professors who don't like to give out A's

WickedLou9 · 12-14-2007, 10:25 AM

I don't know if I mentioned on here before , but the professor I had who refused to give out a 100% grade, even on homework has taken his evil toll on my GPA. Going into the class, 4.0...

My grade in this class? 89%. 90% is an A-. If he had given me the 100% credit on all of my homeworks that I deserved I would have had an A in the class. All of my grades were 15 to 20 percentage points above the class average. My only hope is that he gives me the point for an A when he turns in the official grades but I don't think he will do it. grumble grumble.

kinggovernor · 12-14-2007, 10:31 AM

take it up with him and then the dean. A's should be given out at least in a bell curve distribution

7960 · 12-14-2007, 10:35 AM

my sister had the same thing...she's the smartest person I know. Finished 4 years of college in 3 years, used the 4th year to start a masters and finished that in less than two years, straight 4.0 through all of it.... that kind of smart.

One of her masters professors "didn't believe in As" and was giving her a B+ so she went to drop the class. The dept person asked why and her answer was "because he's an asshole." The dept person didn't even ask, and just signed the paper.

motivez · 12-14-2007, 12:41 PM

Take it up with the Dean for sure, he has no business docking points that you earned.

Chances are the department has a grading policy and I doubt they decided to start it at 89..

If he says the other points are discretionary, then he should be able to provide some kind of rationale for not giving you the points you need.. As long as you haven't given him any reason (lack of attendance or participation, for example), then he wont have any reason other than "I got a B once, and now I make everyone else suffer the same fate."

What class is it anyway?

David Octavius · 12-14-2007, 01:21 PM

Nerd

JaJae · 12-14-2007, 01:22 PM

I was a Psychology major and a lot of those professors are huge on statistics and proving bell shaped curves. It wasn't too uncommon for me to have professors who on the first day of class would say that 75% of the class would be receiving a C+, 20% would be receiving Bs and Ds. And finally 5% would be receiving As and Fs. The grades were all going to be scaled and the grading policy would be dictated with cutoffs to allow for those grades. They then proceeded to make the exams so difficult that the average test grade was a 25-40%. They did this purposely so that they could use their stupid grading policy and scale the grades as they saw fit.

7960 · 12-14-2007, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by JaJae

I was a Psychology major and a lot of those professors are huge on statistics and proving bell shaped curves. It wasn't too uncommon for me to have professors who on the first day of class would say that 75% of the class would be receiving a C+, 20% would be receiving Bs and Ds. And finally 5% would be receiving As and Fs. The grades were all going to be scaled and the grading policy would be dictated with cutoffs to allow for those grades. They then proceeded to make the exams so difficult that the average test grade was a 25-40%. They did this purposely so that they could use their stupid grading policy and scale the grades as they saw fit.

I'd be more ok with this than I would with "I start grading at 89 because nobody deserves an A."

Phantom · 12-14-2007, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by JaJae

I was a Psychology major and a lot of those professors are huge on statistics and proving bell shaped curves. It wasn't too uncommon for me to have professors who on the first day of class would say that 75% of the class would be receiving a C+, 20% would be receiving Bs and Ds. And finally 5% would be receiving As and Fs. The grades were all going to be scaled and the grading policy would be dictated with cutoffs to allow for those grades. They then proceeded to make the exams so difficult that the average test grade was a 25-40%. They did this purposely so that they could use their stupid grading policy and scale the grades as they saw fit.

That's how grad school was for me, but they at least kept to a B- or B curve with ~10% on each tail. A C+ curve is just mean spirited.

JaJae · 12-14-2007, 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by Phantom

That's how grad school was for me, but they at least kept to a B- or B curve with ~10% on each tail. A C+ curve is just mean spirited.

They said the average is a C, so they were being nice by making their average a C+. A lot of the department heads did this grading policy in their classes and it appears a lot of the other professors followed suit.

WickedLou9 · 12-14-2007, 04:38 PM

i just don't understand why they do that. So many people get mired down in the beurocracy of whatever it is they are doing that they forget why they are there. Not just in education either. It happens everywhere. Those professors forgot that they are there to teach people. Thier goal should be for every student in the class to get an A. They should set a level of excellence or mastry in the subject in a vaccuum. Then set out to bring all of thier students up to that level of excellence. If they all achieve it, great! they all get A's. If everyone gets D's, the professor is doing something wrong.
The grading to a curve bullshit only exists because professors are mired down by the beurocracy that says they should give out this many A's and this many B's and so on. They forget that thier goal isn't to give out specific numbers of grades, but actually to teach the subject matter.
It's maddening to see people put thier nose down and plow forward with some beurocratic policy ignoring the reality that is sitting on thier face wiggling around.

6SpeedTA95 · 12-14-2007, 05:27 PM

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

i just don't understand why they do that. So many people get mired down in the beurocracy of whatever it is they are doing that they forget why they are there. Not just in education either. It happens everywhere. Those professors forgot that they are there to teach people. Thier goal should be for every student in the class to get an A. They should set a level of excellence or mastry in the subject in a vaccuum. Then set out to bring all of thier students up to that level of excellence. If they all achieve it, great! they all get A's. If everyone gets D's, the professor is doing something wrong.
The grading to a curve bullshit only exists because professors are mired down by the beurocracy that says they should give out this many A's and this many B's and so on. They forget that thier goal isn't to give out specific numbers of grades, but actually to teach the subject matter.
It's maddening to see people put thier nose down and plow forward with some beurocratic policy ignoring the reality that is sitting on thier face wiggling around.

For a lot of those guys its about ego and power. They have it so they use it

7960 · 12-14-2007, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

i just don't understand why they do that. So many people get mired down in the beurocracy of whatever it is they are doing that they forget why they are there. Not just in education either. It happens everywhere. Those professors forgot that they are there to teach people. Thier goal should be for every student in the class to get an A. They should set a level of excellence or mastry in the subject in a vaccuum. Then set out to bring all of thier students up to that level of excellence. If they all achieve it, great! they all get A's. If everyone gets D's, the professor is doing something wrong.
The grading to a curve bullshit only exists because professors are mired down by the beurocracy that says they should give out this many A's and this many B's and so on. They forget that thier goal isn't to give out specific numbers of grades, but actually to teach the subject matter.
It's maddening to see people put thier nose down and plow forward with some beurocratic policy ignoring the reality that is sitting on thier face wiggling around.

It was high school, not Masters, but when I taught I had a trig class where the lowest grade was a B+. My dept head had a talk with me and I said "They all got through the material to the level I expected." I found out later he cornered the B+ kid and asked him a bunch of questions and the kid nailed most of them, so he really deserved a B+. I laughed when i found that out.

RMNIXON · 12-14-2007, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

I don't know if I mentioned on here before , but the professor I had who refused to give out a 100% grade, even on homework has taken his evil toll on my GPA. Going into the class, 4.0...

Yes, I think you did.

But your complaint is probably valid and I wish you the best of luck.

RMNIXON · 12-14-2007, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

i just don't understand why they do that. So many people get mired down in the beurocracy of whatever it is they are doing that they forget why they are there. Not just in education either. It happens everywhere. Those professors forgot that they are there to teach people. Thier goal should be for every student in the class to get an A. They should set a level of excellence or mastry in the subject in a vaccuum. Then set out to bring all of thier students up to that level of excellence. If they all achieve it, great! they all get A's. If everyone gets D's, the professor is doing something wrong.

Wait a minute. "C" does mean average and an "A" well above average. Well it did in my day. So we should not hand out unearned grades.

But when an educator lets their own ego get in the way of fair judgement and allows their own arrogance make them think all students are beneith them, I see that as a serious problem.

IminWonderland · 12-15-2007, 11:55 AM

Hmm, I think that sucks.

I know that in my English Department, the Faculty resent having to give grades. They would rather pass/no pass instead of assigning an arbitrary mark for poetry.

This semester, I got 2 A's and one A-.

I am pleased as a peach.

7960 · 12-15-2007, 01:29 PM

Originally Posted by IminWonderland

Hmm, I think that sucks.

I know that in my English Department, the Faculty resent having to give grades. They would rather pass/no pass instead of assigning an arbitrary mark for poetry.

They can assign pass/no pass for each poetry assignment and then base the letter grade off the pass/no pass results.

But then we'd be asking english people to do math, and we all know how well that would go

IminWonderland · 12-15-2007, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by 7960

They can assign pass/no pass for each poetry assignment and then base the letter grade off the pass/no pass results.

But then we'd be asking english people to do math, and we all know how well that would go

It wouldn't go! LOL

I think for the subject that are unable to be quantitative, like poetry, it should be a qualitative grade.

WickedLou9 · 12-16-2007, 06:32 AM

Originally Posted by RMNIXON

Wait a minute. "C" does mean average and an "A" well above average. Well it did in my day. So we should not hand out unearned grades.

But when an educator lets their own ego get in the way of fair judgement and allows their own arrogance make them think all students are beneith them, I see that as a serious problem.

Yeah but average for what? Those arbitraty 20 or 30 kids that happen to be in my section?

motivez · 12-16-2007, 10:35 AM

What class is this?

WickedLou9 · 12-16-2007, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by motivez

What class is this?

CIS 310 - Computer Networking
Most of it was review for me since I got my CCNA back in like 2001 or 2002.