PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE wrote:
The only categories are labs, tests, finals.
... it is just my lab grade that is low and bringing me down.
If this is the case, don't get mad when the professor accuses you of not putting out the effort (being lazy).
Labs should help your grade, not hurt; if you put in the requisite time and effort.
widgit wrote:
I don't understand why people always think they should have their grades rounded up. #1.Did you do everything you could have done in that class to earn points. #2. Where do you draw the line? 89.5 to 90% Fine but what about the guy that is 89.3? He is close to your arbitrary 89.5 should go up. So he can say 89.5 goes up and I'm only .2 from 89.5 so now I think that should go up. A little later the next guy thinks 89.0 should go up because now 89.3 is rounded up. It is just a continuous thing. Bottom line: Did you get a 90, no, so suck it up and do more/better next time.
This all goes back to the argument that 1 grain of sand is a heap of sand or a 4'0" man is a tall man.
As a teacher, it irks me when people expect their grades to be rounded up. If the school policy indicates that 90% is an A, then you need a 90%. 89.9% is not a 90%. Therefore, it is not an A. I do not round. If you wanted an A, you should have worked just a wee bit harder.
In the end, grades are subjective.
The teacher can throw in a curve which may result in a higher grade than the percent would but shouldn't result in a lower grade.
If 90 is in A in that class you should be able to get an A.
Even though though the 89.497 sounds precise, the tests, asignments, etc used to arrive at that number all had subjective components.
Very easy to argue for an A.
Don't ask, if the prof thinks you deserve an A you will get one. Final grades are subjective too. I rocked my final in a math class in college, got a 98%. Basically had struggled with time constraints in the tests. I had calculated before the final that it was impossible for me to get an A but wouldn't you know it I got an A as my final grade.
Doing well on your final should be something in your favor, means you were able to do well on material covering the whole semester which is good and they will like that. If you had tanked your final to drop below the 90% it would be far less likely to get it rounded up. But don't ask! You look like a sniveling, whiny baby.
widgit wrote:
This all goes back to the argument that 1 grain of sand is a heap of sand or a 4\'0\" man is a tall man.
As a teacher, it irks me when people expect their grades to be rounded up. If the school policy indicates that 90% is an A, then you need a 90%. 89.9% is not a 90%. Therefore, it is not an A. I do not round. If you wanted an A, you should have worked just a wee bit harder.
The problem is that few professors and teachers clarify whether it's a 90% or a 90.0% that is necessary. If school policy and the course syllabus indicate 90.0% it's not reasonable to expect your grade to be rounded up. Otherwise, it is reasonable to expect that.
Assuming the teacher is using a calculator and not an Excel formula and displaying one decimal place, the significant digit argument doesn't hold water. 89.497%, to one decimal point, is 89.4%.
Really, your only hope is that the teacher is using an Excel spreadsheet or mistakenly thinks a number can be rounded up twice.
X-Runner wrote:
In the end, grades are subjective.
The teacher can throw in a curve which may result in a higher grade than the percent would but shouldn't result in a lower grade.
If 90 is in A in that class you should be able to get an A.
Even though though the 89.497 sounds precise, the tests, asignments, etc used to arrive at that number all had subjective components.
Very easy to argue for an A.
Since it is a science class ask the prof what the standard deviation is on the grade - it is a random variable and if he graded your tests/homeworks multiple times you get different scores. if the standard deviation is 1 (which is probably a low estimate, then the probability of getting a B when you should have and A is over a third. Is there some reason why your variance is high?
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE wrote: Did good on the final to pull my grade up to an 89.497... is that worthy to round up?
uh_no wrote: If I was a teacher, I would scold you and tell you should have worked harder if you had wanted an A[/quote]
Asking for 89.497 to be rounded up to 90.0 is like asking that your mile time be rounded down from 4:10.50 to 4:09.99.
rounded out wrote:
Asking for 89.497 to be rounded up to 90.0 is like asking that your mile time be rounded down from 4:10.50 to 4:09.99.
That's the wrong way to look at it. It's like wanting your 89.497 to be deemed an acceptable standard for earning an A. The rounding thing is stupid because you got what you got.
widgit wrote:
I don't understand why people always think they should have their grades rounded up. #1.Did you do everything you could have done in that class to earn points. #2. Where do you draw the line? 89.5 to 90% Fine but what about the guy that is 89.3? He is close to your arbitrary 89.5 should go up. So he can say 89.5 goes up and I'm only .2 from 89.5 so now I think that should go up. A little later the next guy thinks 89.0 should go up because now 89.3 is rounded up. It is just a continuous thing. Bottom line: Did you get a 90, no, so suck it up and do more/better next time.
I don't understand why someone WOULDN'T ask to have their grade rounded up. There is no downside. This isn't some moral dilemma. Not asking out of pride is silly.
If I were your professor I would say no. On the basis that my Course Syllabus would outline that 90.0% is considered an A. Ethically, if one student came in with an 89.4% and wanted it raised to 90% to get an A in the class, I would have to give every student a 0.6% bump as well. You cannot expect the professor to play favorites for just you.
You worked hard, but you did not do well enough to be given an 'A' by his grading standards that he more than likely specifically laid out in his Syllabus at the beginning of the year. Move on.
maybe Obama can pass another bailout for lazy people wanted to get better grades w/o trying. The roundup-a-grade-bailout
Do not ask your teacher to round up. Professors HATE IT when students ask to have their grades raised. Hate it. The professor decides your grade, so take what you get and deal with it. Know that most of the time, in the eyes of your professors, asking to have a grade raised simply because you're "close" or because you "deserve it" reflects poorly on you. A B+ instead of an A- will make very little difference in your overall cumulative GPA by the time you graduate, maybe a few thousandths of a point. Next time, work harder on your labs.
26mi235 wrote:
In my classes that would have almost always been an A, as I got rid of a lot of the gimee questions that everyone should get right (what does it tell you). In fact, to use the top 1/3rd of the scale to encompass all grade seems poor strategy. I would always have to tell the students that the tests will be harder but the Ds might go down to 40% and As at least to 85% and if they were really hard, down to 80%.
The other thing that I would do is sit down and evaluate where the class was overall (e.g., was this a better than average, worse than average, much better than average group). I would then have a class average that accorded with those summary assessments. I would compare the summary assessment with my initial class average and adjust the boundaries up or down to move things in the right direction. One implication was that the 'curve' was not entirely 'within' the one class but across classes (i.e., those other classes were part of my reference point). It follows that I could give a class all As if warranted or a D average, although it never came to that except the As in a very small class.
I was in a class once where 40% got a B- on a test.
HC wrote:
89.497%, to one decimal point, is 89.4%.
No.
89.497%, to one decimal point is 89.5% if you round. It would be 89.4% if you truncate, which is not rounding at all.
89.497% rounded to 1 digit is 89% while 89.500% rounded to one digit is 90%.
If 90 is an A and the grade is rounded to the nearest 1 percent than he missed an A by three thousandths of a percent.
The grading system would have to be perfect and all test questions void of misinterpretation for a letter grade to be missed on such a slight margin.
alsoobvious wrote:
[quote]widgit wrote:
This all goes back to the argument that 1 grain of sand is a heap of sand or a 4'0" man is a tall man.
As a teacher, it irks me when people expect their grades to be rounded up. If the school policy indicates that 90% is an A, then you need a 90%. 89.9% is not a 90%. Therefore, it is not an A. I do not round. If you wanted an A, you should have worked just a wee bit harder.
What the guy said above me is correct. This bolded section is wrong. 89.9% is 90%. 89.9% is NOT 90.0%. Significant digits matter in this.
I also agree that there is no downside to asking - the worst that can happen is you get rejected as long as you mention it in a respectful way. Saying that it is wrong to ask is like saying it is wrong to ask a girl out that you don't think is "in your league" - worst that could happen is you are rejected. Big deal.
Lastly, you only round up in a rodeo. Was this a rodeo? If not then take your B+ to the bank.
Actually, if its 90.0, you would need a 89.95 or higher. If its 90, then it would be 89.5 or higher rounds up. 89.4xxxxx would round down to 89. There is no way to get this to work via math. If you have come to office hours with intelligent questions, have put in a lot of work, and are just not smart enough, you may get the a-. If you didn't get it through lack of work (as the lab score indicates) you will not get it.If you ask before he figures it out, it'll not be helpful. He'll either do it or not based on his assessment of you.
HC wrote:
widgit wrote:This all goes back to the argument that 1 grain of sand is a heap of sand or a 4'0" man is a tall man.
As a teacher, it irks me when people expect their grades to be rounded up. If the school policy indicates that 90% is an A, then you need a 90%. 89.9% is not a 90%. Therefore, it is not an A. I do not round. If you wanted an A, you should have worked just a wee bit harder.
The problem is that few professors and teachers clarify whether it's a 90% or a 90.0% that is necessary. If school policy and the course syllabus indicate 90.0% it's not reasonable to expect your grade to be rounded up. Otherwise, it is reasonable to expect that.
Assuming the teacher is using a calculator and not an Excel formula and displaying one decimal place, the significant digit argument doesn't hold water. 89.497%, to one decimal point, is 89.4%.
Really, your only hope is that the teacher is using an Excel spreadsheet or mistakenly thinks a number can be rounded up twice.
perform an oral act
oh yeah! wrote:
perform an oral act
Asking for a higher grade is an oral act.
alsoobvious wrote:
widgit wrote:I don't understand why people always think they should have their grades rounded up. #1.Did you do everything you could have done in that class to earn points. #2. Where do you draw the line? 89.5 to 90% Fine but what about the guy that is 89.3? He is close to your arbitrary 89.5 should go up. So he can say 89.5 goes up and I'm only .2 from 89.5 so now I think that should go up. A little later the next guy thinks 89.0 should go up because now 89.3 is rounded up. It is just a continuous thing. Bottom line: Did you get a 90, no, so suck it up and do more/better next time.
This all goes back to the argument that 1 grain of sand is a heap of sand or a 4'0" man is a tall man.
As a teacher, it irks me when people expect their grades to be rounded up. If the school policy indicates that 90% is an A, then you need a 90%. 89.9% is not a 90%. Therefore, it is not an A. I do not round. If you wanted an A, you should have worked just a wee bit harder.
Wow. I am sorry, but that is a bitch move. If a kid does get an 89.9, and you don't round, what if it's the 4th quarter, and that kid had A-Honor roll the whole year? You would have no soul in my opinion.
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