck out to me because that’s what I’ve always learned through high school and (now) college grades. It’s always worth asking. What’s the worst he can do? Say no? Unless the prof specifically said “I will not give grade bumps under any circumstances”, I’d recommend asking.
^ I think if my girls did that, I’d be appalled.
And you put it it in writing. I’d tell mine, earn it. Don’t beg. Many profs would be offended by the ref to your law school apps.
This was to my TA. I’d already established a great relationship with him (only student to come to every discussion section, tutored my classmates when they didn’t get it, etc.). I wouldn’t send this type of email to my professor.
Not sure why they’d be offended by referring to why I wanted the grade bump (law school apps), though. At my school, A’s and A+'s are treated equally (both are a 4.0). If I asked for the grade bump just to have another A+ on my transcript, that’d seem (to me at least) extremely pretentious.
(Edit: Note: First semester when I asked my dad for advice regarding grade bumps, in case I’d need one, he suggested mentioning the difference between an A and an A+ specifically in my law school apps and to offer to do some extra work. He did well for himself in college (4.0), and received a few bumps from >89 B+ to an A. His advice has served me well.)
I mean, I already earned the A, and there was never an explicit cutoff for the A+ mentioned in the syllabus. After the final exam, the TA’s curved the final grades by about 10% (70% = B, 80% = A, etc. which would have put me at 105.7%, or 15% over the requirement for an A). With a grade like that, and a great relationship with my TA, I asked if the grade I earned could be switched to an A+. No clue why you’d be appalled if your girls did something like that. I earned > 100% on every exam in the class excl. the final, and the .1% that was knocked off before the final was due to my getting a 9/10 on a discussion worksheet.
To OP: At my school at least, it’s common for professors to bump grades on the border if the student showed a strong work ethic/interest in the class, as demonstrated through your relationship with the professor/TA’s. Not sure how it’s like in your school, or if the feelings of the above posters are the norm, but most of my friends have benefitted from this. First semester, an 96.7% A was bumped to an A+ because the professor took into account the “trajectory” of my grade (IIRC, in response to a request for a grade bump, although I did offer to do some extra research–it’s hard to do that in calculus, however). A quick email to the professor usually confirms that grade bump, and my friends do it all the time. One of my business major friends got all of her 88’s and 89’s bumped up to A’s b/c of her relationships with the professors, by sending emails like mine with those relationships already existing.
Theory: emailing is a millennial thing.
Edit to above post: I should mention that if the bump was from a B to an A or from a C+ to a B-, I’d go and see the professor during office hours rather than emailing my TA. Quoted above was an email I banged out in <10 minutes while studying for another final taking a shot in the dark for a boost I had a low chance of getting. My other friends had success in emailing their professors and getting their grades boosted, however.
I’m a millenial. I wouldn’t ask and I wouldn’t appreciate it if my students asked.
The time to ask for help is before the points aren’t earned. The OP earned a C.
ETA: I now understand why almost all of my profs explicitly state that they will not bump grades. Probably cuts down on this type of grade grubbing.
All of my professors have listed in their syllabi that they will only go so far as to round up a grade if it is .5 or higher (considering some professors do not extend such niceties) but they adamantly state they don’t just “bump” grades up willy nilly (the term “willy nilly” was used in a couple of my syllabi, lol)
Usually people who are looking to raise their grade ask the professor directly (in person) if there are any opportunities for extra credit, and usually they’re successful if the professor recognizes the student as someone who put forth an honest effort in the course. The extra credit tends to be a fairly large assignment, larger than what is typical in the course and is due within a couple of days of it being assigned.
The point about email has nothing to do with many Gen X preferring it. Most profs aren’t Gen X. And in addition to using this more impersonal mode for a very personal request, you leave a written record. Because I want a 4.33 for law school is dicey. And as ever on CC, what worked for one kid, in particular circumstances at one college, may be the wrong advice for another.
@lookingforward I think he presented a solid case for a bump. He had a 99.9% going into the final, and scored 30 points higher than the class average on the final. If the final was curved then you could reasonably expect that the 30 point advantage would turn into a high-90 grade, giving him the A+ overall.
I think asking for a random, underserved “bump” such as the OP is asking for is ridiculous, but in this other example it looks like it was worth a shot.
I think the difference between an A and an A+ is a world different from a C to a B, especially since 6 points is far from being on the borderline. The fairness of it would definitely be brought into question.
Speaking as a professor, it’s more common than one might think—and equally commonly not appreciated. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has worked for someone at some point in the past, but contra what someone said upthread, I would be very, very surprised if the success rate approached anywhere near as high as 10%. But very seriously, don’t come to us begging for a higher grade—at best you’ll get a no with advice on how you have to do on the final to get a higher grade, at worst (and probably more likely) you’ll annoy your professor and end up with him or her having a (probably unconscious) bias against scoring you highly on the final. (Hey, it happens—faculty are humans, too.) Either way, though, we’ll complain about you to our colleagues, and you seriously don’t want to get a reputation among the faculty at your institution as a grade-grubber.
Now, a student saying, “Here’s where I am in the course right now, and I’m hoping to get a higher grade, is that possible and how can I get there?” is different—you just have to be willing and able to take it if the answer is that you can’t reach a higher grade at all from where you are, or if you get a relatively unhelpful answer like advice to study hard for the final (since that really is sometimes the only possible advice we can give you).
Just whatever you do, don’t ask for some sort of special, only-for-you extra credit. We’re supposed to reward students for waiting til the last moment to really apply themselves? No. Please no.
And finally with regard to the discussion of email, I personally have no problem with an initial, polite inquiry via email—but then again, I’m Gen-X, and Boomer faculty may disagree, but even with them there’s unlikely to be a problem if the email is phrased humbly and starts with our actual name (throwing in the title ‘Professor’ or, where applicable, ‘Doctor’ is always nicely respectful, too) rather than something like “Yo Prof!” (which, yes, actually happens), and is actually signed with your name. (After all, we don’t always know who PaBlow6969@… is—yes, that’s a real address I got such a request from once).
Be aware, though, that (even though many faculty aren’t necessarily aware of it) many universities’ legal offices interpret FERPA regulations as not permitting discussions of grades via email—in-person contact or, for online classes, contact via the online Learning Management System is much, much better for legal reasons, aside from anything else.
Can you explain how this is a bad thing? This way, if I ever have a question about my grade or an issue with my transcript, I can print out the emails and bring them to the registrar. I’ve always heard that if you’re not doing bad things, paper trails are great to have.