grades are in - further advice for college students.

[cab67]

I submitted the grades for my course just now. My semester is officially over.

Only it isn't. I will, no doubt, spend several days fielding questions from students. All of my friends in higher education are fielding the very same questions. So let me assist by answering them.

"How far was I from the next highest grade?" Not close enough. Otherwise, you'd have gotten the next highest grade.

"Can I come in to discuss some homework assignments, quizzes, and exams from earlier in the semester?" When I'm back in town, yes. But please bear in mind - nickel-and-diming for points after grades have been submitted rarely, if ever, results in an improved letter grade. The number of points awarded back to you won't be enough to push you over the threshold.

"What can I do to get a higher grade?" The time to ask that question is before you take the final exam - not after.

I actually get it. You might need a certain GPA to remain eligible for financial support, or you might be applying for an MBA program, medical school, graduate school, or whatnot. I don't WANT to give you a low grade. But I have to treat everyone the same. So do my colleagues.

And please, for the love of whatever deity or deities may or may not exist - don't beg. It only makes you look pathetic.

On the other hand -

"I think you got some of the math wrong. Can you double-check the scores entered for me?" Absolutely! Data entry errors happen. We're as error-prone as any other human being. I'm way more than willing to make corrections as needed.

But it helps if you kept whatever was given back to you. I might take you at your word that I entered an exam score incorrectly, or I might not. (I'm generally inclined to do that, but I've got colleagues who are far less trusting.). But I'll certainly make the correction if you can show me the exam itself.

I'm also willing to make sure your final exam was scored correctly. I'm less happy to do this for midterms and quizzes taken weeks ago, but I'll usually relent and take a look. But as with the nickel-and-dime negotiations in which we're often asked to take part, don't expect anything to change. It does happen, but not very often.

I would imagine most of you don't need this advice, but I put it out here in case any of you do.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. I did have a grade computed once (an score for the overall class) and one critical score was ...

incorrectly entered (instead of an '88', it was entered in as '38' or something like that by a helper of the instructor's). A good student (their scores that is) knows 99% where they stand in a course and the instructor does too (generally, depends on the nbr. of students one has, nbr. of classes too).

Good write-up, every semester, you would tend to get these questions. At least, most of my instructions were to company employees who sent their new hires (IT-related) so a different sort of student.

[Gore1FL]

2. On a tangent to your OP, out of curiosity, what LMS do you use?

We started with Blackboard and moved to Canvas.

I wish we had something like either when I was a student, but alas, the 1980s weren't exactly suited for enterprise solutions.

[cab67]

6. canvas, I think.

I don't actually pay attention to that. I keep an Excel spreadsheet and upload it to whatever system my institution uses.

[ybbor]

3. I have a friend who is a professor...

He said he deals with the”Can we talk about the grade on my …?”, saying “Sure, but it’s a two way street. After talking with you, I may realize that you aren’t deserving of the grade I gave you, and will lower it.”

He said it usually ends most of the discussions right then.

[niyad]

4. Not quite on the same level, but many years ago, one of my navy fruends

was showing me the results of some test he had taken for advancement (which one it was, I have since forgotten). He was depressed and upset because it was marked that he had failed. I looked at it, looked at the numbers, and saw that there was a big mistake. He had, in fact, passed., and was duly promoted.

[GenThePerservering]

5. In taking a test for professional certification

One guy who flunked had his mother come in and demand that he be given a certification anyway.

[Genki Hikari]

8. I was a work study assisting with a new student orientation

At the local community college, and a helicopter mom was there with her kid. That put up enough red flags, but when I would go over his options for say, a history or science class the mother was running her yap before the poor kid could answer. You could tell he was both embarrassed and frustrated that he was never allowed to speak for himself.

After saying, "Sorry, he needs to answer," and her ignoring it anyway, I finally told her she was allowed to be present, but she was not allowed to answer for her child. He was the student. He would make the call. When she started going full Karen on me, I shut that nonsense down and called security to have her removed. She was sooooo mad, but tough ta-tas, you manipulative parasite.

The kid started crying, I thought I might have read everything wrong and he might be more tied to Mom's apron strings than I'd thought. But then he finally blubbered out, "Thank you. She won't listen to me about what I want to do." I asked if he was 18 yet. When he said yeah, I told him that sometimes one of the hard parts about being an adult was that sometimes you have to put your foot down and say parents need to trust and respect you with some things, like what to take in college. He's the one who would have to take the classes, after all, not her, and college would be awful for him if he didn't get some say in the classes he could take.

We ended up having to start over from scratch, because he wanted a completely different major than what Mom had said he would do (business to computer science--sheesh, what was wrong with wanting the latter?).

I'd see him around the campus after that, and he'd always wave with a big smile. Looked like he was enjoying college, not merely enduring it.

I thought we'd see mom if he didn't get a good grade or the like, but she never showed up at the math department where I usually worked. Or didn't that I know of. Our reception area was huge and all glass on two sides, so if she ever came around to argue about math, she would have seen me. I hope she did attempt it and got scared off when she saw that she had to get past me to talk to a prof.

[ecstatic]

7. I've never engaged with a professor in that way but

I can only respect individuals who stand up for themselves, whether teacher or student. And I'm glad you acknowledge that teachers do make mistakes too and that real peoples' lives are involved, on both sides.

[Silent3]

12. There's standing up for yourself, and there's feeling entitled

The OP sounds like they had more of the latter than the former to put up with.

[Genki Hikari]

9. I was a work study for a math department

Some of the gambits I'd hear students make to get a grade change blew my mind.

But, like you said, the time to consult a prof for how you're doing, what you need to keep doing or improve, was long before the final, not after it.

I didn't understand people who thought they could Perry Mason their grade. Pay attention in class, do the homework, focus your study time on the things you're weak in, or on the tough stuff (like chem or physics--those people were ALWAYS pulling their hair out), and the grades will usually sort themselves out.

The ones I didn't get were the people in remedial math who wanted to become engineers.

Oh dear.

[Coventina]

10. I had a student email me this semester to complain he didn't get enough extra credit.

I emailed him back: It was EXTRA CREDIT!
Anything you get is a bonus!

Yeesh!

[Silent3]

11. Not after the semester was over, but I always had to get college physics tests regraded...

...because the TAs who graded the test did a terrible job at it. I'll always wonder how many students got badly screwed because they just assumed their grades were correct. I typically gained 20-30 points, not just a tiny amount, by pointing out errors in grading.

It's not that I didn't have the right answers, or that the TAs didn't see I had the right answers, but if they didn't understand the way I solved a problem they marked quite a lot off for that. They clearly only expected one very rigid set of steps from everyone.

I was nearly a straight-A student (3.98 GPA), but I had to fight for that to be recognized sometimes.

[lostnfound]

13. The kindness and patience of some professors

A college kid I know… refuses to ask for much, prefers to not appear to be asking for special anything. Sometimes that means he misses out on points he legitimately should get.

This term has been soooo awful. Long Covid — he seemed like a zombie, has only about 6 hours (max) a day when he seems alert or normal. Then actual COVID for a week. And he lost a parent this year. And a dog.

When he left for college I told him, “you are not your grades.”
Before one of his tests, the teacher wrote to the whole class and said so,e of you are getting pretty anxious about the test and I want you all to know, “you are not just a grade”. I wanted to cry.

I’m amazed at the questions that get asked and the patience shown. It’s beautiful.

Another one wrote a student a note when he did bad on a major test, to say ‘don’t be discouraged, you can still do well in this class…”

Kindness can save lives. Do his teachers know he has so much pain this year? No. The ones that seem to deliver news —whatever it is — just seem superhuman to me. They don’t know what he went through, but they show kindness to all, and that is divine and beautiful.