Tags: campus life, College, Education, Grades, grading system, students, University
About three weeks ago, I received a ‘B’ on a paper. Clearly, I have not let this grade go, as I continue to write about it for this week’s Consider post. Although I understand that a ‘B’ is not a horrible grade, when you wholeheartedly know that you deserved the ‘A-‘, it is hard to let the unfairly harsh grading go.
While many students might not take their academics to heart as much as I do, I’m sure that at one time or another, every student has felt that a grade bestowed upon him or her was undeserved. Sometimes, a bad grade can be a non-issue—for instance, in classes taught by professors who look beyond raw scores in order to calculate your final grade. Class attendance, participation, your perceived effort put into the class are all taken into account on top of your test percentages and essay assessments.
But for classes in which you begin to recognize that your overall effort to be an upstanding member of the class is not being taken into account, what is a student to do? Suck up to a GSI? Be that student who annoyingly attends office hours for no good reason except to showcase an ‘interest’ in the professor’s research?
The above options seem to be wasteful applications of a student’s precious time and brainpower. I, for one, rarely attempt to attend office hours, for I feel that my commitment to making it to class all week is enough. Yet, when one is distributed a knowingly unjust grade, the options are unfortunately limited.
These sorts of frustrations have led me to critique the entire school system in general as a micro-version of the selfish, capitalist system that only reproduces the unfair social inequalities which operate in ‘real’ American society (as opposed to the ‘fake’ college world). When I was given an unfair grade, I came to realize how it must feel when a person is insufficiently credited for his or her work, or when an employee is underpaid at an exploitative job. The latter two examples, while clearly representing sufficiently more serious injustices, helped me come to terms with how the world works (and even more so, reminded me of what I should expect to encounter after graduating college this year). It also helped me to put my ‘bad’ grade in perspective, remembering that much more severe wrongs could have flown my way, and that I am actually lucky that my only worry revolves around a trivial life happening such as a low mark.
On the other hand, I remain angry at the school system which positions students at odds with one another to receive the better score. While I am sure the competitive drive to beat one’s peers might lead to increased quality of work by all students on the whole, I, personally, believe the collaborative classroom to be much more conducive to healthy learning. One could even point to the proliferation of CAPS’ self-help/de-stress events as indicative of the fact that the college environment is truly too stressful and that it emphasizes the wrong parts of learning.
These problems I have mentioned might only link to the fact that education is hard to facilitate at a school of 41, 674 students (according to the Office of the Registrar). With classes of 150+ students, how else are professors expected to judge students except by ambiguous grading policies?
All I can say to that point is that I’m surely glad that I’m a senior. The majority of my classes are now are twenty students small and everyone usually knows each other’s name. Students of these classes gather in circles where every contribution is thoughtful and thought-provoking. In these types of classes, you also get one added benefit—you will definitely receive the grade you deserve.
By: Nicole Grinstein
(Photo courtesy of sxc.hu)
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To receive such a comment below took me back a bit. The point of this article was not an open invitation to evaluate my intelligence or my character. Rather, it was intended to spark conversation about the grading system in general, and what goes into making up a letter grades given that grades are not always just based on the aggregation of raw points. In my college experience, grades have most definitely not followed strict guidelines. Even if a syllabus is presented with divvied up percentages of ‘how you will be graded,’ there is still some vagueness and ambiguity in the grading system. What goes into ’25% Participation’ points? For some teachers it’s merely showing up; for others this requires hand-raising at least twice a class. For others, participation means you must not only make the alleged ‘effort’ by raising your hand; you must actually contribute a substantive, well thought-out comment.
Furthermore, some teachers state explicitly at the beginning of the term that they will consider the amount of effort you put into the class when assigned final grades. They claim the extra effort you put in throughout the term *might help* at the final moments when the professor must make an executive decision about students who are are teetering between a B+ and an A-.
The problem with this sort of vagueness is that it allows for a lot of ambiguous wiggle-room. For some students, this may not be a problem. But for others, it could amount to one. Rewarding extra effort seems sensible until looking at the opposite end of the grading spectrum. Assuming that some sort of grade distribution is preordained (i.e., certain quotas for A’s, B’s, C’s, etc.), the inflation of grades on the higher end could lead to average students getting shafted.
Professors who claim extra effort *might* help is also misleading to students who do put in extra effort that is somehow overlooked by the professor. Maybe this student is shy in class and never gets the opportunity to showcase his/her extra effort like the loud, confident student does.
Also, to point out, the aforementioned ‘B’ grade which I received was regarding a specific paper I wrote– not about an overall class grade or any extra ‘efforts.’ I was not claiming that I expected to receive an ‘A’ for just going to class or something ridiculous like that. Those were two separate issues.
The reason I expected an ‘A’ is because after four years of college experience, countless classes and papers, every college student knows an ‘A’ paper when they see one. Even more so, they know an ‘A’ paper when they write one. I was simply speaking to this frustration that many students experience after slaving away at a term paper only to come out with a less than ideal grade. It is an upsetting and frustrating experience, especially after so many semesters of putting in hard work (which does not just consist of ‘going to class regularly).
By attempting to convey this feeling to the readers, I did not intend to launch an investigation into my personal academic aptitude. I admit I did not make this clear by the end of the piece, but the main point of the article (for me) was about getting across one feeling which I stated in the middle of the 5th paragraph: “When I was given an unfair grade, I came to realize how it must feel when a person is insufficiently credited for his or her work, or when an employee is underpaid at an exploitative job.” – On the whole, getting a bad grade is a sobering experience. I did not mean to whine or complain, but rather to openly comes to terms with the idea that ‘What you get is what you get, so don’t get upset’– a phrase which I repeat over and over again to the kids at the camp I work for, as I hand them out different flavored popsicles. There’s always 3 or 4 kids stuck with grape :/ ).
You deserved an A-? Why, pray tell, do you think you deserved an A-? The idea that you think you “deserved” any particular grade speaks to a striking level of entitlement. Not surprising, I suppose, for someone who apparently thinks she should be rewarded for her “effort” – which apparently consists of regularly attending class. That’s not putting in a lot of effort; that’s the bare minimum expectation. News flash: in general, the world does not give a damn about how much effort you put in. If a surgeon was operating on a family member and made an avoidable error that resulted in a fatality, would you be okay with it because the surgeon made an effort? Or would you be more focused on the fact that the end result was lacking?