Gee, thanks for nothing professor...
I finished my economics course last week. My grades on the course were as follows:
Market Report (20% of the grade): B
Midterm (20%) : A
Current Issues Report (20%): A
Final Exam (30%): A
Participation (10%): A
Final grade: A-
I felt that, with those marks, I deserved an A in the course. I wrote to the professor and he informed me that to get an A, I had to get a 95 in the course. As it turns out, I got a 93. Two lousy points. Nonetheless, he offered to meet with me to discuss the matter, and so I took him up on it and met with him today.
I gained a valuable insight into the way the grades are compiled. As it works out, he enters a letter grade into Blackboard, and it resolves the letter grade into a number. As it turns out, A resolves to a 95. Therefore, the highest mark you can possibly get is a 95. According to the logic he presented to me, the only way to get an A in the course is to get an A in all the components of the course! If you get anything lower on any of the components, your average will be below 95. When presented with that logic, he informed me that if someone had a 94 and change, he'd award an A anyway. So, a 94/95 is good for an A, but a 93/95 isn't. And, what's worse, is that he even went so far as to admit that the system is flawed, but that he wasn't going to change my grade anyway. GRRR!
So, now I've got this A-, which brings down my GPA. Thanks for nothing, professor!
Market Report (20% of the grade): B
Midterm (20%) : A
Current Issues Report (20%): A
Final Exam (30%): A
Participation (10%): A
Final grade: A-
I felt that, with those marks, I deserved an A in the course. I wrote to the professor and he informed me that to get an A, I had to get a 95 in the course. As it turns out, I got a 93. Two lousy points. Nonetheless, he offered to meet with me to discuss the matter, and so I took him up on it and met with him today.
I gained a valuable insight into the way the grades are compiled. As it works out, he enters a letter grade into Blackboard, and it resolves the letter grade into a number. As it turns out, A resolves to a 95. Therefore, the highest mark you can possibly get is a 95. According to the logic he presented to me, the only way to get an A in the course is to get an A in all the components of the course! If you get anything lower on any of the components, your average will be below 95. When presented with that logic, he informed me that if someone had a 94 and change, he'd award an A anyway. So, a 94/95 is good for an A, but a 93/95 isn't. And, what's worse, is that he even went so far as to admit that the system is flawed, but that he wasn't going to change my grade anyway. GRRR!
So, now I've got this A-, which brings down my GPA. Thanks for nothing, professor!