Should I just give up fighting for my grade?

Applying to College
1

<p>I received a B (85.75) in Modern World History in the third quarter of last year. I didn't want to settle for a B during my semester grade, so I knew that I had to get at least an 95 to get an A- in the class. </p>

<pre><code> So in the following quarter, I decided do the extra credit assignment which would go into the class work portion of our overall grade. Class work is worth 15% of our grade. I received enough points on the extra credit assignment that I would get an A (95) in the fourth quarter progress report, which would about level out to an A-. I regularly checked back with the teacher on how I was doing in the class, and on the last day of school, he said that I was likely to get at least an A- in his class for the semester. However, when I saw my report card in June, it said I had gotten a B+ for the semester.

Puzzled, I emailed my teacher right away. However, this was during late June, and while he read my email, he did not respond to me until the first day of school this year. After various meetings (and after promises that he would hand calculate the grade for me yada yada yada), he told me that he had moved the extra credit from the class work portion (15%) to the class participation section, which only is worth 5% of my grade. He did this because he felt that those who had not worked hard in his class had used the extra credit to boost up their grade, which happened to be a lot. So he decided to move it to a section of lesser value. Unfortunately, this was what brought down my fourth quarter grade from an A to an A-, which was the reason for my B+ semester grade.

Traditionally, extra credit is added into the class work section. BUT, this time it was added to a section with a lesser impact on my grade. 15% vs 5% - which eventually resulted in my B+ semester grade. Yes, I know that B+ is not at all a terrible grade. However, I left the class on the last day of school with the belief that I was going to get an A - not only because my teacher said I would, but because I had demonstrated tremendous progress in the semester OK, I also have to mention that before this semester, I had a 4.0 (Yes, I got an A in the first semester of Modern World History)

I finally set up a parent-teacher conference with my teacher tomorrow (after weeks of telling him), but he told me that he "had no intent of changing my grade".

Should I continue to persist for a higher grade? The thing is, I have him for another class this year (maybe even two). If he does change my grade, I'm worried that he will find a reason to lower my grade for the class I have with him currently.
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2

<p>I don’t think you should fight it. He never promised how the extra credit would be calculated nor did he definitely say you’d get an A-, so it’s not as if he broke a promise. I think that by continuing to argue with him, you’re very likely to alienate him and to alienate teachers who are his friends. Just accept the B+ and move on.</p>

<p>I also suspect that he’s including you in this group of students: “He did this because he felt that those who had not worked hard in his class had used the extra credit to boost up their grade, which happened to be a lot.” Whether you think he’s right or not, just move on.</p>

3

<p>And, as far as I can tell from your explanation, it sounds as though he treated all the students who did the extra credit the same.</p>

4

<p>What was your final course grade? If you had 3 quarters of A and 1 quarter of B, didn’t you end up with an A for the course?</p>

5

<p>If Erin’sDad is correct, then it’s a little bit harder to argue. I guess I would still have an issue about full disclosure on how those extra credits were going to be counted. It is disappointing when the teacher told you that you were on track to get at least an A- and you ended up with a lower grade. I don’t think the teacher was right, but by pushing too hard you are just going to upset him. I’ve dealt with something similar to this, D2’s teacher actually changed the whole class’s grades.</p>

6

<p>You are looking like a real grade-grubber (we call them worse things at ds’s school, but you get the idea :wink: ). He’s treated all of the students the same, so you can’t say the grade was unfair. I do think he sounds a little naive to be surprised that students use extra credit to raise their grade. Duh. Isn’t that the point?</p>

<p>But you have to pick your battles. You have him again this year for at least one class. Is the grade from last year really the hill you want to die on? It sounds like the A is more important to you than the learning, and that’s never popular with teachers.</p>

7

<p>I would leave it go. He treated all the students the same - so there is nothing that was unfair from that aspect.</p>

<p>While he shouldn’t have led you to believe doing the extra credit would get you an A - the fact that he accounted for it consistently with all hist students is fair.</p>

<p>Personally, I am not a fan of extra credit. You should earn the grade you earn in the class. So IMO you should be thankful the Extra credit allowed you to bosst your grade to a B+ and leave it at that</p>

8

<p>" regularly checked back with the teacher on how I was doing in the class, and on the last day of school, he said that I was likely to get at least an A- in his class for the semester. "</p>

<p>He probably was just eyeballing your grades and giving a rough estimate, not a grade that you could count on. And had he even graded the final exam then?</p>

<p>You really do come across as a grade grubber, not someone who cares about the learning or talks to teachers to get additional info about the subject, just someone who bugs the heck out of teachers and possibly also brown noses to try to get good grades. These are not attractive features. Even more unattractive is the fact that you and your mother plan to talk to the teacher. </p>

<p>Everything you’ve written indicates that the teacher your extra credit exactly as other students’ extra credits were treated, so you don’t have grounds to complain.</p>

9

<p>vanillabeans- How did the meeting with your teacher go? Did he change your grade?</p>

10

<p>Hi vanilla,</p>

<p>Personally, I think you are being very greedy. Going up ten points (85 to 95) in a semester is ridiculous for an extra credit assignment. Most students would love to have an assignment that gave a 2-3 point boost. Second, I think your teacher is right in that he treated everyone fairly, so if he gave u ten extra points he would have to give all his students who did the assignment ten extra points as well. You should be happy that you have a teacher who actually gives extra credit, and thank him for granting you extra points rather than bugging him about trying to weed out more points.</p>

<p>Regards,
Google</p>

11

<p>Give it up. You do not want to risk him lowering your grade in the other classes in senior year. Is it worth the risk of a CHANCE at going up slightly, at a cost of risking 1-2 other classes with him. Even if you ARGUE and he does not change your grade, you are still risking your other 1-2 grades based on this. Cost-Benefit Analysis.</p>

12

<p>Accept it, and move on. I’m actually pretty jealous. At my school, we have 0 extra credit projects, in every subject except for drama. Trust me, if you’re complaining about something like this, you’re gonna have a really rough time in college.</p>

13

<p>As others have said, put this in perspective. You are considering “fighting” to get a perfectly acceptable B+ grade turned into an A-, based upon an extra credit assignment made possible only by your teacher’s generosity, on the grounds that he didn’t apply it in the optimum way you imagined. Pick your battles.</p>

14

<p>^ very well said.</p>

<p>Fairness is always a tough topic since all situations have multiple viewpoints. I agree it is not “fair” that the teacher decided to change the way he applied extra credit to your grade from what he initially told you. My guess of what happened is the teacher ran the numbers on the grades the way he originally told you he would and realized applying the extra credit this way was not “fair” to many students in the class … allowing this much extra credit was pushing down the relative grades of kids who did a solid job on the regular work … now the teacher is stuck … he either has to keep to his word and use a grading scale he does’t like (and thinks is unfair) … or … improve the grading scale by changing the grading weights (which is also unfair). Life is full of situations like this and the whole idea of the wisdom of Solomon is figuring out equitable solutions in situations where the solution is not obvious … personally if my guess on the situation is correct I think very highly of the teacher for taking a hit about changing the system to get to the what he believes is the fairest outcome.</p>

15

<p>Hmm…well I, like most other people, think that you should just drop this fight. In all honesty, I would be just as mad as you are now if what happened to you happened to me. However, I sincerely doubt the teacher is gonna change his mind on this grade. You were treated, to a limited degree, unfairly too. Additionally, I have no idea whether you were just lazy when you got your B or sincerely didn’t understand the material sufficiently after extensive studying, if you fall into the latter group than I am sincerely sorry for you but if you fall into the former, then you deserved a B.</p>