awtl Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I just got my grades back from this semester and am surprised about one of them. I really thought I had done better. I had emailed the professor earlier in the semester because I was concerned about a bad grade and she said I had a grade average of 88%. I did not get below a 90% the rest of the semester and got a 99.5% on my final. How is it possible that I got an 87.2% as my final grade. Is it possible there was a mistake? Should I ask her about it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I would ask. All I can think of is some creative grade dropping occurred with some of the later assignments because many people did poorly on them, putting more emphasis on that bad grade. :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 That sounds like a mistake. I would definitely ask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigs Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 You will have to ask the professor. Each teacher can calculate the grade, give different weight to each assignment, curve grades, etc. however they want to. Did you get a syllabus or course document at the beginning of the semester? Grading information is usually found there. Also, the professor could have made mistake when calculating the grades. I had 1 professor that did that and made the difference between an A and a B. Best wishes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 I once used percentages myself, but I found that they got confusing because different assignments were worth different percentages of the final grade. I'm guessing that's what happened, although there could indeed be an error. Ask the professor for more details. FWIW -- I use straight points now, so some assignments have more points possible than others and there are point boundaries for the letter grades. To me that's easier to follow, but I know many professors that still use percentages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Definitely ask. It's probably an error. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Check the syllabus for weighting. How do you know your final exam grade? Was it posted? Can you see the rest of your grade as well? Perhaps you forgot to turn in a 5% assignment or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justasque Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 If your previous grades averaged 88%, and you turned in all subsequent assignments, and the teacher received them, and you did not get below a 90% on any of them, then I don't think it's mathematically possible that you got a 87.2% as a final grade. Of course, exactly what the teacher meant by "averaged 88%" is part of the puzzle, and perhaps she wasn't using "average" in a strictly mathematical sense, but nonetheless, I would contact the teacher to get the details. Teachers are human, and they make mistakes sometimes. A responsible student follows up, respectfully, on such things, if nothing else in order to understand where things went wrong (for example, did you hand in an assignment without the teacher actually getting it) so that the mistake doesn't happen again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awtl Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 I emailed her and got a reply this morning. It was a mistake! I have an A after all. I was really nice in my email, but she was so apologetic that I felt bad. Thank you for all the replies. It made waiting for a response from my professor a lot easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 :party: Glad to hear you got this worked out. And congrats on the A! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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