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135892
So, you only tell the professor in order to make a good impression and get a good letter of rec. Interesting...
Professor graded my exam wrong (should be lower). Do I inform him?
- Thread starter Istarus
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So, you only tell the professor in order to make a good impression and get a good letter of rec. Interesting...
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👎 Please, no self-righteous BS here, ok, bud!
Clearly I have established that I consider myself all high and mighty because I think that there is a morally correct solution to this dilemma.
I did not say that those that think otherwise are wholly evil people. I said that their values and thinking (I was hoping to imply "regarding this issue") were disappointing. Given that I strongly disagree with their values and thinking on this issue and have offered a logical basis for that disagreement, I think such a claim is far from "self-righteous."
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I do not appreciate the implication that I lack moral direction, which is a judgment that cannot be made by anyone who does not know me personally.
If post-modernism has taught us anything it is that personal morality is subjective and therefore it is not right for me to pass judgment on another person's decision based on my own morality. I can, however, make a rational argument as to why choosing to do the thing that I think is "right" is the best course of action. In my post rather than reducing the situation to a moral dilemma which is impossible to agree upon, I offered a logical reason for why the OP would choose to honestly let the prof know about the mistake.
cheers. 😎
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I'd mention it. Heck, I have done this.
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suwaifo
Personal morality is subjective but universal morality isn't.
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I have classes where the professors give partial credit and classes where tests are made up of essay and short answer questions. I always discuss my tests with my professors if I feel that one of my answers should have been accepted or at least given partial credit. Because of that, I also make it a policy to point out when they overlook a wrong answer. In my opinion, it's the only way you can bug them for a higher grade when you feel an answer is correct (or can at least explain why it should be accepted) without coming across like an annoying, ruthless pre-med only out for the grade and nothing else.
In Organic I, I needed a 95% on my last exam before the final to go into the final with an A average. I got a 93%. Not bad, but still a B average going into the final exam. I counted up the points and found that my professor had made a mistake in his addition. It should have been 96%. I emailed him and he told me to stop by his office the next day. That evening, I went over my exam to see what I missed and realized that he overlooked a crucial error I had made that would have cost me at least 5-7 points, bringing my grade down below the 93% even. So the next day, I went to his office and told him what I found and joked that I'd prefer to keep the 93% and forget that I ever emailed him. He laughed and asked me to leave my exam with him and he'd return it to me in class. He ended up giving me the 96% with a note on top of my test that thanked me for my honesty. He said his policy is to not penalize students for mistakes that he didn't catch himself. I ended up acing the final and actually *earning* the A I got in that class, along with an LOR from the professor.
In Organic I, I needed a 95% on my last exam before the final to go into the final with an A average. I got a 93%. Not bad, but still a B average going into the final exam. I counted up the points and found that my professor had made a mistake in his addition. It should have been 96%. I emailed him and he told me to stop by his office the next day. That evening, I went over my exam to see what I missed and realized that he overlooked a crucial error I had made that would have cost me at least 5-7 points, bringing my grade down below the 93% even. So the next day, I went to his office and told him what I found and joked that I'd prefer to keep the 93% and forget that I ever emailed him. He laughed and asked me to leave my exam with him and he'd return it to me in class. He ended up giving me the 96% with a note on top of my test that thanked me for my honesty. He said his policy is to not penalize students for mistakes that he didn't catch himself. I ended up acing the final and actually *earning* the A I got in that class, along with an LOR from the professor.
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I'm just amazed by how many posts this thread got.
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Ok, this tends to happen quite a bit... but whenever I have been honest about it to the prof, they have NEVER taken my current score down. I eventually just stopped trying....
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That's two totally different things though. You were completely right to tell him about the bad estimate. You don't want to be that guy who cheats somebody out of money.
The OP's case is about 5 points on a stupid test. This is not a moral issue, its just something that professors and gunners obsess over.
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Informing the prof because you are artificially bringing up the average, and thus hurting others, is obtuse unless you're in a really, really small class. If you're in a typical class of anything > 30 people, those 5 points will do nothing to the average.
This is just a test. People can score an 85 on a test that actually know more of the material than people who score a 95. Sometimes a test just works in your favour and by chance asks questions on exactly what you focused on studying, or vice versa. Sometimes you're lucky to have seen a similar question or concept in a previous course, or you find an answer serendipitously. So many little things can contribute to a grade that being so moralistic to believe each percent is so righteously earned becomes inane.
I once approached a prof who gave me a 97 when I should have received a 100% as the final course mark. She agreed with me, and said she would change it, yet she never did. It would have been great to have a 100% on my transcript (we do %, not GPA so it would have affected my overal average), and receive the mark that I so piously "earned," but I didn't care, and I didn't bring it up again. I was satisfied with her acknowledgement that I did know the material. That said, if it worked the other way, I wouldn't make a big deal out of it either and I would just keep it because in my value system, such things cancel out over time and school is about learning, not getting grades.
I don't know about other colleges, but at mine we never get to see final exams without a tedious process. As a result, few people ever do, yet when they do, their test has frequently been under-scored. Who knows how many times we haven't received marks that we deserved? And who cares? Do what's right for you - I would keep the marks, maybe mention it if the prof was right in front of me when i realized or something, but I def. wouldn't go a single step out of my way to brown-nose like that.
Saying that their "values and thinking are dissapointing" is implicitly self-righteous. As if you're above them, like a parent 'disappointed' in their child. You don't have to think a person is wholly evil to exhibit self-righteousness.
This is just a test. People can score an 85 on a test that actually know more of the material than people who score a 95. Sometimes a test just works in your favour and by chance asks questions on exactly what you focused on studying, or vice versa. Sometimes you're lucky to have seen a similar question or concept in a previous course, or you find an answer serendipitously. So many little things can contribute to a grade that being so moralistic to believe each percent is so righteously earned becomes inane.
I once approached a prof who gave me a 97 when I should have received a 100% as the final course mark. She agreed with me, and said she would change it, yet she never did. It would have been great to have a 100% on my transcript (we do %, not GPA so it would have affected my overal average), and receive the mark that I so piously "earned," but I didn't care, and I didn't bring it up again. I was satisfied with her acknowledgement that I did know the material. That said, if it worked the other way, I wouldn't make a big deal out of it either and I would just keep it because in my value system, such things cancel out over time and school is about learning, not getting grades.
I don't know about other colleges, but at mine we never get to see final exams without a tedious process. As a result, few people ever do, yet when they do, their test has frequently been under-scored. Who knows how many times we haven't received marks that we deserved? And who cares? Do what's right for you - I would keep the marks, maybe mention it if the prof was right in front of me when i realized or something, but I def. wouldn't go a single step out of my way to brown-nose like that.
Saying that their "values and thinking are dissapointing" is implicitly self-righteous. As if you're above them, like a parent 'disappointed' in their child. You don't have to think a person is wholly evil to exhibit self-righteousness.
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njbmd
When this happens, I say thanks for letting me know and you keep the points. That's my policy but every professor does not grade the same as me.
Honesty is always the best policy and a mistake in the grade is not a "break" for you. It's a mistake.
If the mistake had gone in the other direction, you would be in that professor's office in an instant. If you want the grade that you "deserve" then let the professor know about the mistake. After all, you are the one that looks at yourself in the mirror each morning. If you can't be honest about this, then what happens when you have to be honest about something that has to do with a patient's life?
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Really they're not quite the same thing.
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suwaifo
Hate to burst your bubble, but someone seems to be self righteous about one's own values of "schooling." I once also believed that school was for learning, but it doesn't pan out that way. School is actually to train you to enter the work force in whichever way you should happen to enter it, higher grades mean higher chances of you getting hired. Whether or not you learn the material is up to you.
So yeah, a genius and an idiot may both get an A but that's how the system works. Those who put the effort to get an A get an A. Some get screwed, oh well, no system is perfect, but for the most part, this is how it is supposed to work.
When you study for a test, you should be studying all the material that should be presented on the test. If you lose 1 percent of the work that means you didn't study as hard as you could have right? If you gain 1 percent by luck, you just got lucky that you learned about this before. To discredit your own learning of the material makes no sense. The point is, some people try harder than others.
come on, who says obtuse other than in describing triangles?
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suwaifo
They're not the same thing. Some people actually end up dead with dishonesty and some people just get scores they don't deserve.
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Life is not that serious.
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5 points on an exam shouldn't matter........ a friend in my physiology class last semester was told that she was going to get an A-, however when the grades came out there was an A on her transcipt. she never said a word, nor does she plan to.
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Yes, I have my own value system for schooling, everyone does and should, but I'm not self-righteous because I'm not trying to push it on anyone, and I wouldn't be "disappointed" in a person if they went to the prof to ask for those marks taken away. That's right for them, and that's fine with me. The person who is all high-and-mightily let down by the weakness of my moral fabric if i DON'T say anything is the self-righteous one.
Indeed, the system is not perfect. We've probably all lost marks that we should have received on final exams that we never got the chance to look at. So if we gain some extra marks, it balances that out a bit.
If you really believe that school is about maximizing hiring probability through grades than about truly learning the material that will help you succeed in the work force, the argument in favor of speaking up has even less to stand on.
I'm not discrediting anyone's learning, I'm saying that so many factors besides studying and hard work can affect a grade, and that's why I wouldnt be so moralistic over a mere 5%. The point is, some people who try harder do worse. Sometimes their efforts were misguided, or sometimes they do actually know more than someone who did 5% better because of various factors.
If you've ever talked to a med student, or a doc, or even a med school dean, they will tell you that you have to prioritize your learning and that NOBODY can study and truly know everything that could potentially be asked. A dean at a P/F school said "people quickly know how much they need to study to pass, and after that they go do things they enjoy." To various extents, this happens in all courses you ever take. Consequently, tests sometimes favor certain people over others, and this doesnt always correlate to hard work, intelligence, or amount of material learned - especially not in a 5% margin of error.
Well since middle school, I less often hear obtuse in describing triangles than in this usage.
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uh huh.
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to the OP
teacher will probably let you keep the points
92->97 isn't that big of a deal
if it were a grading error like an 82->97, i bet he would take pts away.
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I was in a similar situation. In one of my science classes, my professor gave me a 98 on the first exam. but I later saw that I had infact gotten six questions wrong which the scantron marked correctly. So at 2 pts per question my actual score would have been a 86. So being the righteous person that I am, I went to the professor and told him of the error.
He said "don't worry, anything in your favor shall remain that way." In my mind I started thinking, "why should he have the final say, even if it is in my favor. I'm gonna fight this," I told myself. So I argued with him that my score is off-setting the curve and that this was unfair to the rest of the class. He started to get a big agitated with my position, and in hindsight maybe I was being a little to rigid. But still I was fighting for what was right.
By the end of ten minutes we were basically yelling at each other. Him wanting to keep my grade at 98 and me wanting my actual score of 86. He even started insulting my Irish heritage and told me to get the #@*! out of his office. So I left. And as I was leaving he called me an imbicile. I admit I was pretty shaken up, and spent the whole day reviewing the events that took place in his office. Surprisingly, he emailed me the next day and apologized for his behavior, and said that it was because of people like me that the world is still surviving (I'm not sure what that exactly means). He even invited me to have dinner with his family, and introduced me to his daughter who was my age. She was quite attractive and very nice. He basically told me to ask her out, and I did. We've been together now for 4 years. The lesson: no good deed goes unrewarded. Icing on the cake: I aced his next 3 exams and got an A+ in the class. Hope this helps.
Doctordog11
He said "don't worry, anything in your favor shall remain that way." In my mind I started thinking, "why should he have the final say, even if it is in my favor. I'm gonna fight this," I told myself. So I argued with him that my score is off-setting the curve and that this was unfair to the rest of the class. He started to get a big agitated with my position, and in hindsight maybe I was being a little to rigid. But still I was fighting for what was right.
By the end of ten minutes we were basically yelling at each other. Him wanting to keep my grade at 98 and me wanting my actual score of 86. He even started insulting my Irish heritage and told me to get the #@*! out of his office. So I left. And as I was leaving he called me an imbicile. I admit I was pretty shaken up, and spent the whole day reviewing the events that took place in his office. Surprisingly, he emailed me the next day and apologized for his behavior, and said that it was because of people like me that the world is still surviving (I'm not sure what that exactly means). He even invited me to have dinner with his family, and introduced me to his daughter who was my age. She was quite attractive and very nice. He basically told me to ask her out, and I did. We've been together now for 4 years. The lesson: no good deed goes unrewarded. Icing on the cake: I aced his next 3 exams and got an A+ in the class. Hope this helps.
Doctordog11
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suwaifo
I dunno if I'm doing this right but let me try.
Don't be so quick to judge. I'm not saying you were saying I'm self righteous but read up on some principle based philosophers. Just because people have opinions doesn't mean they are self righteous.
Complaining about self righteousness and yet making excuses for shiza happening. It balances the score out, but this isn't about points.
The argument in speaking up is about the right thing to do, not about your potential to succeed.
Showing up to class doesn't require hard work but it deserves more credit than choosing to sleep in. If they both get the same grade, then by all means ok whatever. There has to have been some way for both of them to retain some knowledge or at least gain some insight. Getting free points from someone's mistake has nothing to do with yourself.
This is obvious. Deans, med students, and doctors don't say to bank on the chance of their authority figure messing up. Notice how the dean said how much they need to study to pass. Passing and acing are different.
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135892
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I'm well aware that having opinions donesn't make one self-righteous, I have many. This definitely is not about points, which is why it's entirely pointless to me to go say anything. Your distinction between passing and acing is just a red herring; no matter where the bar is, many factors affect the score aside from hours put in. In this case, we are talking about a 97 vs. 92, which at most schools is the same grade. I am also aware that getting free points has little to do with yourself, and the same can be said for many other little positive and negative things that happen in our academics and careers. And yes, the argument about speaking up is about moral rightness, not career prospects, that's why I pointed out that the latter was an odd angle to bring up in this case.
We simply have different takes on it, and that's perfectly fine. I'm not trying to make anyone do anything, or stating that there is any universally right thing to do. That is up to each individual to decide.. ethical dilemmas will become wayyyy more challenging than this during practice and life, and it's best to have confidence in your own value system before you get there. That's really the only advice i could give the OP.
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135892
If you tell the professor that he made a mistake in your favor, and he lets you just keep the points, then don't you have the moral obligation to demand that he change your grade to the correct score. If he doesn't change your grade, then you're still technically cheating becase you didn't get the grade you deserved.
