Insane Grade Deflation? C- on lab report I spent hours on

[TheVisionary]

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Issue resolved

 

[Lamel]

Why don't you talk to the professor/TA to find out why you got a C-?

 

[altblue]

Like half of the class, I failed my first orgo 1 lab (which was thankfully not weighted heavily), so I know that feeling. :/ I'm not the best at reading labs, but definitely get as much feedback as you can - I realized my TA was a hard grader but very objective when I talked to her later. 🙂

"I'll love to hear people's perspective on this, and whether you think staying at an intense, grade-deflating school is useful at all with respect to getting into med school."
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...state-school-my-firsthand-experience.1105853/
Very good active thread on this.

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

I'll take a look at it if you want. If you can somehow figure out what your professors expect out of you, and make it through with a respectable gpa, then I would stay. If you think you will be stuck with a 3.3 or lower, get out as soon as possible.

 

[IlDestriero]

Your classmates did better.
If you did C- work at a grade inflating school, your sub par work would still only have been a C+. They call it a gentleman's C for a reason.
Find out where you went wrong by asking the people that graded it.

 

[Mad Jack]

You don't know how to write lab reports. Learn how to write lab reports.

They're tedious and require a very particular method of presentation. If you do not construct your report properly, you will get a bad grade regardless of how much time you spent on it.

 

[MrLogan13]

Your instructor didn't write any comments?

 

[Porkloins]

Remember that not every low grade you get is due to grade deflation... even if it were, a C- means you submitted work that was worse than the majority of your peers. Go to your lab instructor and ask him/her what you did wrong. Literally the most direct method of dealing with this. Otherwise you'll keep spending hours on C- level reports.

 

[efle]

You may never have produced C work in high school, but now you're competing with people who got straight As themselves. Good grades now will require a lot of "work smarter not harder". Especially in labs, you need to spend two hours doing exactly what the TAs are looking for instead of eight hours doing what makes sense to you.

 

[SnakeOilForSale]

3 weeks for intro bio report? Seems a little over the top, I don't know. I'll look at it if you want though.

 

[G_Marker]

Just keep cracking and figure out where you went wrong with this lab report. I felt the same way when I started college. It's a whole new world. You can't just work hard and expect an A - you need to be smart and ask the right questions. I think perseverance is the most important here. The students who come in super prepared do very well at first, but it's the ones who can really persevere and learn from mistakes that really do well in the long run.

You should figure out where you went wrong, rather than blaming the system. One C- won't hurt you too much in the long run, but giving up this early or calling foul on something like this might. See if you can talk to your lab TA or lab instructor for advice on where to improve next time. Whatever you do, don't tell anyone (professors, TAs, fellow classmates, etc) that you think you deserved a higher grade. It will make you come off as being an entitled freshman pre-med. Hours spent does not equal deserved grade.

Keep going! I remember this frustration. After I found a tutor and utilized all the services my school had to offer, things became much more manageable, even as classes became harder. You can do it!

 

[ridethecliche]

More time spent on an assignment doesn't equal higher grade automatically.

Figure out what you did wrong and fix it in the future.

 

[NYCdude]

I think it might have to do with being a freshman and not knowing how a lab report is supposed to be written or organized. You might have an Intro, Materials and Methods section, Results section, and Conclusion, but you have to fulfill the requirements of each section in the manner required. For example, some people just re-write the entire protocol found in the lab book for the materials and methods section when they should just be including the minimal information required for another person to reproduce the experiment, etc.

 

[freemontie]

Like other people said- lab reports typically follow a precise rubric. Honestly lab reports (in intro science classes) are 75% following directions and 25% knowledge. So if you sent someone a lab report to critique without also providing the TA/lab manual's directions/rubric - it's useless (did you miss a class and not get a rubric? Maybe that's it....)

 

[EvenStevens]

no way in hell you deserved that C!