<p>I took a quiz in organic chemistry, and the instructions said to label the indicated bonds as either sigma or pi. There was an arrow pointing to the top of a double bond, so I thought you could choose either to put down sigma or pi bond, and I put down a pi bond. Turns out you were supposed to put both, that the arrow was pointed to the entire double bond, yet the instructions clearly said to label the bonds as either sigma OR pi. This cost me 10% on a quiz, and the TA just said there will be many more points and I will be fine. Is this a legitimate gripe to talk to the professor?</p>
<p>Take a look at the syllabus, figure out if it’ll actually end up making a difference. In my experience, quizzes don’t matter much, but double check first. If it’s not worth anything, I’d accept it and deal with missing a point. If it’s enough points that your grade could depend on it, go bother the professor… but technically, your answer doesn’t match what they were looking for, and it sounds like it was just one point on a quiz, so it might not be worth the effort.</p>
<p>it cost me 0.6 percent overall, which I think is significant enough. Its always these little things that add up and screw you over at the end</p>
<p>Also, I was directly following the instructions, which were flawed</p>
<p>I talked to the professor, and she said if it affected my grade in the end, then I could come in and we could talk about it again.</p>
<p>0.6% is rarely significant, but as your professor said, it’s usually something that can be challenged if it really does make a significant difference in your grade. I’ve had students come to me at the end of the course saying this or that was misgraded or they should get more points for their wrong answer, but when I look at their grade, it’ll make no difference in their letter grade.</p>
<p>In the future, if there’s this sort of discrepancy in the instructions and what you believe is the correct answer, you can ask for clarification during the exam/quiz. They can’t tell you the right or wrong answer, but they may say something like “the answer can be one or the other, both or neither.” These sorts of clarifications come up all the time during the exams, and sometimes warrants an announcement to the class.</p>
<p>I think it was good that you talked to your professor. If it indeed does impact your grade towards the end, when you go back to talk to her, it’ll be nice that you sought her out at the beginning. </p>
<p>It’s definitely a good idea to clarify what the test is asking you. Professors want to know that you can answer questions on their material, and if their wording is vague, they’ll definitely want to clarify what they’re asking you because that’s the point: to demonstrate knowledge. I’ve had to do this before, and my professors actually thanked me and clarified it for the rest of the class, too. </p>