Gypped?

[84lep48]

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Just curious,

Anyone ever have a class where they were like .0001% from the grade they were looking forward to having? If so, how did you guys handle it? i think its gonna happen to me soon. its just pretty fustrating, all that hard work and still came up short.... lol.

 

[MahSpoon]

I got a B+ and when I emailed the professor he said I was 3 points away from an A-

Who makes cutoffs that close? I'm going to look at my final and argue for points...also emailed my TA and she said she'd try to help me out.

Generally though, I think Professors try to make grade cutoffs so no one is that that close.

 

[munnabhai]

Orgo lab - I was 1/2200 points away from an A. Asked the prof and he was cool enough to change it.

As long as you are humble and have the right attitude, it should be alright.

Three ways you can go about asking the prof:
Attitude A: Please tell me where I went wrong so I can learn from my mistakes?
Attitude B: wtfsauce gimme A or I fail for medschool and kill myself
Attitude C: wtf I deserve an A and my 30+ MCAT proves it; regardless your TA is dumb and you didnt clarify xxxxx and I am smarter than everyone else in the class.

Attitude A is the way to go.

to you

 

[waitforme]

many professors are pretty open about changing your grade if you are that close to cutoff. there may be stipulations in the syllabus that say if you show improvement they'll reconsider your grades, like if you do increasingly better on consecutive tests. convince them of your improvement, or general interest in the class and you may get lucky!

talking to them can't hurt!!

 

[MossPoh]

I was 1 point away from A in 2 different courses....didn't get either changed. I was very polite in seeing what could be done, and they were very polite in shutting me down. 😳

 

[GujuMD]

In my highschool geometry class, I missed on the A by .01 %. Since it was an honor course, the teacher didn't round.
if it was a regular course, she would have rounded. what a stupid rule!

 

[GujuMD]

I got a B+ and when I emailed the professor he said I was 3 points away from an A-

Who makes cutoffs that close? I'm going to look at my final and argue for points...also emailed my TA and she said she'd try to help me out.

Generally though, I think Professors try to make grade cutoffs so no one is that that close.

Who said that they were that close. just b/c you are 3 points away from A- doesn't mean the cutoffs are close. for example if B+ is 60 and A- is 70 and you have 67, then yeah you are 3 points aways but the cutoff is 10 points.

 

[tae1703]

suck it up and try harder next time. begging for professor for 1/10 of a point doesnt exactly motivate a good letter down the road.

 

[baylormed]

Just curious,

Anyone ever have a class where they were like .0001% from the grade they were looking forward to having? If so, how did you guys handle it? i think its gonna happen to me soon. its just pretty fustrating, all that hard work and still came up short.... lol.

I feel your pain. There was a class in which I was 2 points away from the A (a class in which I busted my @** all semester long), out of something like 1014 points.

The first thing I did was to go to the prof and ask if a bump was possible (hey, nothing to lose at this point). He said no.

Your last option is to just suck it up. Sure, it sucks, but just be a man (or a woMAN), accept responsibility and just move on.

 

[Abilene85]

Talk to the prof. If you don't, you might regret it later on and wonder if you could have had the higher grade. Be mature and polite. Ask if there is anything you can do to make up the couple points for the higher grade - or show that you consistently performed well on exams, with one outlier, if that is the case.

If the prof is not open to the idea of raising your grade, forget about it and move on. You won't change his/her mind in the end. Accept the fact that sh^t happens.

 

[Law2Doc]

Anyone ever have a class where they were like .0001% from the grade they were looking forward to having? If so, how did you guys handle it?

Tequila.

It happens, and will happen to everybody somewhere along the road. Will probably happen again in med school too, if you go someplace with grades. Doesn't do any good to cry about it, they have to draw the line someplace and you were on the wrong side of it this time -- you push on. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

 

[mvenus929]

I've actually had professors say that they refuse to change the cutoffs, and they'll be very upset if you went to them asking to change the curve for you. It's frustrating, yes, but that's life. The only time I'd really argue it is if you were on the verge of failing/not getting credit for the class. If it's between like a B+ and an A-, it's not worth it, really.

Now, you can go through old exams or something to try to find those extra 3 points you need, but don't expect the professor to just give them to you.

 

[Law2Doc]

I've actually had professors say that they refuse to change the cutoffs, and they'll be very upset if you went to them asking to change the curve for you.

Ditto. You don't want to create a reputation as a grade grubber -- it gets around the faculty fast. Unless you have a specific misgraded item on the last test you can point to to get a point or two you need to let it go.

 

[ssquared]

Orgo lab - I was 1/2200 points away from an A. Asked the prof and he was cool enough to change it.

As long as you are humble and have the right attitude, it should be alright.

Three ways you can go about asking the prof:
Attitude A: Please tell me where I went wrong so I can learn from my mistakes?
Attitude B: wtfsauce gimme A or I fail for medschool and kill myself
Attitude C: wtf I deserve an A and my 30+ MCAT proves it; regardless your TA is dumb and you didnt clarify xxxxx and I am smarter than everyone else in the class.

Attitude A is the way to go.

to you

If that A strategy worked for you, you're quite lucky.

After getting a B on an exam, I once asked a professor what I could do down the road, studying-wise, so that I could do better in the class. He proceeded to yell at me, saying "Some students would be perfectly happy with that grade! How dare you!" He then stormed out of his office.

Lesson? Don't ask profs to change your grades, because they hate it. Hate, hate, hate it, especially coming from pre-meds. If they messed up grading something, it's one thing, but to go in and whine that you missed the cutoff? Ew. Suck it up, buddy.

 

[munnabhai]

If that A strategy worked for you, you're quite lucky.

After getting a B on an exam, I once asked a professor what I could do down the road, studying-wise, so that I could do better in the class. He proceeded to yell at me, saying "Some students would be perfectly happy with that grade! How dare you!" He then stormed out of his office.

Lesson? Don't ask profs to change your grades, because they hate it. Hate, hate, hate it, especially coming from pre-meds. If they messed up grading something, it's one thing, but to go in and whine that you missed the cutoff? Ew. Suck it up, buddy.

Well, Attitude A works when you dont know your final grade and just wanna bring the fact (that you were very close to the cutoff) to your profs attention. Yes, and it helps to not have a d0uchb4g prof.

 

[MeowMix]

Suck it up and learn to live with it now, because med school is just down the road, and the difference between H and P can be just one question on one exam after a whole semester of hard work. There are too many med students who still want to argue every exam question because they can't see the big picture.

 

[killinsound]

Think about it this way. If you had put in 5 more minutes of studying maybe you wouldve scored the 1 point.

 

[TheRealMD]

Because of the minute effect of getting a B in my microbio class this summer, I'm not really that concerned about it. If getting an A instead of a B means getting into med school, then I think I have a lot worse things to worry about.

 

[shantster]

The cut offs have to be so close because they need to stop somewhere. If they gave you an A for being whatever percentage of a grade away from the cut off, what is that prof going to say to the person that comes in being the same percentage away from your score and wanting the same grade that you did? And then it goes on down the line.

Honestly, you knew the cutoffs earlier in the semester. There has to be someplace that you knew that you made a stupid error that would prevent you from getting the grade you wanted. Now you have to learn from this and fix it the next time.

 

[bigDee]

The cut offs have to be so close because they need to stop somewhere. If they gave you an A for being whatever percentage of a grade away from the cut off, what is that prof going to say to the person that comes in being the same percentage away from your score and wanting the same grade that you did? And then it goes on down the line.

Honestly, you knew the cutoffs earlier in the semester. There has to be someplace that you knew that you made a stupid error that would prevent you from getting the grade you wanted. Now you have to learn from this and fix it the next time.

I agree that there should be a cutoff but your reasoning is not logical.
Lets say someone has an 89. This B is nearly an A. The professor bumps him to an A because he felt sorry for him.

The next guy has an 88. This is a B. With your logic, the next guy with an 88 should be bumped up two points instead of one. You're saying someone with a solid B should be bumped up to nearly an A, and since he is nearly an A, he should be bumped up to an A. That doesn't make sense. The reason why it would make since to bump up someone with an 89.7 to an A is because his ACTUAL grade is nearly an A. Someone with an 88.7 has a solid B. He can be bumped up to nearly an A but the reason why he souldn't be bumped up again is because that isn't his ACTUAL grade.

 

[paranoid_eyes]

very few professors who teach premeds will change ur grade. EVEN IF YOU ARE ONE POINT AWAY!!!! (ive had three such experiences). Still, try getting it changed, you may get lucky

 

[DreamyKid]

in one class I was 1.2 points away from an A, Ta tried to help me out but the professor refused to do anything about it. It was 1.2 points out of 400. It really takes a lot out of you though, I felt really sad/pissed for a while

 

[thebeatgoeson]

I got a B+ in Chem II. Luckily, I was staying at the university for part of the summer working. I went to talk to my professor - who was an amazing and kind man. After reviewing my final he (rather his TA's) marked me for a wrong answer on a multiple choice that I got right.

Because of his grading scale it was enough to bump me up to an A-. w00t. I suppose.

However, I did have an English teacher who bragged how he never gave an "A" out in his entire career. All the arguing and Dean's review never amounted to anything and I took the A- I was granted. A bummer.

 

[voirlesetoiles]

I was 1 point away from A in 2 different courses....didn't get either changed. I was very polite in seeing what could be done, and they were very polite in shutting me down. 😳

Last semester, I was 0.5% away from a B+ for one of my classes. The prof refused to round grades up. In another class, I was 0.7% away from an A and the prof rounded the grade up automatically (he curved up all people who were borderline). It really depends on the professor, and it's one of those life lessons. I bet the same situation occurs to many people in med school. I've learned to aim higher and work twice as hard so I don't end up borderline again.

 

[MahSpoon]

Honestly, you knew the cutoffs earlier in the semester. There has to be someplace that you knew that you made a stupid error that would prevent you from getting the grade you wanted. Now you have to learn from this and fix it the next time.

What college do you go to? There's a little thing called a "curve" which allows professors to adjust cutoffs based on a normal distribution; this is how most classes are graded in my major. So going in, you don't know how well you need to do to get a certain grade, it all depends on how well you do in relation to other people. 🙄

 

[Law2Doc]

it's one of those life lessons. I bet the same situation occurs to many people in med school. I've learned to aim higher and work twice as hard so I don't end up borderline again.

Agree- it happens to everyone at some point. It never pays to be right at the line -- if you can't score a few points above, you screwed up and came too close for comfort however it plays out.

 

[DreamyKid]

I think the most unfair part is probably that some professors bump up students, while others don't. While one student who has 89.7 percent is off an A- because of his/her own mistakes on a test, if this person gets bumped up to an A-, another student who didn't in another class becomes "gypped" because of another professor's leniency.

 

[shantster]

I agree that there should be a cutoff but your reasoning is not logical.
Lets say someone has an 89. This B is nearly an A. The professor bumps him to an A because he felt sorry for him.

The next guy has an 88. This is a B. With your logic, the next guy with an 88 should be bumped up two points instead of one. You're saying someone with a solid B should be bumped up to nearly an A, and since he is nearly an A, he should be bumped up to an A. That doesn't make sense. The reason why it would make since to bump up someone with an 89.7 to an A is because his ACTUAL grade is nearly an A. Someone with an 88.7 has a solid B. He can be bumped up to nearly an A but the reason why he souldn't be bumped up again is because that isn't his ACTUAL grade.

I don't know how this isn't logical. If the professor bumped up someone with an 89 to an A, it looks like s/he changed the cutoff to an 89. Now the person with the 88 would think that s/he should also be bumped up since the professor set the precedent of bumping someone up with a grade one point away from the cutoff and since 89 is the new cutoff, the person with the 88 has a valid point.

 

[shantster]

What college do you go to? There's a little thing called a "curve" which allows professors to adjust cutoffs based on a normal distribution; this is how most classes are graded in my major. So going in, you don't know how well you need to do to get a certain grade, it all depends on how well you do in relation to other people. 🙄

Usually the classes that I've had that curved will start off with a set guide and the scale can only go lower if the class average is poor. This gave us something to shoot for and then if the majority of the class earns an A, then they receive it. This eliminates any bias in the grading solely based on the caliber of students in the particular class so that the grading isn't harsher in one semester of the class and easier in another.

And from the OP's description of saying how s/he knows that s/he will be a certain percentage of the grade away, it's obvious that s/he knew the scale ahead of time.

 

[ssquared]

What college do you go to? There's a little thing called a "curve" which allows professors to adjust cutoffs based on a normal distribution; this is how most classes are graded in my major. So going in, you don't know how well you need to do to get a certain grade, it all depends on how well you do in relation to other people. 🙄

At my undergrad, I had maybe one or two classes that were curved. That was it. Otherwise, the grades were very clearly outlined: 94-100 A, 90.0-93.9999999 A-, etc. You can't expect that people had classes that were adjusted to a normal distribution.

Although once, in an organic chem class, the professor took points off of our scores because too many (probably like 10 people) got A's. That was painful.

 

[lilnoelle]

I don't know how this isn't logical. If the professor bumped up someone with an 89 to an A, it looks like s/he changed the cutoff to an 89. Now the person with the 88 would think that s/he should also be bumped up since the professor set the precedent of bumping someone up with a grade one point away from the cutoff and since 89 is the new cutoff, the person with the 88 has a valid point.

For instance.... they round our grades up in med school, i.e. If I got a 84.5, then it would be rounded up to 85.0 which is our equivalent of a B. So, I ended up 1 pount from 84.5 (84.47 or something like that) and I was dissapointed because I was 1 point from a B.... even though, truth be told, I was several points from a B.

Since this course was an 8 credit course, and we only took 38 credits total during the year, that C greatly affected my final GPA.
As others have mentioned, it happens a lot. I've talked to quite a few individuals who have said the same thing has happened to them. Some of them were one point from an A, some of them one point from a B, some of them one point from a C, some of them one point from passing.

Its not good to complain, no matter where you stand in the spectrum. Take personal responsibility and remember there are others who are worse off than you.

 

[Lamont]

maybe if you spend less time on SDN...you would have gotten that X points you needed?

lesson to be learned: work harder and spend less time here so you can avoid the kick in the pants that is a X+ grade (B/C/whatever)

 

[Phoenix.]

Ditto. You don't want to create a reputation as a grade grubber -- it gets around the faculty fast. Unless you have a specific misgraded item on the last test you can point to to get a point or two you need to let it go.

Exactly. I got an A- in Orgo I, and when I stopped by to ask the prof for an LOR for med school, he said yes, and then said how he was sorry to give me the A- when I had been only 3 points from the A. Out of about 500 points! I didn't see any point in haggling with him over those three points. He obviously knew how close I had been, and if he didn't take the initiative of bumping me up, I wasn't going to grade-grub. Especially since he was writing one of my LORs. So, I sucked it up and moved on. I just wish he hadn't told me how close I had been! That was the equivalent of ONE multiple choice question on ONE exam. The worst part of it was that he had spoken several times in his office hours to students (and myself) throughout the course about how he always gives students the benefit of the doubt if they're close to the next grade up. Argh. Perhaps he was in a bad mood the day he set the final grades. Bygones.

 

[shantster]

For instance.... they round our grades up in med school, i.e. If I got a 84.5, then it would be rounded up to 85.0 which is our equivalent of a B. So, I ended up 1 pount from 84.5 (84.47 or something like that) and I was dissapointed because I was 1 point from a B.... even though, truth be told, I was several points from a B.

Since this course was an 8 credit course, and we only took 38 credits total during the year, that C greatly affected my final GPA.
As others have mentioned, it happens a lot. I've talked to quite a few individuals who have said the same thing has happened to them. Some of them were one point from an A, some of them one point from a B, some of them one point from a C, some of them one point from passing.

Its not good to complain, no matter where you stand in the spectrum. Take personal responsibility and remember there are others who are worse off than you.

Actually, in that case, the real cutoff was whatever amount of points a 84.5% amounted to, which you knew at the beginning. And yes, I agree it's not good to complain. It's something to look back on and motivate you for the next semester.

 

[Crimson doc]

I just dealt with it. Can't say that attempting to change it would have done anything, so I didn't. I really doubt that many med schools are gonna consider one grade all by itself, and if it does keep you out, there was probably something else. What really hurts though, is finding out that CE credit taken in HS also can come back to haunt you.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

It happens, and will happen to everybody somewhere along the road. Will probably happen again in med school too, if you go someplace with grades.

Friend of mine first year was within an Honor/Outstanding in 5 classes by, at the most, 3 points.

 

[PlayMeSomeMusic]

I got a 89.5 last semester and had email a professor to ask him if he rounded up.. he told me yes he did and i'd have an a-... my grades get posted and he gave me the B+ so I emailed him and he was like oh I changed my mind.. I wouldn't have been so mad had he told me that it was a B+ in the first place but the fact that he told me I'd have an A- got me all pumped and all lol.. dang people changing their minds😡

 

[TCIrish03]

Gotta love the Entitlement Mentality....alive and well, in all areas of society

 

[doinmybest5840]

Just curious,

Anyone ever have a class where they were like .0001% from the grade they were looking forward to having? If so, how did you guys handle it? i think its gonna happen to me soon. its just pretty fustrating, all that hard work and still came up short.... lol.

I was 0.04% (1 point out of 460) away from an A- in physical chemistry. I emailed the professor and asked if I could possibly be boosted up but he wouldn't do it. What pissed me off was that the cutoff was neither at a logical point value nor at an even percentage. It was at something like 326 and 70.8%.

 

[bigDee]

I don't know how this isn't logical. If the professor bumped up someone with an 89 to an A, it looks like s/he changed the cutoff to an 89. Now the person with the 88 would think that s/he should also be bumped up since the professor set the precedent of bumping someone up with a grade one point away from the cutoff and since 89 is the new cutoff, the person with the 88 has a valid point.

No, 90 is the cutoff. Did you even read my post? Obviously not.

The person with an 89 deserves an A because he EARNED an 89. The person with an 88 can round up to an 89, but he didn't EARN that 89, therefore, he doesn't get bumped up again.

 

[cleothecat]

Gypped is a term with racial overtones. It is derogatory towards Gypsies, and really should not be in the lexicon of a future physician.😡

 

[shantster]

No, 90 is the cutoff. Did you even read my post? Obviously not.

The person with an 89 deserves an A because he EARNED an 89. The person with an 88 can round up to an 89, but he didn't EARN that 89, therefore, he doesn't get bumped up again.

Obviously I read the post and that's how I came up with the answer. I agree with the posters above, I love the entitlement maturity. And how does someone deserve the A if the 90 is the cutoff and s/he didn't earn it? Earning the 89 means that s/he deserves the B. It's not the professors fault that the student failed to reach the mark. And the reason that I say the cutoff now moves to 89 is because if the professor is completely fair about it, s/he would change everyone's grade to an A if they made the 89 because s/he did for that one student. Why should the people mature enough to accept that they should have done better be punished while the whiners get the grades bumped? Now, in the same instance, the person with the 88 would see that the professor set a precedent for bumping up grades one point from the cutoff (since this is what it has happened), and will feel that s/he should also get the same advantage to get bumped to an 89 since that apparently is the new A cutoff.

Honestly, reading from some of these posts, particularly this one, you need to grow up and learn to accept responsibility for your own acheivements. The real world is going to be a shock is you continue with the sense of entitlement - people are not just going to give you advantages because you whine. Good luck taking that attitude into the admissions process because they aren't going to care whether you think that you deserve to be into their school.

Edit: Actually, take my rage to everyone that's agreeing that people should be changing their grades, not particularly this person. This thread frustrates me, particularly this early in the morning.