Got 93 in class but received A MINUS?????????????
So I got a 92.9 in a class, which should round up to a 93, which is traditionally an A. Why did I receive an A-??? The teacher doesn't have the grading scale (ie A: 93-100, A-:90-92, etc.) in his syllabus, so he might try to pull some shit like 94-100 is an A. But, essentially every class here follows the 93-100=A. Is this legal, or should I argue?
Advice for Challenging Grades
If you aren’t happy with a grade, the best thing to do is to ask the professor for the reasoning behind the grade. Make sure to do this in a calm and polite manner and not when emotions are running high. While an A- is not likely to ruin your overall GPA, if the professor’s grading rubric wasn’t clear it’s worth asking for more details.
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My to cents tell me that you don't use rounding here. If you get a 92.9 it simply is below 93 and hence a A minus. Sorry man but don't worry.
YOu cry a fucking river.....wimp
Just be glad your courses aren't graded on a strict curve. Got a 96 in my freshman stats class which ended up being a B+
Statistics in action...I kinda like it in a mean spirited/morbid way.
But on the OP's comment...do they give A+'s (4.3) at this institution? If so make it up somewhere else. For the record, I think its pretty interesting how A+s work. It definitely gives an advantage to someone who goes to a place with A+s vs someone who doesn't. Heck some schools don't even do +/- for anything, but I feel like that evens out in the end.
Yeah, gotta laugh at the irony. Even when it fucks you over.
If you're really pissed about it you could just ask your professor his reasoning behind the grade. Unless he inadvertently made a mistake you're SOL.
Just ask the professor for the A? Dont "argue" just be polite. Worst case after you ask you get an A- best case you get an A. Remember an A- rarely destroys a transcript.
Enjoy your summer
as jeff would say KYS.
does he have participation as part of the grade? just do some brown nosing and he can probably bump it up for you.
Wow you guys inflate grades in the US. An 81 is A- here.
You have that backwards sir...
*deflate
or... in my classes you'd have a raw score and an adjusted score. The adjusted score had to be above 93 for you to get an A. At the end of the day if the same distribution exists (A, B, C, etc) it doesn't matter what the number scores are... it's all about the end GPA.
No one on here can do anything about your grade. Read your schools handbook or whatever they call it and figure it out. Or, become an adult and confront problems in a mature way, i.e., talk to the professor about rather than crying on a internet forum.
Wow you guys inflate grades in the US. An 81 is A- here.
Doesn't this mean that they inflate grades where you're from?
Probably means his classes are harder.
lol if you can get an A- with an 81, that means YOUR grades are inflated, not ours.
Hey genius, If grade distributions are the same everywhere (which they basically are). If you have say 10% with As, and so do we; the higher percentage for the same representative proportion is the inflated grade. Read a book sir.
^I have no problem with professors determining their own grading methodologies--in fact, I encourage it. The problem arises when professors fail to mention their unique grading methodologies, that is, their grading policies do not appear on the syllabus. This lack of transparency leads to many hard-working students suffering from unfair grades.
Hello genius,
Next time you question one's logic. Try writing in complete sentences. Instead of fragments (and inserting unnecessary parenthetical qualifiers). You would know this; if you have ever read a book. Sir.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe your arguing that our percentages are inflated, not our grades. For the percentage you recieve, your grades are higher than ours making your grades inflated ones. However, you are correct in arguing that our percentages are higher for the same representation of the standard distribution.
I feel like everyone understands the idea trying to be said so this arguement is rediculous. Also, inflated rhetoric does not help to prove a fundamentally flawed point.
Give me a break. I once had a class where 97 or above was an A. Deal with it.
take harder classes.
Some teachers don't round, thus 92.9999 = A-, 93.0000 = A
I dunno, I know at quite a few Ivy's A starts at 94-100. But i suppose most of the time most Ivy classes are humanities-centric so the numbers are pretty meaningless to begin with.
anyway, dude WHO CARES? A-, A. Is it really worth losing sleep over? (rhetorical question btw).
Some professors use a 90-93 A-, 80-83 B-, and so on. The benefit of this to the student is that the + grades are easier such as 87-89 B+, but sucks if you are at the 92+ point.
Is this a real post? And it really warrants this many responses?
My stats class requires a 96 to get an A. I currently have a 96.1 so I need exactly a 96 on the final in order to keep an A, which sucks.
Last semester I had a class that was graded out of 500 points. A range was 489-500 and I got a 488 which is about a 97.6 and still got an A-.
This semester i spent countless hours on a project that we had to do with 4 groupmates who didnt do a damn thing. The median grade in the class was an A and I got B+ because they were so bad.
Shit happens
or MAYBE he doesn't feel like rounding. I've gotten a B+ in a class where I scored 89.9999999% because the dick wouldn't give me the one billionth of a point that I needed to bump it up to an A-.
I'm in the process of trying to work it out with the professor. If he wants to be a dick, it'll be time for a formal appeal.
Oh, and this one grade makes the difference between being able to list 3.8 and 3.9 on the rez...big deal for me lol.
A formal appeal is a terrible idea. Talking with him/trying to work it out with him is fine though. Just be sure not to be a dick about it.
Pissing off a professor will always turn out poorly for you in the long run. You'd be surprised at how much they talk with recruiters, other professors and at how much discretion they have with your grades (particularly for upper level courses).
If you never plan on taking a course in that department again, go ahead with the appeal. Otherwise, doing so will hurt you a lot more than an A-.
P.S. The difference between a 3.8 and a 3.9 is minimal at best. You have a great gpa, don't risk it. It's not worth it.
I would have shot the fool
A+'s??? What a joke, I thought only high schools do that.
3 Comments:
1) An A- will not significantly hurt your GPA, particularly if you are a Junior or Senior. You won't see much of a shift in your GPA with an A- versus an A.
2) The real world isn't fair. So you got an A-? Be happy that you got an A- and approach the grade with a positive slant. Talk to the professor and ask what you could have done better to improve your grade instead of assuming you are automatically right. That pompous attitude can harm you more than you think. You might have this professor again and you know what, this could make you look like a fucking tool instead of a well mannered kid. Teachers remember that, and in a department, word of behavior of that style will spread, particularly if its in your major.
3) The answer, at the end of the day, is stop your complaining and realize that you didn't meet whatever damned threshold the teacher has for an A. You got a 92.9. That's not a 93. That's not a 92.8. It's not a 92. If the teacher doesn't round, then that's the teacher's prerogative to do so. It's your teacher's prerogative to treat whatever you got in his class however he wants. Stop trying to pick a fight over something so minuscule that it will have no effect on your life. This is a trivially bullshit thing to get angry about. This isn't about gross negligence or having a different viewpoint than the teacher. This is about you thinking you deserve something you didn't necessarily meet the requirements to get. Accept the grade and move on the fuck on.
Ridiculous pursuit. How does it make a difference between a 3.8 and a 3.9? Are you a freshman? Everyone rounds their GPA on their resume anyway. Looking at your profile, 1990 birth year, so I'm guessing you're a rising junior. An A- will barely affect your GPA and shouldn't to the extent of a tenth of a point, which really isn't anything to cry over.
To clarify, I am indeed a freshman, so it does have a larger impact than you might have imagined. The impact will particularly prove itself during recruiting season this fall, as this will be the GPA I must list on the rez. While many of you might not believe there is a large difference between a 3.8 and 3.9, I obviously want to strategically leverage myself under the best light possible.
Had I felt I truly deserved an A-, I would not argue. However, given my sustained performance over the course of the semester--performance per the syllabus that should clearly garner an A--I strongly believe that I deserve, that I truly earned, an A. I must fight for what I believe.
This is ridiculous, grading scales are completely subjective based on how the teacher feels your percentage equates to your mastery of the course material. Some teachers lay it out beforehand based on prior experience or set guidelines but some do not.
If you are angry about how the course was taught that's one thing (I have personally argued this with a department head), but arguing something as subjective as a grading scale is a completely flawed.
Your not arguing for civil rights, your arguing for a SUBTLE grade change; knock off this self-righteous bullshit and get a hobby.
Pull the stick out of your ass and relax. Getting a 3.8 versus a 3.9 will not matter in the long run if you're a qualified applicant. Find other ways to distinguish yourself other than academics. You're also a freshman, live life and have fun. Don't be so anal about your GPA. Let me guess, you go to a "target" and firmly believe that GS is the only place to work right after undergraduate life for two years before you go on to your MBA and then place into a top PE Fund/HF? You're in college. Stop being so serious and live a little. Learn to enjoy life instead of being a machine.
If you really feel like fighting a losing battle, then go for it. Learn to pick your fights wisely and don't assume that you are entitled to a grade because you think you earned it. You're going to argue with your teacher over an A-, when your teacher - the judge, jury and executioner - may just not give a damn about why you're arguing and leave it at you earned the A-, so sod off. It may just be that he doesn't round, and that's reason enough to give you the A-.
By the way, you said it yourself -
Which gives him free reign to determine his grading scale. You have nothing to base your arguments on since performance, especially your own personal view on your performance, is a very subjective commentary. You may be dinged for attendance, participation or something else that doesn't seem too apparent. He's the judge, jury and executioner, so be forewarned. You know, it could also be that he doesn't round, which is more than fair. It could be that there were people better than you. Or it could be that his scale was at 94. If you don't get above whatever the cutoff is for an A, then you don't get an A. Again, that's life.
Suck it up, a 93 is an A- at every school in my entire state (unless they're not on the +/- system).
All this talk of getting high 90s scores in college makes me wonder where you guys go/what you are studying. Over the last 5 years (4 years UG 1 year masters) the majority of my classes have had massive curves. To the point where averages are something like 65 with SD of 15 and an A- cutoff is a 50. The only times I've ever seen grades as high as you guys are saying is in history or psych electives. What kind of stats class has a 96 as an A-?
I'm guessing there's a serious typo in what you wrote. As easy as your college probably is, there's is no way any professor would give more than 84% of the course A-s, (which is what a 65 average and a 15 sd implies, assuming an approximately normal distribution).
In terms of an average in the 90s, at least at our school, our intro to stats class (probability and statistics for engineers and scientists) really didn't cover a whole lot. For whatever reason, our school has bio and bns majors take the same stats as everyone else. As a result, the class is incredibly dumbed down resulting in ridiculously high averages.
I just threw out some random numbers. Didn't give it much thought. Just trying to give an example. No need for a dick measuring contest here buddy...
nelly0,
Before belittling our stats classes, you might want to actually take one yourself. (How ironic...) You'll learn about something called the bell curve, or the normal distribution. Based on the numbers you reported, 84% of your class receives either an A or A-. Now you tell me, what kind of stats class gives out 84% A/A-'s? Oh, the kind that doesn't teach you the normal distribution...I assume I could find this class at Washington University?
Who was belittling your stats class? I was just curious how its possible to get 96% of the points in a course and get an A-. Just curious exactly what they teach in the class (so that so many people are getting such high scores). People are a little too sensitive here apparently haha.
^So your professor/university is okay with the majority of the class only learning/understanding half the material?
Are you serious? You should make friends with some engineering or physics students at your school. You'd be surprised how sharp they are given they "only understand half the material."
The post directly below yours basically sums up my response to this.
SwAggerer, are you some dumbass liberal arts major? Have you ever taken a mathematics, engineering or science course? Wait, your a fucking frosh. Shut the fuck up until you have experience and then come back. I love the attitude you have, assuming, again, that you're right like a little bitch. You're the kind of kid I love to interview and ding, and I'll just leave it at that. You don't get life and assume you're always right... a perfect combination of ego and hubris that needs to be knocked down a peg.
Stop assuming that you're perfect and gods fucking gift and start realizing that you're fucking human. Drop the pompous, holier than though attitude and accept life for what it is, nasty, brutish and short. Learn to fight battles with actual merit. Your precious GPA is not something that merits such pageantry over. Boo fucking hoo that you got an A-. Live life and enjoy it. Stop worrying about your GPA as much. Fucking kids thinking they know everything.
After a series of beleaguered and intensely hostile email correspondences over the course of several weeks, I take great pleasure in reporting my success to those following this thread. Through the effectual implementation of a slew of interpersonal persuasion techniques encompassing the realms of social engineering and neuro-linguistic programming, I achieved what many dubbed as an impossible feat. I seized control of the professor's subconscious, captivated his emotions and strategically manipulated his cognitive circuitry to direct his physical output, effectuating a transformation of my grade from an A- to a well deserved, legitimately earned A.
Actually, I just respectfully emailed the professor and asked that the grade be changed since a 92.9 should round to a 93. However, if this simple approach had failed, the above plan would have been taken into effect. Moral of the story, always try the simple, respectful approach first :)
You're posting this sh*t on WSO? STFU dude.
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