Unsatisfactory grade!
 

So! I'm not really one to freak out over grades, especially if they're fair and passing... but I just got my grade report for the past semester, and I had a B in one class and I feel I deserved an A. Now, I normally wouldn't be upset with a B, and would just let it go. However, I did everything I needed to do for this class, I heard nothing but very positive feedback. There was no suggestion whatsoever that I wasn't do everything I needed to do, and that my work wasn't all up to standard... so I feel like I deserved better than a B.

Anyways! Enough of my complaining. Anyone else ever feel like a grade they got wasn't worth the work they put in? How did you take the news? Did you approach your teacher?

I'm a perfectionist when it comes to grades.. >_> I once started discussing the single 'wrong' answer I had gotten on a 100 question exam, and in the end she had to give in (cause my arguments were valid) and give me the last point so I got a 100% for that class for the whole semester. (:

Pretty much I went through high school with straight A's, except for two B's in PE and biology.

Hmmm. I haven't cared about grades in a very, very long time.

When you attend American schools, they're weird and touchy feely about certain things. You get your grade for the class, and in K-12 you also get a "citizenship" grade based on how good a l'il person you are.

I am generally sweet, nice, considerate-- and have never had a problem with a teacher ever ever ever. Even when I stopped attempting to get good grades, I always got along well with teachers. It was fun, for me, to test well, ignore homework, participate in class and get the C. I had a lot of problems with the people I lived with-- school was a good escape, and ignoring grades gave everyone less power over me. After years of perfectionism, mediocrity felt like a relief.


But then, in my Honors Bio class, I got an "unsatisfactory" citizenship grade alongside my C. I was happy with the C, but NOT okay with the "unsatisfactory."

I talked to the teacher. He said the grade was because I didn't do the homework. I tried to explain that my class grade already reflected that-- my citizenship grade should have to do with how I behaved in the class, towards himself and other students. He stubbornly insisted that homework was citizenship.

It still makes me cranky. I base my pride on how I treat people. And damnit! That grade makes it look like I was a jerk or inattentive or rude and I don't like it. :angry:

When I taught, I had my fair share of students who thought they earned a better mark when they didn't. A B is a good solid mark -- I see way too many teachers give out A's like party favors and that gives students the wrong message -- that they grasped the subject better than they did -- or worse, that just because a student interacted with me and had the charm to develop a rapport with me, doesn't mean that it was a good enough misdirection for me to ignore the gaps in their knowledge.

I always said B means you understood most of what you were taught and could repeat it back -- but an A means you did something more with the subject than just memorized the contents by rote. You applied it, you reflected on it and found something else that others, including the teacher may have missed.

You may have done well, but by comparison, there may have been students who did better than you and it would not be fair for the teacher to give you the same mark as he gave the others -- some teachers grade like that, and it is an indication that you may have overestimated yourself in one class. But a B is nothing to cry about, either...

I usually get the grade I think I deserve for a class. Actually, I get grades beyond what I've earned. My social studies teacher gave me a 100 and I haven't turned anything in for 3 months. He just kind of gives grades based off how much he likes or dislikes a student. Which is completely wrong, but good for me.

I felt similar a couple years ago in an art class. I'm used to getting A's in art courses, but this professor was new and I think graded based on his personal aesthetic, because when he came around during class to give advice, etc, I was fine and doing well. I got no "maybe you should work on this," etc. When it came time for class critique though, he had actual comments about what to do different. Many people skipped out on his class/didn't show/didn't do work--I did ALL the work, was there every class--I only got a B+, even though I did everything up to my best ability. It was the only "B" grade I'd got all term and lowered my GPA! So dumb.

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Oh, and I didn't approach the professor--it didn't matter that much, haha. Life goes on.

There are teachers who don't believe in giving A's, either -- I never subscribed to that theory, but I know where it comes from -- when you are a young teacher and you have a roomful of students who think the charm or whine their way to a good mark, it's a way to sort of knock them off their high horse and remind them not everything they do -- even when they work hard, is going to get them an automatic top grade...

I hear what you're saying alexandrakitty, but some professors are REALLY like that. I knew this guy, and he DID give out A's (A+'s, actually) to his favorites, even when they didn't bother showing up to class. I had a teacher like that--the hard A giver--and it was tough, but it did wonders for me (I have a professor like that right now in grad school who pushes my buttons, but it's for the best). This guy plainly did not care. He was an artist and you could tell all he wanted to do was get back to his work (he painted more in class on his work than he would communicate with students). Some teachers--especially in the higher ed setting--are just really good at what they teach, but aren't so great at teaching. Reason why I'm not a teacher--I have too much respect for what they can do that I can't!

I used to teach in college and I have a grad degree -- so I have been on both sides of the classroom. Honest students have no idea of the games dishonest ones play -- kids try to stalk, gripe, or kiss up for a good grade, and some teachers have less than effective strategies for coping with that incessant bombardment. I never had a problem -- I just gave the mark a student deserved, good or bad. I never felt bad about giving a good mark or a bad one -- the ones who got A's earned it as did the ones who so richly earned their F's.

My point was you don't really know why teacher does what he does -- it can look one way to you, but there is a whole other story going on the other side. Some teachers try to be hip and cool and think they can bribe wayward students with a good mark -- others just cut off everyone at the pass by denying an A.

I always recommended my students come to me to go over their results so that they would know why they got the mark that they did -- and I had no trouble going line by line, showing what was A-quality in their work, what was B, C, D, and F-quality. I find a lot of students either get combative with a teacher or are the opposite -- they passively accept whatever mark their teacher gives them. Both ways are not going to get you very far.

If you don't understand the grade, then go to the teacher and ask -- you aren't likely to get that mark changed -- but the feedback can tell you what the teacher is looking for -- there is no point doing your own thing in a classroom and expect an A when the teacher is looking for something completely different -- and there are teachers who want you to do your own thing and not blindly try to imitate what they do in an effort to please them into giving a good mark. Students forget that the education goes beyond essays and tests -- it is understanding the point of the class and then make a plan from there...

There were some classes in high school that I could not stand getting anything else then a 'B' in, namely because those were the classes that I loved to do. Some classes I just didn't care enough about, either because I didn't like the teacher for some reason [most of it had to do with how they taught the class] or because I just didn't need the credits to pass it. By my Senior year, I could've easily taken the last two classes I needed to graduated in the first semister but I kinda wanted to go on this yearly trip one of my previous classes took....so, yeah.
There were a few teachers that just gave out grades to their favorite students, most of these teachers I didn't see again in the hallways after I had them.

So, I contacted my teacher, and I somehow missed seven assignments... although I never missed a single class... I'm dumbfounded. I've NO idea how I could have missed assignments....

@ Crane::
I contacted her asking her which exact assignments I had missed. When I got the list, I was able to go to my back pack, which I haven't yet cleaned out, and was able to find EVERY ONE of those pieces I was "missing". Each one had her hand writing critiques all over them. :lol: I emailed her back reminding her what exactly I had written for each piece. And now, I'm getting my grade changed to an A. :)

Congrats-- yeah, guess it just wasn't put 'in the books.'

I haven't gotten anything less than an A since I've been in high school, except for in P.E. (which was really quite understandable, considering how that class went for me).

In middle school, though, I did have a teacher that started giving me Bs in every subject I had with her for the second half of the year or so. I could never figure out why, but seeing as it was just middle school, I never asked about it or anything.

I can't even see a teacher or professor missing one assignment, let alone seven -- that doesn't make any sense. If you are always in class and she thinks you're not handing in assignments? Was it just you? Is this a pattern? What is going on here?

I know you like to defend fellow teachers/professors, but not all of them are as on-the-ball as you are. My old Horticulture teacher (bless her heart, she was like a second mother to me) would regularly lose papers, forget to put in grades, etc, and blame it on the system (it worked for all the other teachers). Stuff happens sometimes.. that's why students keep papers that are handed back to us!

I do not like to "defend" teachers -- I just know a little more about the profession than those who are just students -- so that is a grossly incorrect assumption that sounds dismissive. I also know that students tend to be very passive when it comes to the things that matter most, and my point was that if she has a teacher who is that out to lunch, she should file a complaint with a higher up.

There is no excuse for a teacher forgetting to mark seven assignments -- but there is also no excuse for keeping silent about it, either. That has to go on the record.

And for anyone who is going to make an excuse why they shouldn't, I will say that when I was just a student and a teacher was being unfair to me, I did go to the principal to report it and did not back down when I knew I was in the right and if I didn't understand a teacher's behavior...

I apologize - I certainly didn't mean to seem so dismissive! My point is, there's good and bad students, and there's good and bad teachers. Sometimes, the lines aren't even that clear - my horticulture teacher was WONDERFUL in every other way, knew me personally, I knew her daughter and we were friends, and her lessons were wonderful. She was just very messy. A good twenty assignments never got put into the grade book until I noticed them during my three years in her classes.

I had a teacher give me a failing grade because he claimed I never showed up for a newscasts that I did do. It was on tape and everything. When I failed the class, I went to the owner of the school and showed him that I did in fact do the newscast and the grade was changed sp I ended up passing. The teacher's attitude with it was that in the real world they don't cut slack when you miss work so if there was a missing assignment you'd fail his class. It just ticked me off that he was such a jerk about it even after I told him that I had the tape and everything.

I honestly never cared about my grades when I was in school. Heck, I showed up to a class, did none of the work, failed ALL the in-class tests(might I add it was diploma level class, so in class is 50% your final mark), and went into the exam with a 33% just for showing up. Ended up passing with a 58% on the report card. Though, I do NOT recomend that to people.

In college, I didnt do so well on the Theory, but in the shop, I did excellent. I never really cared about the theory, but in cooking, you NEED to know that stuff.

I was actually quite dumbfounded when she told me that I was missing seven assignments, so therefore I deserved a B. I did not miss any classes, so the idea that i had somehow not done work didn't make sense to me. Not to sound harsh, but I really disliked having this teacher because she's absolutely scatter-brained. Not to be mean... but I'm POSITIVE I'm not the only student who had this problem (getting a lower grade because she forgot to record assignments in her grade books). She was very unorganized during the entire semester, and though she was a pleasant person, I hated her teaching style... and the way she presented herself.

Everyone, including teachers, are entitled to their own style and personality. But... she came to class, on a good day, with her hair not brushed, wearing a black and multi-colored-pocka-dotted skirt, black leggings, red high heals, black cardigan and a lime green super hero t-shirt. She also forgot to bring back assignments to students all the time. She was not very well put together at all... so I'm not really surprised that she didn't record half of the assignments I submitted. I know I was not the only student in the class to think the professor was a total nut-case.