Making The Grade (1 Viewer)

[Seth--L]

But then you run the risk of everything becoming 'I'll make it better next time,' and people relying too much on guidance from others -- you never find your voice. Many professors will read preliminary drafts, and all schools have writing centers where people will work with you on your drafts. And of course professors will meet with you during office hours to discuss why you got the grade you did. BUT, you have to learn how to self edit and hand in a final draft on the first try. In the real world there are dead lines, times when you have one chance to get it right.

 

[Andy_G]

My position is that there is no point past which one's writing becomes perfect. To assert that post-grade criticisms can only be addressed with a re-write suggests a dangerous kind of hubris.

 

[Adil M]

Andy,
This discussion encompasses more than writing. What if I was allowed to take an extra math quiz, b/c I asked the teacher yet he did not publically offer this extra credit to everyone? Should you reward these students for not accepting their grades? What if the teacher lets you rewrite the paper, but leaves your grade the same on the old paper? What if the teacher puts a grade on you in the first week (Some do this)?
There is nothing a student (generalized) won't do to get the best grade they can including academic dishonesty? Students get test ?'s out of TA's and teachers? They download tests and answers for classes they will take next year. I can't count how many times girls I knew in sororities took their tests together or got sick and got answers. The EE guys in my living group have used everyone of the tactics above and they have turned in the exact same homework to get different grades. Things that make you go hmm...
For everyone of these "villains" there is hopefully a "role model" out there in our Universities, Inc.
Life may not be completely fair, but should our educational institutions be?

 

[Andy_G]

I'm only speaking to revision of written work and I'm not suggesting that squeaky students should get higher grades as a matter of course.

It's obvious that taking a math exam as many times as necessary to get an A won't do you much good and wouldn't be fair to everyone else in the class.

 

[Ryan Wishton]

Well,

I guess sleeping with the teachers is out???

Damn. It's how I got my 4.0

A drop of the pencil, a nice bend, a little flex of the ass, and all was well in the world. Harvard here I come.



P.S. jk. You just know someone will ask.

 

[Seth--L]

Obviously education goes on until the day you die, but by college you need to get to the point that you can get it right on the first draft.

 

[DaveGTP]

Sometimes with subjective things like papers, essay tests, etc...I can see the merit in the argument.

But for physics, calculus, etc...where the answer is either right or wrong...unless the prof is wrong, doesn't seem like there is any room for argument here.

 

[Chris]

*laugh* you'd be surprised. A good friend of mine, and prof, had one of his favorite stories a woman who went "a touch too far" ... he was in his office (history) doing work, and had given her a B-. She needed an "A". She came in and argued her case and he basically told her "no, your analysis is just wrong, and this was all covered in class; if you had shown up every day and could back up your opinion, maybe I'd think about it, but you missed a lot of class as well."

She then promptly opened her blouse a bit and intoned to him that she would do whatever it took to get an A.

At that moment, another professor walked out of his office in the same building to see a young girl flashing some boob and him, and turned around and waited.. she gasped a bit and said "well, OK then" and walked out; the humorous part of the story is that Dan, the professor in this case, was an elderly gay man (about 72) and he knew instantly she couldn't have attended most of his class.. he told a later class that "baby, I set off everyone's gaydar.. the fact that she didn't know made me question why I even gave her a B-"

 

[Seth--L]

Chris,

The closest I can get to that story is that I once had a professor who was given a test with a $100 bill attached along with a note that said "$100 = 100 points." My professor returned the test with a $50 bill attached and wrote "$50 = 50 points."

 

[Justin Lane]

Throughout my college career, I asked for a change in final grades only one time. I was taking a Humanities class and received a 'C' for the term. Problem was all my work in the class was A's or B's and I had not received a single C all term on any assignment. I also attended every lecture and recitation and participated so this was not a reason for points off. Needless to say, after contacting my professor, he changed my final grade to a B as there was no justification for a C. Next term I received an A from the same professor and he recommended me for a writing tutor position in the writing lab. This was a case where if the professor did not know you that well (i.e. you constantly e-mailed him or stopped by his office) he docked you points final grades.


I also ran into people that would argue for a few points on every exam. To me this never made sense, because when it is all said and done a few points mean very little in determining your final grades, especially with generous curves utilized by most professors.

J