The class was pretty simple it was Modern Art History, One Midterm, final and a research paper. She handed our midterms back and said 90% of the class failed. She said she would use the grade on the final for the midterm (if you did better). So she replaced the midterm grade with final.
I got a 90% on my midterm and 87% on my final and 90% on my research paper. So she gave me a B as my final grade.
Other students who failed the midterm and passed the final with and A, were given a better grade (i know this because I spoke to people from this class). Although its a generous thing to do in part of the professor, I feel that it is unfair for someone who TOTALLY failed the midterm get a better score than I did when I clearly worked hard on ALL the assignments.
What can I do about this? I emailed her to talk about it but she said she is in summer vacation and that I WAS graded fairly.
This is a section from her requirements on grading and assignments.
3- To receive a grade of A you must pull a total of 90% in the course. Your midterms and finals are worth a total of 80%. You must also submit a paper which is worth a total of 20% of your grade.
Assuming your midterm and final grade were each worth 40%, then I calculated your final grade as 900.4 + 870.4 + 90*0.2 = 88.8. If your professor doesn’t use pluses and minuses, then that’s a B. If your professor does uses pluses and minuses, than that might be a B+, but it depends on the grading scale. I don’t see why you think you were graded unfairly. You earned a B, so you got a B.
Your professor was very nice in giving students who did better on the final (including you) a chance to do well in the course. You did worse on the final than you did on the midterm so you didn’t get that benefit. You still did very well in the class, but other students who really worked hard to get an A on the final did get that benefit. If you had gotten an A on the final, you would have gotten an A in the course. But you didn’t. That’s life. Other students may have done poorly on the midterm, but they clearly improved significantly if they got an A on the final. They proved they understood the material, and the professor was willing to reward that effort by giving their final more weight. But they STILL needed to get an A on the final. It’s not like they could get a B on the final and an A in the course just because they worked hard (which is essentially what you are asking for). They had to do the same work that you did, but other students may have been able to get an A on the final, while you didn’t.
She was giving students a second chance. It may seem like it invalidated how hard you worked on the midterm, but really, your work wasn’t wasted at all. Students who failed the midterm knew their entire grade was weighing on one final exam. So some students who got an A on the final clearly worked hard to make that test save their grade. Since you did well on the midterm, you didn’t have the same pressure when taking the final exam to pass the course. However, you didn’t really expect to get a B on the final and still get an A in the course, did you? You would have had to do significantly better on the midterm and research paper to make that happen.
She didn’t give the final more weight, she completely replaced their midterm grade with the final grade. Based on her syllabus and her grading scale I would say that she graded me fairly, but she completely changed those requirements.
If she had added more weight to the final than I would understand that, but we had a certain criteria to meet and she changed it to make herself look better (because she was afraid of failing 90% of her class) and in that process did a favor to 90% of the class who failed , she gave them a clean slate. Yes they had more pressure to do better on the final, but she should have graded all three requirements together the way it is outlined on her syllabus. This way it would be completely fair for everyone.
It is unfair when some students get offered a special deal that others don’t get. Here, all students were offered the same deal. With your final exam score, you were unable to take advantage of that special deal. This is annoying but non unfair that others bombed the first test but then got to replace their first score with a later higher score. You didn’t bomb the first test but you didn’t improve either. You could communicate your unhappiness on ratemyprofessor.com and maybe future students will ask her about it.
She DID give their final exam more weight. 40% more weight. So instead of their final grade being worth 40%, it’s worth 80%. I get that you don’t feel like it’s unfair for the professor to allow the final grade to replace their midterm grade, but that’s not your decision to make. This grading system doesn’t hurt you in any way (since you said she would replace the midterm grade, if the final grade was BETTER). You had the chance for a clean slate too, if you wanted it. And you had just as much of a chance for an A as any student in that class. But you got a low B on the final. That’s life.
You’re right. She did change her requirements, and based on the new requirements, you also would have gotten a B. So regardless of whether she used the old requirements or the new requirements, you got a B. You had a chance to earn an A in the new requirements and the old requirements, but you didn’t. If you had gotten an A in the final, you would have gotten an A in the class. But it sounds like you didn’t even get a high B, you got a low B on the final. How is it unfair for the professor to give you a B in the class?
It sounds to me like you would have been okay with the B if everyone else failed the course, but now that other students (and you don’t know exactly how many students were able to pull this off, but I’m sure some did) were able to do better than you on the final, you feel like it’s unfair. You got the grade that you would have gotten regardless. Stop worrying about what other people got. They were graded in the same way that you were. Some students got a better grade. That doesn’t mean it’s unfair. You had the same chance as anyone else to get an A. Perhaps even a BETTER chance because you were already well-prepared for the midterm and therefore didn’t have to do the catching up that everyone else had to do on the final. You dropped the ball. It happens. Brush it off and move on.
I’ve had classes where the professor allows students to replace their midterm grade with their final grade if they do better on the final. This grading system has never benefited me, but that doesn’t mean it’s unfair. They do it for many reasons. Some students are just unprepared for the test format or how questions are asked or what types of things to study or it might be their first college exam and do very poorly on the midterm. Since it’s such a huge part of your grade, they don’t want to make it ruin your grade, so they give students a chance to save their grade by doing really well on the final. Some students are able to pull off an A because of this, while many others don’t. Other students don’t need the second chance at all, and do fine regardless.
I’m not complaining because she gave me a B. I believe her grading system is unfair, grade replacement allows one student to eliminate an unflattering but accurate assessment of his or her knowledge from the course grade.
While another student is required to accept the same assessment as part of the course grade (original course grading). The fact that all students are wronged ―equally, does not justify her practice.
So would it help if she just accepted your final grade as your grade for the whole year (replace midterm with final even though lower?). You’d still get a B.
perhaps what you are trying to say is that you would have felt it was more fair if she had kept all the grades as is, and curved the score? That probably would have given you an A. I could understand that.
But my point is that you had the option to replace your midterm grade with your final grade as well. If you’re grade was calculated with the original grading scale, it is because that was the most beneficial grading scale for you. You can request that your grade be recalculated with the new grading scale that other students used (out of principle, I guess), but your grade would be lower (and would still be a B). Letting students use the old scale if it is better for them is still fair because that was the grading scale that students were aware of at the start of the course. You’re right–it was changed in the middle. So your professor allowed students to use the grading scale that was more beneficial to them.
What would make it unfair is if certain select students were allowed to replace their midterm grade, while other students were not. ALL students (at least, this is my understanding) were allowed to replace their midterm grade with their final grade, including you. She probably assumed that if this new grading system hurt your grade that you would prefer to go with the old grading system, and since that was the grading system that was spelled out at the beginning of the course, she decided to honor that system if that was better for any particular student. You still, I’m sure, have the option (just like everyone else) to replace your midterm grade with your final exam, but since this would give you the lower grade, I think your professor assumed that you wouldn’t like this.
If you’re just arguing out of principle that you shouldn’t have different students using different grading systems (meaning different assignments are worth a different percentage of their grade), then fine. Ask your professor to recalculate your grade with the new grading system that she changed to so that you’re graded the same way as everyone else. Your grade will go down, but you will still get your B. You can’t make her recalculate everyone else’s grades to the system that you prefer though. That is not your decision to make.
I agree with this, though. That may have been the preferable system for you, but it was the professor’s call with how she wanted to handle the situation. That sucks, but it’s life.
Frankly, it sounds like you earned a B and got a B. Other people’s grades really aren’t your concern. While you are in school, the teachers make the rules. They decide what’s fair. If you were offended or somehow violated by the grading process, you should have dropped the class the moment your heard about it. Assuming no crime was committed or mistakes made, the grade goes on your transcript.
Much of your adult life you’ll be judged by the unfair and rapidly changing expectations of an employer. See if there’s a life lesson in there somewhere.
I think the OP is saying that he or she shouldn’t get a B if others got an A under the “if you improve on the final” system, something that the OP did not complain about at the time.
Sour grapes, therefore.
The only thing you can do is if she did something not in the syllabus, you can report her to the department head.
However, I don’t see how your grade could change by hurting others.