Again what you believe is right is not right in this case. If you go through college and life challenging everything that doesn’t go your way you will not be very successful.
Of course it’s fair. Your grade is not better than other person. Your definition of ‘fair’ seems very, very different from what Webster dictionary uses.
If you are so, so incensed by this “injustice”, take it to the head of department. As @austinmshauri stated, your 2nd exam is neither better nor worse than your 1st exam, making you ineligible for dropping the first exam score.
AND, your final score 112/150 is less than your two previous test score. Once again, you are not eligible for dropping other two test scores. You get what you earned: 84.8%
And you are not sure why he didn’t drop the first exam test score?
Your friend may have had 88% by dropping 1st test, which can easily be A or A- by a good curve. 84.8%, on the other hand, barely gets you an A.
In conclusion, your grade wasn’t good enough to get a possible curve.
Ok, say the professor dropped your 1st exam and your friend’s 1st exam. You now have 80/100, 114/150, and 150/150. Overall, your average is 86. And if the prof dropped your friend’s 1st exam, she has 92/100, 120/150, and 140/150, for an average of 88. If the cutoff for an A for this prof is ~87, your friend gets an A, and you get a B…
Nothing wrong with a B. You’ll end up getting a degree if you finish all of your courses with passing grades.
I think that you are very lucky to have ended up with a B.
Where I come from an 80 is a B-. 114/150 is a C or a C+. I can see how the great score on the lab manual can offset the C on the final and allow you to walk away with a B overall. However, you did not earn an A. According to the criteria that the professor clearly stated you did not improve on later tests and therefore did not have any earlier test scores dropped.
@HannahN, You’re assuming all grades are weighted equally, which is not normally the case. Here’s an example of the one way your grades might have been computed.
In my hypothetical quizzes are weighted at 20% each, the final at 50% and lab notebook at 10%.
Under this grading method you would have earned an 81. If the prof dropped your classmate’s first quiz grade, doubling her second quiz score she would end the semester with an 86.13, clearly a better grade than yours.
In the end this is not a hill to die on. You may not agree with your professor’s grading system but it seems perfectly fair. All you can do at this point is work hard in your next class.
There is an absolutely wonderful moment in the movie Labyrinth, in which Jennifer Connelly’s character shouts out “That’s not fair”, to which David Bowie’s character replies, “You say that so often! I wonder what your basis for comparison is?”
That’s really what’s going on here, isn’t it? You find the grading policy unfair, apparently because it has impacted you negatively (or at least it hasn’t impacted you positively in the way it impacted your friend). However, you’ve given no real evidence for calling it unfair.
Also, even if you calculated things correctly and your friend ended up with an 88% as opposed to your 84%, and even if the threshold for an a is 90%, if there was a 2-percentage-point curve, guess what? Your friend gets an A, and you get a B. (Not saying that’s what happened, but it’s quite possible, and completely not unfair.)
Basically, it doesn’t matter if you think it’s right or not—all that depends at every institution of higher learning I’ve worked at is whether the instructor graded consistently and without showing favoritism to/discriminating against students capriciously. From what you have described, it appears that you do not have a case. Sure, you can fight it, but you’d be wasting your time, and expending effort that would be better used working on getting As in your classes for the coming semester.
(Oh—and by way of postscript, my teenage daughters use ‘salty’, and I’ve heard it used by the current college students I’m surrounded by. Please don’t mock people as out of touch for the slang they happen to use—it won’t improve the way people view you, and perhaps even more so if you’re wrong.)
I assume the syllabus you were given on the first day of class had the grading information/scale in it. If the grading deviated from what the syllabus stated, there may be a legitimate basis for a complaint/review but otherwise, buyer beware.
Consider yourself lucky you got a B. Your teacher was generous. At some colleges getting a 80/100 is B minus.
You would have gotten B minus on two exams and a C on the final. That does not add up to an A.
Next time put in the effort to truly deserve an A and don’t depend on the teacher to drop grades or curve to help you get an A.
There is rarely such uniformity of opinion on CC and every poster believes your B was fair and that you have no cause for complaint. I’m not sure why you chose to come here to ask for opinions if you are dead set on your course of action. You were not “wronged” – the fact is that the prof. followed the protocol set forth on day one and your 86 appropriately came out to be a B.
Nobody will stop you from going to an administrator to complain, but the odds of prevailing are slim and none. It is more likely that your reputation at the school could suffer (you might be viewed as a whiner, a grade grubber, someone who tries to stir up trouble when there is none etc.) and you might lose a friend (if he/she finds out you are using his/her grade to complain about your own) as a result of such action. Sometimes you just have to move on and this seems to be one of those times.
Anyway, I’m signing off on this thread.
there’s too much sodium in this post.
you don’t earn an A in the class for a B-, another B-, and a C
It’s quite possible that the grades your classmates are reporting to you are not accurate. If you want to discuss your grade with your teacher, that’s your prerogative, but you should not bring up others grades, as you really have no business knowing them, and you can’t be sure the information you have is correct. Many students don’t like discussing their grades with others, so when you asked them, they may not have been 100% truthful.
Lol get over it. She improved her test grade on exam 2 so he probably dropped her 1st exam and kept her grade on the final. You did not improve, so your grade wasn’t dropped.
Don’t concern yourself with the grades of other people. Technically, students aren’t even supposed to discuss it I don’t think (FERPA stuff). I’d bet you $1 million going to the Dean won’t do anything besides make you come across as entitled.
Get over it.