Any of y'all ever disputed a grade?

Knoxville-Horn

Knoxville-Horn

1,000+ Posts
So, I decided to go back to school and have - amazingly enough for me - a 3.9 G.P.A. since my return.

This past semester, I notice that one of my requirements is a philosophy class that I can take on-line. Sweet.

Long story short...

The teacher is very half-assed. The class and grade consisted of an 8-paper project, weekly discussion and a weekly quiz that you could get the answers to by taking the practice quiz.

I get a 99.9 avg. on the tests, and an 87 on the project. I did partake in the weekly discussions. However, I checked yesterday and was somehow given a "C." I e-mail the guy and he replies that many of my discussion answers were too short. AND, that I was "lucky" to get an 87 because I didn't do the project correctly. Kind of irrelevent IMO considering that I got an 87 but that's a whole other issue.

Here is my problem with this. I e-mailed the guy multiple times throughout the semester to ensure that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. (He varied his lesson plan quite a bit from the actual course instruction on-line so it was sometimes hard to keep track of what was and what was not needed.) NOT ONE TIME, did he ever e-mail me, give the impression, etc.. that I wasn't doing enough work on the discussion aspect. Not to mention, he didn't provide any type of grade on it until calculating the final grade so it's not as if I could see that my responses were not long enough and make immediate adjustments.

As per the responses on the discussion, there is nothing in the syllabus nor in any of his e-mails about length. My responses were just as long as everyone else's.

Ok, I'm sure y'all get the point. Sorry for the length. Back to the original question, have any of y'all ever protested a grade---successfully?
 
in this case, its easy.

Print your grades out, and either walk to the head of that department (or call or email) and show your graded papers and online work, and then show your grade,

THIS DOES NOT COMPUTE!

unless the prof can come up with another grade showing you bombed and thus deserved a "C".

Based on what you ahve, it looks to be pretty strong that despite the prof's opinion, his grades say you deserve at least a B+
 
Yeah, Organic Chemistry. Only B I ever got. I had an 85 average going into the final. I got a 98 on the final, but he gave me a "B".

I went in and asked him why a 98 on a comprehensive final did not show mastery of the subject at the end of the semester. He said it did, but my average came out to an 89.

I told him that was ridiculous and he said, "Fine, go talk to the Dean of the Department."

I said, "Okay. who is that?"

He said, "Me."

I graduated with a 3.995. *******.
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Is this philosophy class for a UT undergrad geared toward logic and math?

If it is, you got a REALLY watered down version of it online (I took both).

EDIT: I didn't answer your question. Yes - I have been able to negotiate a better grade, but it depends on the professor. I've never gone over the prof's head. If you are at UT, they won't really care about your grade and will likely side with the professor.
 
I did twice, once in History (Kamil) and once in Economics (Cleaver).

Just go in there with your argument prepared. And be nice.
 
I did a few times with success, but the one that sticks out was during nursing school. I had an 89.6 final average and the professor would not give me an A. Because of her I [also] finished nursing school with a 3.996 average. She was a passive-aggressive ***** though; I wasn't that surprised.
 
8th gradeI disputed "Earth Science" one quarter and "8th Grade Latin" one quarter. If I had gotten the better grade on either of those, I would have made Honor Roll and not had to go to a room for Study Hall.

Earth Science- The teacher felt if my grades swung from a B+ to a C- and back (and forth), then they should be averaged to a C+ and not a B-.

Latin- The teacher said that she would drop the 2 worth quizzes that quarter. If she had done that, I would have received a 79.55 overall and that would have been rounded up to an 80 = B-. Instead, she said that she hadn't given as many quizzes as she had planned, so she only dropped 1 andI ended up with a 78.4... = C+. (I had two 0s on quizzes.)

I continued to complain in class. She didn't back down. So I grumbled from my desk before going to the pencil sharpener. While I was grinding my pencil with my back to here, she came up behind me and poked me in the ***!!! (With a pencil.) She did this in front of the class.

I then said "Oh, ****!" She told me that because I said that, she wanted me to go see the Dean after class. I didn't go. I don't think she really wanted me to report in her first semester she was poking her students in the *** with sharp pencils.

ADVICE-

If you are planning to dispute your 8th grade quarter grades, don't do it with Mr. Seay or Mrs. Wells.

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Going in for office hours to talk about stuff that you don't have to know and the prof is interested in can very easily be the difference between 89.5=B+ and 89.5=A. At that point, you are just shooting the **** for 45 minutes and getting one on one time with an expert in the field (maybe not your favorite area, but you never know what will come in handy). When grades come out, you aren't part of the horde of whiners whose motives are obvious to God and everyone.

[Van Wilder]Write that down.[/Van Wilder]
 
I agree with the above poster. Putting in face time with a professor can be a huge advantage when it comes to the end of the semester. I teach freshman and senior comp, and I give the benefit of the doubt to someone who's at least pretended to take an interest in their progress before grades come out. Somebody coming in on the last paper worried about their performance in the whole course gets little sympathy from me.

I once asked for a higher grade in a classics course. I got a 90 on the tests, the quizzes, and on the final I got an 88, bumping me down to a B. I asked the professor if there was any wiggle room in the grade, since I believed my course performance was better represented by an A than a B. He busted my balls a little about grade grubbing, but gave it to me.

If you walk into something being a big shot with emails and the syllabus crying foul, you're going to get an adversarial response, even from the ppl in change. Try to work within the system as long as you can before you start pulling evidence out of you bag. The department is NOT on your side--they will want to side with the instructor and probably will.
 
I did not see in your original post how the grading was laid out in the syllabus.
 
Yes, and it worked because I approached the professor during her office hours, was polite, and had all the evidence with me. The only possible weakness in your argument is that the prof could pull something out of his *** about your participation grade, but even then you can print out the emails, show him, and take them to the department if he does not change his tune. Mundane details of my case below.

I don't remember the details, but something like 5% of the grade in my statics were for completing online lesson modules. The professor was actually able to record the number of lessons completed and the amount of time spent on each lesson for each student in the class. I ended up with something like 87/95 on all the homeworks and exams, and I had read all of the online lessons, but still got a B overall. The only way I deserved a B was if I had gotten less than 50% credit for the online stuff. In the end, the prof realized she had recorded the number of online lessons that I completed incorrectly (she gave me credit for like 20%). Once she saw that I had 100% completion, my grade went from 88 to 92, and she did the paperwork to change it with the registrar too.
 
I never did, but I should have pretty much every semester. The most egregious was a C in Geography of the Middle East. I got As on every single thing I did in the entire class, never missed class, and otherwise did everything to get an A. But I ended up with a C. Insane. I didn't do anything about it, though, which was stupid of me.
 
Well, it's an on-line class here in TN.
Like I said, I never got any type of feedback at all throughout the entire semester. I even e-mailed him a couple of times to make sure that I was doing the required work. I actually liked the discussion part of the class and would have been more than happy adding to it; however, I was going by what the majority of the class was doing. Just like on Hornfans, nobody wants to read 3 pages of crap when everyone else is posting half a page.

I guess we'll see what happens...
Thanks for the responses. I kind of half expected to get flamed by some for asking the question in the first place.
 
As a college instructor, I echo much of what has been said above. I teach a very subjective class, and I actually encourage my students to come into office hours and negotiate their grades if they don't think they were fairly evaluated. Not many do. When the end of the semester comes around, I am much more likely to negotiate with someone that I have seen all semester than someone who never came by the office.

If you do try and negotiate, make sure you take a COOPERATIVE approach to the negotiation. It may be harder to do since it is online and you may need to negotiate through email, but be cordial, listen to his side, and present your well reasoned argument.

Let us know if it works out!
 
Yeah. I already tried that. As a matter of fact, I initially notified him because I thought that he'd made a mistake in the calculation. His response kind of lead me to believe he was just covering his ***.

Basically, the discussion grade was broken down into two halves. I didn't have a grade for the first half. It didn't say "0" there just wasn't a grade. The 2nd half discussion had me at 18 out of 20. I e-mailed him because I just assumed that he had forgotten to put in the first half score.

He replied that the 18 was supposed to count for both halves - in other words 18 out of 40. He then said something flippant about how I didn't do my project well and that I was lucky to get a "C." Let me add that my project grade was posted several days before any type of discussion and/or final grade was posted. Therefore, his bit about my project being a gifted "87" is irrelevant and doesn't really fit his argument. Total BS. The more I think about the more I think he just didn't want to admit he was wrong OR there is some sort of personal bias because many of my replies were somewhat politically slanted to one side.

Nevertheless, the more I think about it, the more I think I have a pretty good case.
 
I finished with a 4.0 in Ph.D. I was known as a very good student. In one course (3rd or 4th year, you lose count when you are a lab rat), when my professor graded and found that I was getting a B, he did not believe it and called me to find out why I did so "poorly" in finals. I told him I had family issues during finals and could not concentrate. He did an oral exam right there and triumphantly said that he knew all along I deserved an A and gave me an A.

In other words, it was the other way for me; the prof disputing my grade and adjusting it upwards.
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Also, from a teacher's persective, I was teaching a junior-level engineering course while doing Ph.D. and my philosophy was to give lot of support before exams (extra evening hours going over tough portions and example problems), give a very tough exam, and grade liberally.

There is no way anyone is going to come to me to dispute their grade. They feel they actually lucked out after experiencing the kicked-in-the-stomach feeling after the exam.
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I never protested a grade in college but in high school way back when we had a chemistry teacher who was fresh out of college and ( this will be important later ) single. On our final test he said the class did very poorly and he was going to grade on the curve. He stated that it was somethng called an A-C- F curve. There were no Bs or Ds. He really chewed the class out stating that only a handful even passed. When the tests were returned I had made an 83 without the curve. He stated that there were 5 Bs and everyone else had made below 70. When he posted the grades there were 4 students who hed made 84 and my 83. However, under his A- C- F curve the breakdowns was something like this 84 - 100 was an A, 60 - 83 was a C and below 60 was an F. I was going to be given a C on my end of the year grade and I was livid. The four students who had made an 84 were all girls ( and very good looking ones at that ) I was white with rage and got into a rowdy argument with him after class. I made the point that I was being penalized because I didnt have boobs. The argument went on for a while but he never changed my grade. That was the only C I got all through High School and I was upset the rest of my high school days over it.

When I started college and was taking to a faculty advisor who had my HS record in front of her she said. " Hey, nothing below a B in high school. Thats nice." I told her no look closer you will see a C in chemistry. She showed the transcript to me. That prick had changed it to a B+ in my permanent record but never said anything about it to me.
 
I once asked a UT history TA if he would round off my 79.5 average. He did...to a 79.

Who says those folks don't have a sense of humor?
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My roommate was a grade grubber. He would ask every prof for a higher grade every semester unless he got an A. It worked out to about 50% of the time. He actually got many grades bumped. Richard was a smooth talker.

Another one of my roommates dropped a class after the first (of two) midterms. When I say he dropped, what I really mean is that he quit going to class and never went back. Idiot. He never officially dropped it. Anyway, he missed the 2nd midterm, 2 papers and the final. He expected an F. he got a B. I think the prof (or a TA) must have thought he screwed up on record keeping or something.
 
Towards the end of my academic career at Texas as well as my graduate work at UH, I found it worth disputing several of my grades. I would say that I ended up better off than when I started better than half the time.

I went in to each of these situatinos with as much information as I could and carefully thought out my arguement and presentation of the facts when making my case. As a general rule, I tried to focus only on the relevant information (i.e. a specific exam, paper, assignment, etc.) that I felt I should have been given a higher score on. Bringing up too many things all at once tended to just muddy the issue and decrease the likelyhood that I would be sucessful.

That, and I enjoy a good debate and usually can be a rather persusive talker. It never hurts to ask.
 
Is it an adjunct or tenure/tenure-track faculty? If it is an adjunct - part time instructor- it may be much easier than if it is a regular faculty member. I would point out that you did not receive enough evaluation on the discussions until the class was over so that you could not have improved.

Be nice, sometimes we make mistakes.
 
When I make a mistake, I just change the grade. I've done it several times over the years after a semester has ended.

I just posted all my final grades. My classes are always a point system: A- is 900 points, etc. I had people finishing with 797 points (79.7 percent), 896 points -- several people who are from three to seven points out of 1,000 from the next grade level.

I start to feel badly for them until I think about all the bonus opportunities I gave that they missed because they weren't in class ... and all the things they screwed up, over and over again, because they apparently didn't hear it or read it the first time or second time or 37th time (and the numbers get pretty high sometimes) ...

... or the things they missed because they're so wrapped up in the grades that they never stop to just read the damned words and follow the damned literal meaning. (Example: Does "write a story of at least 1,200 words and a sidebar of roughly 400 words" mean a story of 800 words and a sidebar of 400 words, or does it mean ...).

And I think about how I've dumbed my courses down a little bit each year, and how my teaching evaluations go up a bit each year ...

... and then I give them the C+ or B+.

Grading and the general student response to it is the worst thing about teaching, and it makes me want to throw up for a couple of days at the end of every semester. And then it takes a couple of days to get over it.

But that's not what this post is about.

Yeah, I'll change the grade if I'm wrong, and I'll admit it even to the jerks. But the bigger the jerk, the more likely I've checked things 10 times so I don't have to put up with his or her whining and complaining. I grade their papers with extra care, and believe me when I say this: it rarely helps them.

So, yeah ... being nice helps a whole lot. I don't go for the small talk in the office, though. A sense of personal responsibility is a lot more impressive, and there are some good ways to make it obvious.
 
I gave take home tests for midterms and finals, and held a review to go over the material and still had students screw it up. Some of the questions were exactly the same as their homework/quizzes...
 
Oops. I forgot about my own post.

Well, my request was denied. It's bs. As I stated, it was an on-line class. The professor was from Roane St. - wherever the hell that is. Anyway, the "3rd" party that made the ruling was someone withing the faculty AT Roane St.

I kind of shot off a final letter berating the process....

So, now my grades since I returned to school are:

A,A,A,A,A,A,A,A,A,A,A,A,A,A, B and C.

The B was in an advertising class in which my group got a poor grade. My grades were fine but my group grade brought us down.

Oh well, it's still far better than I did at Texas. Of course, the Business School at the University of Texas just might have been a tad more difficult.
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