I just received a similar email today. I did not bother to explain why I
would not change his grade after the fact. I just said no.
Jeff Nagelbush
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ferris State University
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Michelle Everson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)"
<[email protected]>
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)"
<[email protected]>
Subject: [tips] The things students will say...
Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 16:14:19 -0400
Hi Everyone,
I felt I needed to share this with a group of people I knew would
understand. I'm in the midst of grading final exams now and figuring out
final grades, and I got the following message today from one of my
students. I'm copying it directly from my inbox:
"I got a total 244.57/276 which comes out to about 88.61%. I notice that
89% is the cut-off for an A- ! Is there anyway you could regrade any of
my tests or assignments to see if I deserve an extra percentage point?
Because I would really like the A- instead!"
I know that not all students will be happy with their final grades, but I
honestly could not believe this student made such a request. I don't
think I ever would have sent e-mail like this to any of my college
instructors! I wrote to him and told him that if I did this for him, I'd
have to do it for everyone in the class, and I do not have the time to do
that now. Plus, I told him that I'm careful when I grade to begin with (I
felt he was suggesting otherwise, but maybe I read too much into his
message), and that it was up to him to contact me or the TA earlier in the
semester if he had a dispute about any of his grades. We regularly post
student grades on the course website so students can keep abreast of their
progress throughout the semester, so he had to have known going into the
last exam (if he checked his grades) that an A- was not a guarantee. I'm
not even sure if he clearly read the course syllabus, because a 90% is
actually a cut off for an A-.
Do you often get messages like this around finals time? It's still very
early in the week, so I'm curious about what other things I'll have to
deal with before the semester officially ends. I already feel a headache
coming on! :)
Michelle Everson, Ph.D.
Department of Educational Psychology
University of Minnesota
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
---
To make changes to your subscription go to:
http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
_________________________________________________________________
More photos, more messages, more storageget 2GB with Windows Live Hotmail.
http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_2G_0507
---
To make changes to your subscription go to:
http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
