• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

University Grade Appeals: Anyone done 'em?

Status
Not open for further replies.
I

IntestineBoy

Sasquatch of 1000 (hairy) colons
Well... I am getting fucked with a 0.7 for THE LAST CLASS I TOOK AS AN UNDERGRAD. So that means... oh I'm not graduated like I thought I was. Checked with the teacher, she says the grade is real, but I "unfortunatley lost many points in participation, homework and extra-homework." (Side note: wtf is "extra-homework?!?!)

Anyway, I just checked out the appeals process at UW, what I thought was my alma mater but I guess is just my school, and I have to have a "conversation" with the teacher about it, but she is in france, and that just complicates things further. I have to talk to her, then if i am no t satisfied I do this written thing to the department chair. Anyone have any experience with this? I can lay out my case for why i deserve a passing grade pretty well I think. From what I can tell, she took away massive points in bullshit sections. I did all the work, got good grades on quizzes and the final she says, but it would appear that indeed participation is what is about to fuck me in the ass.

So if you've got any experience, or maybe the GAF hive is smart enough to ace all classes, please share.
 
Well, it was probably spelled out clearly at the beginning that participation would be weighted heavily, so there's certainly no reason for them to have to change the grade. A bunch of classes at UW are like that. I've also seen professors make people retake an additional quarter rather than up their final grade to graduate.
 
Extra-homework is probably extra credit work but what does your teacher mean by participation? Is that like attending all the classes and having a good attendence record, or is it actually participating in class by talking and contributing to discussion? If it's the former you're probably fucked.
 
In the syllabus we got, it said participation was 25%, but the syllabus had a mistake in it that it had factored in an oral interview into the grade, but during summer they don't do interviews, so I need to know how the grades were actually weighted I'm thinking. As for attendance, I missed one or two days the beginning due to being sick, and one or two towards the end, but I was there for the most part.

I just talked to a girl who was in my class and she got a 4.0, so i don't know how I could have gotten so bad of a grade. As far as I can tell, my quiz scores were fine, i did all the compositions, got extra credit for doing quiz reviews, she says I did well on the final, I believe I missed the one homework packet (which went in as check or check plus) when i was sick one day (because she said she wouldn't take late work) and that's about it. I'm talking with the head TA right now, trying to figure out when I can get the grade breakdown, but I think I've got a case.

I took this class, I knew this class, and now I'm getting bogged down in what I see as an unfair manner. My grade doesn't reflect the time I put into the class. I'm not asking for a 4.0 or anything, I think 2.0 would be fair, if I must be punished. I don't think it'd be fair to fail me for this class when I passed the tests and did well on them, as well as the compositions and the other times we had to actually show knowledge of French, as opposed to the homework which has all the answers in the back of the book anyway. Is that not a reasonable thing? I dunno. This ramble is sort of a cathartic vent, but still... Any other knowledge is much appreciated.
 
You'll probably have to retake the class. Grade appeals never work unless you almost died. Universities are pretty nazi over the whole thing. If you just don't think you got the grade you deserved... They almost always side with the professor on that one.

I tried once. It was pointless. Ended up retaking the class.
 
Cerebral Palsy said:
You'll probably have to retake the class. Grade appeals never work unless you almost died. Universities are pretty nazi over the whole thing. If you just don't think you got the grade you deserved... They almost always side with the professor on that one.

I tried once. It was pointless. Ended up retaking the class.
Click to expand...


Heh youd have to talk with the professor. I know quite a few people that appealed their grade cause they were in danger of losing their scholarships. More often than not the teachers were willing to help them out. S'all about how much you brown nose the teacher in the end boy.
 
you still have a copy of the syllabus? can you recalculate your grade according to the syllabus in a way that has you passing? will your dept./college let you graduate by exception with the grade the prof. wants to give you? if none of the above, i'd say you're fucked.
 
I never appealed a grade, though one time I did tell a professor my grade was fucking WRONG. He gave me a B in his history class, yet I new I had practically aced every test through the semester. Turns out he was looking at the wrong row in gradebook and confused my scores with the schlub above me, so he corrected the mistake without hesitation.
 
fart said:
you still have a copy of the syllabus? can you recalculate your grade according to the syllabus in a way that has you passing? will your dept./college let you graduate by exception with the grade the prof. wants to give you? if none of the above, i'd say you're fucked.
Click to expand...

There's an issue with the syllabus. The one we got at the beginning of the class had a grade calculation thing in it, but it had this Oral Interview as 25% of the grade. We didn't have to do interviews, so I don't know what the new grading scheme became. If it went to an arbitrary method, of which she never informed us, then that's an issue. As it stands with the syllabus I got at the beginning of class, Participation was 25% of the grade, and that encapsuled the workbook (10%), 5 compositions (10%) and worksheets/other exercises (5%).

My major thrust of it all, is that while I didn't ace the class, I knew it enough to not fail it, and to fail me because of slight degradations in participation, is unfair. And the grade appeal thing says basically its about unfair grades, and that's what I think this is. All I'm asking for is a passing grade, which I think has to be a 2.0. There isn't any section of the grading that I didn't do. I participated, orally in class, as well as doing assignments, and doing those assignments well. It's going to be an interesting next couple weeks I guess.
 
Profs screw up all the time. I remember that my Oceanography professor offered to drop your lowest test score if you attended class at least 90% of the time. Even though it was boring as Hell and an early class (around 9AM--early for my college lifestyle), I made a point to get there almost every time and sign the attendence sheet, even if I only dashed in for like the last 15 minutes.

He seemed a forgetful old chap, so I stopped by his office during the last week of class to "review my grades" with him. He completely forget to take into account my attendence, and when I reminded him about his policy, it made the difference between a C and a B.
 
IntestineBoy said:
There's an issue with the syllabus. The one we got at the beginning of the class had a grade calculation thing in it, but it had this Oral Interview as 25% of the grade. We didn't have to do interviews, so I don't know what the new grading scheme became. If it went to an arbitrary method, of which she never informed us, then that's an issue. As it stands with the syllabus I got at the beginning of class, Participation was 25% of the grade, and that encapsuled the workbook (10%), 5 compositions (10%) and worksheets/other exercises (5%).

My major thrust of it all, is that while I didn't ace the class, I knew it enough to not fail it, and to fail me because of slight degradations in participation, is unfair. And the grade appeal thing says basically its about unfair grades, and that's what I think this is. All I'm asking for is a passing grade, which I think has to be a 2.0. There isn't any section of the grading that I didn't do. I participated, orally in class, as well as doing assignments, and doing those assignments well. It's going to be an interesting next couple weeks I guess.
Click to expand...
try this: recompute your grade by multiplying all components by 1.3 (this rescales her system without the 25% oral interviews). do you pass under this scale? if you do, i think that's a pretty good argument on appeal. generally, instructors have to honor their syllabi.

note that i'm assuming the class wasn't graded on a curve because it sounds like a ridiculous class about stupid things.

keep in mind: if you fail the class under the above metric, you're probably fucked. you should prepare to accept the grade and petition to graduate regardless. you should also look at registering for the course next term if all else fails. finally: it's not your instructor's or the school's fault that you're irresponsible.
 
I am a professor and I have been part of a university system for nearly 15 years.

My best advice to you is to take the position that you admit that you didn't fulfill the requirements, and ask the professor to consider giving you a passing grade based on the work that you did.

The problem you face here is that, with attendance and participation possibly counting for 25-40% of the grade, she can probably give you a 10 or 15 for this - no questions asked, unless you went to a lot of classes and did all of the assigned work. This is a standard practice in college language classes, as language departments typically have a policy that students must be in class to participate in exercises and drills. I am certain that the UW foreign languages department will be very strict in upholding this policy. Most university language departments have these type of strict attendance rules to compel students to show up to class and create a class atmosphere where language can be practiced. They are very reluctant to set a predecent against this.

So - unless you have compelling evidence to the contrary on the attendance/participation, you should just assume that you are starting at 75%.

Since 70 is usually the bare minimum for a C-, you don't have much room to debate here, unless you earned the maximum amount of points on tests, quizzes, homework, etc. And - since you indicated that you definitely missed a homework packet, let's fce it, it is probably not going to be very difficult for her to demonstrate that you earned less than 60 (the bare minimum for D-).

So - like I said above - your best bet is to go to her and basically kiss her ass and ask her to give you a C or a D (if she offers a D, take it and run, it's a gift), based on the work that you actually did complete.

If you get her to give you a D, then you can go to the Dean of your school and ask him to waive the requirement for you to earn at least a C in all of your gen ed classes in order to graduate.

If she holds on the F, I don't see you having too many other options other than retaking the course. However - maybe you could do what I did in undergrad (take my hideous foreign language class at a community college, where they had the exact requirements laid out for you to earn a C).

Sorry to be brutal here, but, if you are going to challenge a grade, you have to go into your professor's office knowing where you stand. Otherwise, professors will just dismiss you (as I often do, especially since I can't stand it when my students bitch about getting a B, B+, or A-, a student complaining about an A- usually looks like a complete moron by the way).
 
I had an Economics 102 professor that was teaching straight up Marxist theories of Communism instead of American Economics. He lovingly referred to Marx as "Uncle Karl." He didn't like me. I wanted to challenge the unsurprisingly low grade I received, but I knew I would never win.
 
TheQueen'sOwn said:
...And that would be me :lol.
Click to expand...

Aw man - you are the bane of my existence at the end of the term. :lol

The worst is when the dude is sitting in my office, 91%, going "that's only two percentage points away from an A, otherwise I'd have a perfect 4.0 this term."

Meanwhile - I get burned at the stake for my grading every year when my Dean sends out my performance letter announcing my raise (or not). Every year, it's "You're only getting 1% this year because you gave out way too many As in upper level elective courses."
 
With all due respect, every institution is different. Don't waste your time asking a gaming forum. Go and do your research for your particular case, and see what can be done. What people tell you here will be useless. Geez.
 
Well upon some research, it would seem that this 0.7 is the lowest passing grade, which would almost make the whole thing moot (as my main beef was not passing) but still I think it warrants a check up to get this surprisingly low grade. If i have managed to pass and get credit, all is well that ends well. I didn't take the class for a language requirement, it was just the last five credits of college. If i've passed, I still want to check it out, but it is a huge weight off my back to know I won't have to take more classes.
 
When you say "0.7" do you mean 70% or 0.7/4 on a GPA scale? Your last post is baffling, since I can't fathom 0.7gpa ever being a passing grade.
 
I have, it was actually going to keep me from graduating too. I was having a hard time in class, but the bitch told me that if I showed that I was making an effort I could at least get a D. I worked my ass off, got help when I needed it and everything. I end up failing the final by one point; if I had that point I would have passed with a D. I figure she would give me the D knowing how much work I put in, but she "couldn't in good faith just assign me a grade."

I was pissed, and ended up taking it to EVERYONE I could. I eventually took it up with the Dean of the College, and she called up both in for a conference. I told me side, she told hers. She unded up owning herself becuse when she was going over all the course work, one of the assignments was deemed "too much like grad-level work" by the Dean -- so she automatically passed me without question.

Best advice: just be honest about everything and don't give up. If you have things she's said in writing, make sure to bring that. It took me about 2 1/2 days to get everything straight. I litterally didn't find out that I would graduate until 4:30 the afternoon before the ceremony.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

I'm done with Television
2 3
103
1K
BillMaxwell replied
We've done it! Companies selling AI dead people!
2
67
650
Shubh_C63 replied
games done quick really changed
31
1K
GymWolf replied
There really needs to be something done about this.
6
438
Beretta replied
Has anyone ever had to deal with this?
9
187
Dr.Guru of Peru replied
Top Bottom