Could I report this professor? Where do I do this?

[MedicManiac]

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Okay, so I was in my general chemistry lab course. I have received a B- in the course and I could have sworn that I had received an A. The problem was the professor would assign labs and there would be lab questions at the end to answer--and these made up your grade. The issue is, this professor did NOT send back any lab to us so that we could see our mistakes and have a standard to improve on. This was because the professor wasn't able to "grade" them and he kept promising that he would (but he never did and never returned a single lab report). There were NO quizzes to test our knowledge, nothing but these lab reports.

So, the class was over and I was thinking that I had done very well because I answered every question completely and I felt like they were done correctly. The issue is, I had no idea exactly what he wanted or even how he graded the lab reports. So I have no way to tell whether I have been doing anything correctly.

If the professor was not lazy to begin with, this wouldn't have been a problem.

What can I do about this, I have just emailed him and I'm awaiting his response. But what do I do if he is reluctant? What can I do? I feel like what he did was not right and it is not helpful to my GPA. In fact, as a junior, this is my lowest grade so far.

The class was poorly organized and he only spent like 3 minutes explaining. I saw him at his desk playing the old game of solitaire on windows xp while everyone was doing the lab. Wouldn't that have been a good time to grade labs??

 

[Lord Osis]

 

[MedicManiac]

Wow this forum is so helpful. I thought this was an actually legitimate forum from what I've heard. Guess I was wrong.

 

[VolunteerMoose]

You have a legitimate beef. Lab reports need to be graded and returned in a timely manner. If what you say is true, talk to the prof, and if you are not satisfied, take it to the Dean of whatever chem dept he works for.

Above poster is a jackass. This is a valid issue.

 

[hoihaie]

Didn't you talk to the prof in office hours to see what he wanted? You can't really do anything because you think it's unfair. there are plenty of professors like this.

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

You have a legitimate beef. Lab reports need to be graded and returned in a timely manner. If what you say is true, talk to the prof, and if you are not satisfied, take it to the Dean of whatever chem dept he works for.

Above poster is a jackass. This is a valid issue.

This is not a valid excuse at all. The professor should have graded it earlier but that doesn't mean you get an A cause you have a lazy prof.

Look i'm all for defending yourself and I have done so before. However, in this case the op had a bad prof but that doesn't entitle him to an A. Sorry.

 

[WillburCobb]

You have a legitimate beef. Lab reports need to be graded and returned in a timely manner. If what you say is true, talk to the prof, and if you are not satisfied, take it to the Dean of whatever chem dept he works for.

Above poster is a jackass. This is a valid issue.

Above poster is a bit blunt but pretty much spot on. Sorry OP but you'll likely get nowhere with this. I've had numerous classes where I had no idea what my grade was going into the final but there was legitimately nothing I could do about it. The one time I choose to fight a grade I had documented evidence supporting my argument and I went through every level of the appeals process and still lost. A direct quote from the appeals committee letter, "Although the evidence overwhelming supports Mr. WillburCobb's argument, there is no direct evidence of the verbal due date agreed upon between him and Ms. The TA. Thus, we defer to the initial decision made in support of Ms. The TA." So essentially, even though I provided strong evidence to show the TA lacked credibility and I was likely f-ed over, they still ruled in favor of the TA because they boiled it down to a "he said she said" and ruled in the TA's favor, because she was the teacher and I was the student. They protect their own. You can't fight city hall.

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

Side note why are you taking gen chem junior year? Thats a freshman course

 

[Lord Osis]

You have a legitimate beef. Lab reports need to be graded and returned in a timely manner. If what you say is true, talk to the prof, and if you are not satisfied, take it to the Dean of whatever chem dept he works for.

Above poster is a jackass. This is a valid issue.

Yes maybe I'm a jackass and OP's instructor may be a sloppy one, but still these points do not support OP's claim all that much.

1. OP claims (s)he deserves an A, instead of a B-. Wait, how does (s)he know? I begin to suspect someone's probably venting, instead of putting forth a "valid" issue. But let's move on for now.
2. OP elaborates why (s)he thinks the instructor is incompetent. But does any of these reasons support why OP deserves a better grade than what OP has got?

To me, OP is basically listing complaints (s)he have felt in the lab class out of dissatisfaction of the final grade.
I could have concurred with OP and give him a warm support instead of a series of facepalms if OP's main complaint were the instructor's sloppiness instead of the apparently unfair final grade.

 

[WillburCobb]

Side note why are you taking gen chem junior year? Thats a freshman course

I took it as a senior...

 

[Spinach Dip]

Side note why are you taking gen chem junior year? Thats a freshman course

Yeah. Because everything in college is pre-determined...

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

I took it as a senior...

Yikes if you take gen chem as a senior then when do you take orgo???

 

[Lord Osis]

Sorry about the bluntness if you are offended, though. I thought you were genuinely trolling

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

Yeah. Because everything in college is pre-determined...

Atleast in my school gen chem is a 100 or 1000 level course which are freshman level courses. 200= sophmore 300 =junior 400= senior.

 

[VolunteerMoose]

This isn't he said / she said. This is about holding professors accountable; they should be grading and turning in assignments in a reasonable manner. It prevents situations just like this. Yeah, OP may not get the A- he thinks he deserves, but professors who take grading so nonchalantly shouldn't be teaching.

And I get that if the professor is tenured, there isn't much recourse. no need to mention that to me.

 

[Lord Osis]

This isn't he said / she said. This is about holding professors accountable; they should be grading and turning in assignments in a reasonable manner. It prevents situations just like this. Yeah, OP may not get the A- he thinks he deserves, but professors who take grading so nonchalantly shouldn't be teaching.

And I get that if the professor is tenured, there isn't much recourse. no need to mention that to me.

What you say here is 100% correct and every instructor should go by what you say. But then I am not convinced OP's making a coherent connection between the instructor's integrity and the bad grade that has been assigned to OP's semester's work.

EDIT: I don't know what happened.. It posted itself when I did not finish writing..

 

[Venko]

Okay, so I was in my general chemistry lab course. I have received a B- in the course and I could have sworn that I had received an A. The problem was the professor would assign labs and there would be lab questions at the end to answer--and these made up your grade. The issue is, this professor did NOT send back any lab to us so that we could see our mistakes and have a standard to improve on. This was because the professor wasn't able to "grade" them and he kept promising that he would (but he never did and never returned a single lab report). There were NO quizzes to test our knowledge, nothing but these lab reports.

So, the class was over and I was thinking that I had done very well because I answered every question completely and I felt like they were done correctly. The issue is, I had no idea exactly what he wanted or even how he graded the lab reports. So I have no way to tell whether I have been doing anything correctly.

If the professor was not lazy to begin with, this wouldn't have been a problem.

What can I do about this, I have just emailed him and I'm awaiting his response. But what do I do if he is reluctant? What can I do? I feel like what he did was not right and it is not helpful to my GPA. In fact, as a junior, this is my lowest grade so far.

The class was poorly organized and he only spent like 3 minutes explaining. I saw him at his desk playing the old game of solitaire on windows xp while everyone was doing the lab. Wouldn't that have been a good time to grade labs??

It's definitely fair to raise your concerns so that future folks can maybe have a better experience.

If you knew these questions will show up on the test and you have not had the results yet it would have been better to prospectively act on the situation by talking about these concerns before the test or with the department head.

Also, I wouldn't assume they are lazy because they didn't hand you back your evaluation. Just as its not fair to assume you are stupid because you didn't get an A. There are reasons why things occur usually and try to reserve judgement as it will serve you better in the long run.

 

[Frostbite22]

My gen chem 1 professor didn't hand back any assignments because there was a large cheating scandal I guess from a year so back. At least that was what he told us. He graded everything and said if you wanted to check out your grades you could go talk to him. Otherwise there was nothing handed back and there wasn't a computer system he put them in. Nobody knew their grade until the end. I took bio101 a year and a half later and it was the same thing so I just went in to get updates and keep myself on track.

 

[Spinach Dip]

Atleast in my school gen chem is a 100 or 1000 level course which are freshman level courses. 200= sophmore 300 =junior 400= senior.

So no one outside those pre-determined years can ever take a class from another year?

Sad.

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

So no one outside those pre-determined years can ever take a class from another year?

Sad.

They can do so but they are really behind if they do that. It would be difficult to graduate in four years doing that.

 

[Spinach Dip]

They can do so but they are really behind if they do that. It would be difficult to graduate in four years doing that.

OMG PEOPLE GRADUATE IN 4 YEARS?

WHO ARE THESE WONDER-KIDS?

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

The professor doesn't have a responsibility to hand back work. A good professor would but they don't have too. You don't deserve a higher grade because your professor doesn't hand stuff back. If you answers are correct you have nothing to worry about.


My advice to op would be to move on and warn others about this prof. It sucks what hapenned but nothing can be done. Its worth it to try and talk to your prof but outside thst I can't see anything else helping.

This isn't he said / she said. This is about holding professors accountable; they should be grading and turning in assignments in a reasonable manner. It prevents situations just like this. Yeah, OP may not get the A- he thinks he deserves, but professors who take grading so nonchalantly shouldn't be teaching.

And I get that if the professor is tenured, there isn't much recourse. no need to mention that to me.

fe

 

[WillburCobb]

This isn't he said / she said. This is about holding professors accountable; they should be grading and turning in assignments in a reasonable manner. It prevents situations just like this. Yeah, OP may not get the A- he thinks he deserves, but professors who take grading so nonchalantly shouldn't be teaching.

And I get that if the professor is tenured, there isn't much recourse. no need to mention that to me.

Either you've had a cushy undergrad or you haven't had many profs.

 

[WillburCobb]

Yikes if you take gen chem as a senior then when do you take orgo???

As a super senior. I was a semi non-trad

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

Hahaha 😉

Who can even afford more then 4 years of school. I have a friend that did it in two and is off to med school at 19 next year. I tried to do it in 3 and failed. Couple courses short.

OMG PEOPLE GRADUATE IN 4 YEARS?

WHO ARE THESE WONDER-KIDS?

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

As a super senior. I was a semi non-trad

I guess not everyone is in a hurry *shrugs*

 

[Beargryllz]

99% troll

 

[VolunteerMoose]

Either you've had a cushy undergrad or you haven't had many profs.

Well just because you've been f*ed over, doesn't mean everyone else has too.

FYI I've never had to file an appeal or make a complaint in college like you. I talk things over with my prof or TA before things get that bad.

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

I

99% troll

I think he is a troll but I have seen pre meds like this before

 

[WillburCobb]

Well just because you've been f*ed over, doesn't mean everyone else has too.

FYI I've never had to file an appeal or make a complaint in college like you. I talk things over with my prof or TA before things get that bad.

As did I. There are many details to the story I left out for brevity, and just left it to the more salient points. But aside from that one class, I've had many where we didn't get grades assigned until mid term or later, and there was little you could do aboot it. Yeah, you could bug the prof., but that had three outcomes: 1) you pissed him/her off and nothing happned, 2) you pissed him/her off and he/she MAYBE addressed the issue, 3) he/she addresses the issue. I garauntee 1 and 2 will happen 99% of the time with odds favoring #1.

 

[MedicManiac]

It's definitely fair to raise your concerns so that future folks can maybe have a better experience.

If you knew these questions will show up on the test and you have not had the results yet it would have been better to prospectively act on the situation by talking about these concerns before the test or with the department head.

Also, I wouldn't assume they are lazy because they didn't hand you back your evaluation. Just as its not fair to assume you are stupid because you didn't get an A. There are reasons why things occur usually and try to reserve judgement as it will serve you better in the long run.

The only problem is that we asked the professor at every lab whether he has graded our labs so that we could know what his standard of grading is. He kept telling us that he didn't finish grading experiment 1!!!

My issue is, if I knew what his standard of grading was (how he graded, what kind of answers does he want), I would have been able to ensure that my future lab assignments were done correctly. In a multiple choice exam, that's fine because it is more objective than a lab report. The issue is, I didn't know what he wanted, and he just tells us to "Do your best".

Now towards the end of the course, I asked to see my grade. He said he did NOT grade anything yet (not even experiment 1). So now (1.5 weeks later) he posts our grades. I feel like he still didn't even grade anything! I don't know how to approach this guy. The semester is over, I talked to him many times during the semester and he would give out comforts like "don't worry too much about this/that", "Do your best", "just write a conclusion that's fair" etc. etc.

This is evidence that he truly is not a diligent professor. My only issue is, I don't even know how I got a B. I was sure I got an A!

 

[Teleologist]

This is evidence that he truly is not a diligent professor. My only issue is, I don't even know how I got a B. I was sure I got an A!

The way to have solved this problem would have been getting 100%s on every single lab report instead of waiting for the prof to grade your stuff so you can see how much you can slack off on each lab report and barely cinch an A.

"Always give 100%*, and expect zero"

- Sho Baraka

*Except when giving blood.

 

[Deadlifts]

Atleast in my school gen chem is a 100 or 1000 level course which are freshman level courses. 200= sophmore 300 =junior 400= senior.

I took a 200 level class during my senior year.

Come at me, bro.

 

[Venko]

The only problem is that we asked the professor at every lab whether he has graded our labs so that we could know what his standard of grading is. He kept telling us that he didn't finish grading experiment 1!!!

My issue is, if I knew what his standard of grading was (how he graded, what kind of answers does he want), I would have been able to ensure that my future lab assignments were done correctly. In a multiple choice exam, that's fine because it is more objective than a lab report. The issue is, I didn't know what he wanted, and he just tells us to "Do your best".

Now towards the end of the course, I asked to see my grade. He said he did NOT grade anything yet (not even experiment 1). So now (1.5 weeks later) he posts our grades. I feel like he still didn't even grade anything! I don't know how to approach this guy. The semester is over, I talked to him many times during the semester and he would give out comforts like "don't worry too much about this/that", "Do your best", "just write a conclusion that's fair" etc. etc.

This is evidence that he truly is not a diligent professor. My only issue is, I don't even know how I got a B. I was sure I got an A!

I can understand the frustration. We have all dealt with different situations that felt like because of external factors, sometimes centered around an individual or individuals, we were not able to perform as well as we believe we can.

Lets put that aside for a moment and think of ways that this could have been addressed prior to the examination. From the sound of things, you tried one intervention (ask him for the grades) repeatedly. Can you think of alternative solutions since that did not work from week to week it sounds like? When this wasn't getting done, it may be as simple as asking for an example of the ideal lab report so that you can compare yourself what you turned in to what he is expecting, you could discuss the situation with the department head, you could make an appointment with your professor to go over the lab reports with them.

I would like to say that in every situation all the other people involved will attend to their roles with the detail and attentiveness we expect, but unfortunately, life is not like this. There will be many instances where it is not happening. Sometimes the reason he is not grading the lab reports may be because his priorities are being spent helping you in a way you may not imagine…maybe there is a motion to eliminate the premed curriculum from the school which he is fighting, or he is recruiting money to open a new lab, or he is trying to demonstrate a need for additional lab TAs…you never know…so before you label him lazy or incompetent or any other name…reserve judgement. It's easy to dish out judgement, but once given, it cannot ever be retracted. You can always serve it up later when you have all the facts.

So in summary…

(1) very sorry you are in this position, but its a good opportunity to learn a few life skills that will help in certain-to-come future situations
(2) In the future, try to intervene with the lowest level intervention (reminding him to complete the task), but if its not working, entertain and execute alternative strategies. Trying the same technique, and hoping for an alternative outcome, is often futile.
(3) Avoid labeling individuals, especially when you are emotionally charged (see three consecutive exclamation points in your post), as there are often things in play that you are not aware of. The last thing you want is to alienate or discourage people who truly are watching out for your best interest in ways you don't know. The way you conduct yourself when life is not easy speaks volumes toward your character. Labeling someone else also speaks volumes toward your character.

Again, sorry this is happening, but take a deep breath, and try to find solutions.

Sincerely,
venk0

EDIT:
As an example, I am the ultrasound director for our emergency department and for the emergency medicine residency here at Mayo Clinic. For about a year, I was not able to review 100% of the educational ultrasound scans done by the residents; I had done this in previous years. Although many residents thought I was just goofing off or becoming lazy, I was in fact petitioning nearly 30 committees for a new IT solution to automate image and video distribution to our institutional PACS servers, so that when the scans are done, they are wirelessly sent to repositories for storage and review, as well as working to get an additional eight machines purchased (previously had two) for the department. The residents love the solutions now that we have new equipment, and are nearing improved feedback systems, but during the process, they didn't realize why I wasn't attending to them as I had done in previous years. I told them what I was doing, but on a day to day basis they couldn't see any changes as committee approvals are not memorable in their minds. Now that they can see, touch, and feel the new equipment, they are loving it.

 

[V5RED]

The way to have solved this problem would have been getting 100%s on every single lab report instead of waiting for the prof to grade your stuff so you can see how much you can slack off on each lab report and barely cinch an A.

"Always give 100%*, and expect zero"

- Sho Baraka

*Except when giving blood.

That is crap. Many professors expect things to be on the report that they forget to put in the rubric or explained very poorly in the rubric. You learn how they really want lab reports to look by getting feedback early on. Telling someone to just suck it up and give 100% is useless advice in this kind of situation.

 

[Thales]

I guess not everyone is in a hurry *shrugs*

Getting into med/professional school isn't a race it's a marathon.

 

[Aerus]

"Always give 100%*, and expect zero"

- Sho Baraka

*Except when giving blood.

I lol'd.

 

[Harpsx]

Heh, I feel your pain.
Something similar happened when I was in undergrad. Prof didn't return a test on time. Thought I had aced it, so I went into my second test answering questions the same way. When I finally got them back, I had a B and B-. I understood the content just fine, but realized they took off marks if you miss specific "buzz" word even though your explanation was right (my favorite was a question that asked how X ligand activated Y receptor, which I answered but apparently I was supposed to talk about how X ligand was even generated. Buhbai 50% of the mark for a question that wasn't even asked). But luckily I could at least redeem myself and change how I answered questions for the final and ended up with an A-.

You do have a valid complaint, though it's unlikely anything can be done about your grade now (which I think is what some people here think you want to do, which is why they think you're being "entitled"). If your school has any kind of course evaluation/feedback forms, I would make a complaint there. That's what I did and just hope the higher ups who read those forms take your complaint into consideration for the future. Unfortunately, you might just have to accept the grade and try to prevent it from happening again.

 

[LaceyMD]

I've had several classes that had similar issues, to varying degrees. It's possible (although not terribly likely) that if you'd gone to the department during the semester, something might have been done, but at this point, it's a little late to be complaining. You could bring it the attention of the department, but at the very best, they might speak to the prof and warm him to be more timely in future classes. I can almost 100% guarantee you're not going to get anything done about your grade. What it boils down to, unfortunately, is that no matter whether or not you got feedback, you earned a B-, not an A, and no amount of complaining about your professor's lack of feedback is going to change that. My 2 cents is to accept it and move on.