Advice to students on the fine art of requesting a higher grade
- Please wait at least 48 hours before firing off an outraged missive. If nothing else, this will give you adequate time to cool down, thereby saving yourself from inadvertently self-inflicted doom.
- Many of us will not discuss grades over e-mail. Try politely requesting an appointment.
- Bear in mind that a "B" is not a bad grade. Excessive hysterics over the receipt of same will not materially advance your case.
- If you think that there's a quantitative error, not a qualitative error, be clear about that upfront (e.g., you've received "A"-range grades on every assignment, but have somehow wound up with a "C-" at the end).
- Always ask for an explanation before you go into your spiel.
- Remember that online gradebooks may not properly calculate your grades if the instructor has not weighted the percentages.
- Remember that we can only grade what we see in front of us. Refrain from any excuse resembling "I worked really, really hard!" (Some of us worked really, really hard in college physics, and were thankful for a passing grade.)
- Do not introduce any excuses that you should have offered at the time. If something unavoidable sends your academic work seriously askew, it is your responsibility to tell us. Most of us are happy to offer extensions or other solutions when life gets in the way of schooling--but we're not inclined to smile when you ask us to retroactively erase a bad grade. That being said, if your grades imploded due to circumstances beyond your control, you may be able to take what's known in some quarters as an administrative withdrawal.
- If your instructor told you that you needed to do X in order to improve your work, and yet you didn't do X, then perhaps you might wish to reconsider having this discussion.
- As a general rule, most of us are not especially sympathetic to the claim that the price of your tuition somehow entitles you to an "A"--especially since that line of argument implicitly concedes that you yourself haven't done anything to merit said grade.
- Please also refrain from mentioning that your mother is a lawyer or that your father sits on the board of trustees.
- Always bring your assignments with you.
- It's well within the bounds of possibility that your instructor might raise a "B+" to an "A-" or even, perhaps, an "A." It is not very likely that he or she will do the same with a "C."