pr11fan Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 By my jerkoff of a college professor, I struggled through this class but in the end, my average was a 74 C , leaving 15% of my grade for participation to be determined, I figued I only needed 7.5/15 to keep my C so I'm safe since I went to class, didn't sleep, "attempted to answer his questions, wrongly usually cause I'm a moron in management, I check online for my final grade tonight...D!! he gave me 6/15 on participation. Thankfully I don't have to have a C in this class to graduate since it's not in my major, but that would've likely given me a 3.0 with 21 credits, and helped my chances since I'm applying to grad school, now they're basically blown unless I want to go back and retake a senior class after graduating. :cuss: I hate bitter college professors!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 74 is a C? And you ended up with a D? You should be ashamed of yourself young man. Now put that beer down and get back to studying! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsbadd Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 Dude , don't blame the professor, you knew you sucked at that class and you let yourself believe it. Whats the BFD if you have to go back and retake a course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pr11fan Posted May 14, 2004 Author Share Posted May 14, 2004 NO more studying, I'm done with my exams. Just wait till the 22nd to walk. 2 A's, 3 B's, 1 C, and that damn D. Thankfully it wasn't in my major so maybe there's still hope. for my future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pr11fan Posted May 14, 2004 Author Share Posted May 14, 2004 I just don't think it's right that I demonstrated the knowledge to get one grade and something so subjective can lower my grade that much, of course maybe it's not just me since the class average was 72, extraordinarily low compared to every other class I took. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddha Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 Here's a helpful hint. Check with your classmates and see if they had similar experiences with their final grades. Then go to the appropriate dean and file a formal complaint against the professor. I did it once in college and again in law school and netted a full grade increase for my troubles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbooma Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 no more extremeskins for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKurp Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 Not saying this is the case, but you may very well have been the victim of a bell curve. Some professors, either self-imposed or institutionally imposed, are bound to grade students so that the end result is an equal distribution along the upper, median, and lower areas of the bell curve. If you're on the bubble so to speak, you always run the risk of being placed on the lower end of the curve, whether it's deserved or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Punani2 Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 This is my big gripe against the education system. There is no standardized way of grading students. One teacher could give you a totally different grade from another.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pr11fan Posted May 14, 2004 Author Share Posted May 14, 2004 thanks buddha, I don't know if my classmates dropped a letter grade, but with the average for participation being 9/15, or barely passing, you have to figure some other people maybe with an lower end 80's, 70's, or god forbid 60's average probably got hurt by this same thing. I doubt it will do any good, but I'm definetly going to at least talk to the department chair and let him know, I don't see how a guy who gets consistently bad reviews from students because he expects us to teach the class while he doesn't explain anything still keeps his job. Education system for ya right there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. S Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 i still hate how most teachers grade anyways. I like the ones that grade entirely on a point system, with some sorta curve thats stable if needed. Personally, I believe in an attendance policy that should affect participation, plus some question answering in smaller classes. I hate teachers who are anal about participation grades. At least with attendance, you know the student was there. My health class, she just asked for students to skip, 150+ class, no attendance, and notes put online, i will admit i skipped about 5 times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pr11fan Posted May 14, 2004 Author Share Posted May 14, 2004 I wouldn't mind attendance at all as a measure, at least that's objective and you know if you don't go to class you'll get screwed, participation is so vague though, it seems like I'm getting punished because I'm a quiet person especially when I'm not sure what I'm talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthernStar Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 Ever notice that when someone gets an 'A' he says. I MADE an "A". But when he gets a "D", he says the teacher GAVE me a "D" ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miragv Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 yeah, you EARNED a D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Die Hard Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 Originally posted by Buddha Here's a helpful hint. Check with your classmates and see if they had similar experiences with their final grades. Then go to the appropriate dean and file a formal complaint against the professor. I did it once in college and again in law school and netted a full grade increase for my troubles. I did that once. Turns out... my professor was also the administrator who dealt with student complaints. A bit awkward. What's even worse... the foundation of my argument was based on my wife's grades and attendance - we met in university because we took some of the same classes. Oddly enough, he admitted he had unfairly graded me and changed my marks appropriately. It's still the principle of it all. In high school, my business administration teacher did everything within his power to fail me (83% average in high school). He told me I wasn't going to get accepted into university if he could help it. Why? Because he was the "rowing" coach. And I tried out for the rowing team and I was expected to anchor for my team which had absolutely no chance of competing. So I quit. And he carried that grudge over into the classroom. Luckily, I had an extra credit - universities look at the average of your top 7 credits... and I had 8 with that course. So I didn't sweat it. But it's disgusting. And because of a few experiences.. I've lost a lot of respect for educational institutions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Die Hard Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 And just to share a story about an experience with that vindictive high school teacher. Business administration. He made groups of 5 that had to present a topic to the class. He want to make it somewhat fun... so he made it so that everyone had to bring in food and drink for the rest of the class. All these groups brought in pizza, mini-subs, etc.. all in hopes of impressing him as part of the presentation. My group brought in water and crackers. I still laugh to this day every time I think about the sheer anger I saw in his face when we were distributing it. :laugh: Even though the presentation was exceptional.... we got a low grade. But how can you argue with him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 Originally posted by pr11fan By my jerkoff of a college professor, I struggled through this class but in the end, my average was a 74 C , leaving 15% of my grade for participation to be determined, I figued I only needed 7.5/15 to keep my C so I'm safe since I went to class, didn't sleep, "attempted to answer his questions, wrongly usually cause I'm a moron in management, I check online for my final grade tonight...D!! he gave me 6/15 on participation. Thankfully I don't have to have a C in this class to graduate since it's not in my major, but that would've likely given me a 3.0 with 21 credits, and helped my chances since I'm applying to grad school, now they're basically blown unless I want to go back and retake a senior class after graduating. :cuss: I hate bitter college professors!!! I've only know one college professor who was intellectually honest when it came to bias. He was biased, of course, but he was able to grade despite that in a fair way. Back in school I was writing for a newspaper and stringing for others. I thought I was hot stuff. I knew newspapers didn't print the sort of stuff one of my journalism teachers was making us produce. So I kept turning in actual published work rather than following instructions to write 20-inch stories with six sources. Newspapers don't publish those unless they are investigative. They certainly don't if you're covering the city council . Anyway, I kept getting Fs from a woman who'd NEVER had an article published in a newspaper. So, the rest of the semester I just turned in the newspaper itself as my assignment since I was in it and said that's my paper. Really burned her up. How much? Toward the end of the year I turned in a paper that a friend of mine had done the year before in her class. He'd gotten an A on it. I didn't change a thing. Turned it in and got a D. Another "guest" lecturer who was a sports columnist gave me an F on a paper I won an award for from the Society of Professional Journalists for college writing excellence. I had a class though with a HIGHLY liberal professor of some renown nationally for his writing and civil rights work. He HATED me and what I wrote, and would always write very disparaging things on my papers, but, gave me the highest grade he'd ever given anyone and recommended me for a job writing at a national magazine. He was the only guy I ever knew didn't like the content but could grade by the structure and craft. He, I respect. Otherwise, I have little use for college teachers . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom [Giants fan] Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 pr11, Take the GRE's. If you do well, getting into grad school shouldn't be a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pr11fan Posted May 22, 2004 Author Share Posted May 22, 2004 Thanks Tom, I took the gmat's and scored 550 which is basically on par for average grad school score for my school. I may retake them since I didn't really have time to study taking 7 classes, I'd like to see what I could do with a little more prep. Oh yeah, and to whoever said I EARNED a D, my projects, tests, quizzes, and individual papers said differently, but who cares about grading based on that stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smashmowf Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 Originally posted by pr11fan By my jerkoff of a college professor, I struggled through this class but in the end, my average was a 74 C , leaving 15% of my grade for participation to be determined, I figued I only needed 7.5/15 to keep my C so I'm safe since I went to class, didn't sleep, "attempted to answer his questions, wrongly usually cause I'm a moron in management, I check online for my final grade tonight...D!! he gave me 6/15 on participation. Thankfully I don't have to have a C in this class to graduate since it's not in my major, but that would've likely given me a 3.0 with 21 credits, and helped my chances since I'm applying to grad school, now they're basically blown unless I want to go back and retake a senior class after graduating. :cuss: I hate bitter college professors!!! Face it some professors are just a-holes man, I mean come on your senior....one participation point from a "c" yeah he's an a$$.....but guess what ....eventually you'll have co-workers that are the same way...hopefully they won't be your boss! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSF Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 pr11, I have had similar experiences w/ college professors to those described by you and Art. While there are some great professors out there, there are no doubt also some petty ones that let there personal feelings get in the way of being objective and professional. Here's my advice. Before you go complain about the professor to the dean or department head, go speak with the professor. Ask him why specifically your participation grade was so low. Tell him you came to class, paid attention, and tried to participate, even though this wasn't one of your stronger subjects. Perhaps when you put it in those terms he will reconsider, and you only need him to raise your grade 1 point to get your C. If your professor gives you a good reason why your participation grade was so low, then let it go and move on, but if he can't give you a reasonable response or refuses to even hear you out, politely let him know that you believe you have been treated unfairly and you intend to submit a written complaint to the Dean. I had 2 experiences similar to yours when I was in college, and both times the professors changed my grade after I requested a specific explanation why my grade was lower than it should have been. I agree with Art that there are many professors who are not consistent and professional when it comes to grading, and I think a "participation" grade at the college level is total BS. What most students don't know, though, is that professors are under constant review, and a well presented, written complaint doesn't help them in their careers with the school. Especially when the complaint comes from a student who scored good grades in all of his others classes. My bet is if you ask for a specific explanation for why your participation grade was so low, he'll change your grade. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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