Asking a prof to reconsider a grade

[Kevin1990]

Ok this is for an undergrad course,

 

I’m a senior finishing up my BA at the moment and this semester I needed to take an intermediate foreign language class to help meet one of my requirements. I knew doing well in the class would be tough and the language I’ve been taking is considered one of the harder ones (German). Checking my results for the class though I appeared to have earned a C instead of the B I was hoping and there is about a 3-4 point difference in the overall final grade that kept me from doing so. As I did not do so well on an oral exam that I just had for the class (even though I don’t think it went that badly)

Would it be unethical or wise to ask my instructor for the class to reconsider my grade esp. since I think the grade I received for the oral exam was a little harsh?

 

I don’t expect professors to hand out grades like candy, I just thought what I got was a little too much/I think I have a legitimate compliant by contesting it. And if that’s what I ultimately get then I can find a way to make up for it during my final semester.

 

Would some of the posters on here more experienced than in the ways of academia mind weighing in on this?

 

Thank you in advance!

Edited May 14, 2013 by Kevin1990

[TakeruK]

If you have a legitimate complaint / reason for requesting the grade to be reconsidered, then go ahead and ask about it. Just make sure you phrase the request properly and respectfully! However, if you just want to ask for a regrade because you don't like your grade, then sure, you can try but I wouldn't expect much. If one of my students asked for a better grade because they needed a better average then I probably would not be very sympathetic. It's also sometimes pretty obvious when the reason/excuse given is not a legitimate one and the student is just grasping for excuses. So if you do that, it might reflect poorly on you in the future. 

[jmu]

I've requested a grade change in the past but it was under a bit different circumstances -- I wanted an essay exam regraded because I felt that I answered the prompt and was graded poorly because she disagreed with the theoretical perspective I used. I went to the professor and made my complaint and she was able to have another professor regrade the exam (went from a 43 -> 87 out of 100). She told me if I had gone to her any later then I would have had to request the change through the school and it would need to be approved by the college. If you have a legitimate complaint get it taken care of as soon as possible to avoid as much bureaucracy as possible.

[SeriousSillyPutty]

If there's nothing like an essay to re-grade, I don't think you'll have much luck... and I don't think one grade will make much of a difference long-term anyway, especially if you're not going to grad school for German.  You could perhaps ask to go over what you were scored down for and then retake the oral, but I don't think you'll get very far.

 

A friend of mine is a TA, and a kid complained that he did better than other people but got a worse grade (he didn't take into account how different portions of the grad were weighted).  When the TA said the grade was legit, he went behind her back and emailed the prof, who of course forwarded the email to the TA, who told him the same thing as before, but was ticked off this time for his bad move.  He then replied that it was "an obvious displace of corruption."  Seriously?  Weighting that was outlined in the syllabus since the beginning of the year is corruption?  What an entitled douche! Don't be that guy.

[studentaffairsgrad]

I went through three successful grade changes during undergrad, but those were all for blatant miscalculation of points. JMU is right - the later it drags on, the more difficult it will be. One of mine took over 3-months for the TA to change, after he admitted he made a mistake, just because of all the red tape it had to go through with different people singing off in the college and whatnot.

 

I don't know if your situation where you think you were graded "a little harsh" would necessarily be successful or worth it. I would say it is your right as a student to question the grade, but be ready to have proof as to why. In these situations the burden of proof is on the student.

 

I went through a nasty grade appeal during grad school, where my professor gave everyone the same grade on the final 85% and lied about it to numerous people. He then sent us e-mails saying we were lucky, because we all should have gotten Fs/Ds. The administration admitted it was unethical, and even though the provost's office got involved, the loser of a Dean refused to throw out the grades - even though she admitted the grades were arbitrary. It was so blatantly ridiculous, and he went on to do a similar thing this year to the new cohort. Even though my grade didn't get changed, I think that the ruckus I caused was enough to ruin his tenure chances. Which is good considering he was doing other unethical things to young females that I won't go into detail.

 

Moral of the story, obviously our scenarios are completely different, but if you think it is warranted, remember that it is your right as a student to question your grade, but you have to prove your point. Think about whether or not a one grade in one class is worth the potential headache. I don't think there is any hurt in asking respectfully about it, but think about if it is worth pursuing if you don't get the answer you want.

[St Andrews Lynx]

If you have another semester to go then I think it would be acceptable to ask the instructor to give you some more detailed feedback on why you received the final grade you did. If you're taking another German or language course then you can use that feedback to improve your scores next time.

 

Personally I wouldn't contest the grade you got. It does not sound as if you have much grounds for a successful appeal other than 'The final mark was lower than I expected'

[juilletmercredi]

I've been the TA responsible for most of all of the grading in 4 classes to date.  3-4 points for a final grade is actually a lot.

 

You'd have to have a specific reason for the professor to reconsider your grade, such as they graded something wrong or there were extenuating circumstances that prevented you from performing your best (death in the family, illness, etc.)  Not doing so well on an oral exam, and hoping to have gotten a B, aren't really compelling reasons for a professor to change your final grade one entire letter grade up.

 

You can certainly ask for explanation as to why you got a C, and ask what your grade for the oral exam was if you don't already know.  But it doesn't seem like you actually have a legitimate reason for asking for a grade change other than the fact that you wanted a B.