Yikes. What would you guys do here?

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Haha, I ended up with a B+ in physics because I almost never went to class, and found out at the end that about 2 weeks into class, the prof had started to take attendance, and there was actually a grade for showing up, turning my A into a B+. Whoops, my bad. It was a little annoying since the grading syllabus didn't mention anything about it, and I was acing my exams, but serves me right for skipping I guess.

If the syllabus doesnt mention it, you could make quite a big deal out of that. Professors cannot change the rules up partway through a semester without making sure the entire class knows.

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Heh. Here at my undergrad, in some of the premed classes, the professors state that if you turn in your test for a regrade there are certain rules. They are: the professor personally will regrade your test, and they regrade ALL of it, so if they decide that you were actually given more credit on a question than they thought you deserve (i.e. your TA was kind of lenient) then they'll dock points off (which is fairly likely seeing how many of our professors are pretty anal). And the regrade is FINAL. No arguments after that. So if you're just fighting for one or two points, you might end up getting those, and losing 5 others, and there wouldn't be anything you could do about it.

Needless to say, only people who REALLY feel like there was a big mistake in the grading of the exam go in for regrades.

Haha, I ended up with a B+ in physics because I almost never went to class, and found out at the end that about 2 weeks into class, the prof had started to take attendance, and there was actually a grade for showing up, turning my A into a B+. Whoops, my bad. It was a little annoying since the grading syllabus didn't mention anything about it, and I was acing my exams, but serves me right for skipping I guess.

I don't think we went to the same undergrad, but our schools had the same attitude towards re-grades. The only time I ever had a test re-graded was when the prof told me I flunked my biochem exam...and I realized that he had forgotten to add 60 points to my grade. I think I went from a 110/200 to a 170/200. Good thing I caught that!

I like that you have a nice perspective towards that B+: whoops, but got over it. And don't you have like the nicest collection of interviews ever?
 
I've heard students ask at my school and the prof always ends up giving them a weird look (just in my experience, I'm sure it works for some). I remember a student asking a Physics professor if he could take their physics final early, because he had 4 other finals that day and the prof looked at him for a second with a dumbfounded look on his face then he said, "Oh, I've gotcha you're a special needs student and need to take the exam in the testing center, right?" :laugh: The student just bowed his head and walked away.
Wow...

My O-Chem prof is letting me take the final early. Granted, it's not another day, I'm just starting half an hour before it's scheduled, because I'm working fulltime right now and if I started when it's supposed to and I take as long as he thinks we will, I'll be late. He didn't have a problem with it at all.
 
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I've heard students ask at my school and the prof always ends up giving them a weird look (just in my experience, I'm sure it works for some). I remember a student asking a Physics professor if he could take their physics final early, because he had 4 other finals that day and the prof looked at him for a second with a dumbfounded look on his face then he said, "Oh, I've gotcha you're a special needs student and need to take the exam in the testing center, right?" :laugh: The student just bowed his head and walked away.

That's just mean. Our school has a policy that if you have three or more exams on the same day, you can request to take one early. And it's not like the student is asking to take the test after the entire class has... he's giving up studying time in order to take it early.

Personally, and I am not joking, I would scream a little. Also i would mention that you would be willing to go to the dean on this issue. Say that you were at an Ochem final, and that Premeds are under enough stress blah blah blah. Language teachers are usually very nice and understanding, but you should be firm. Its hard for a humanities teacher to really understand the pressure you are under to get A's, and its ridiculous for you to get anything less because of some technicality.

This is the attitude that many people have problems with. Why should you be entitled to a higher grade just because you're pre-med? There are people that make it through humanities classes fine while taking several science classes... if one person can't handle that, then they should deal with the grades they get. It's one thing to be between a D and C, and thus between having to retake the class, and barely passing it. But between a B and an A... there's not a whole lot of difference in the long run.
 
Personally, and I am not joking, I would scream a little. Also i would mention that you would be willing to go to the dean on this issue. Say that you were at an Ochem final, and that Premeds are under enough stress blah blah blah. Language teachers are usually very nice and understanding, but you should be firm. Its hard for a humanities teacher to really understand the pressure you are under to get A's, and its ridiculous for you to get anything less because of some technicality.

If I were the prof, I would be the one screaming if I had some kid say something like that to me.

We are not special. We are not unique little snowflakes. We just chose a path that requires a little more buckling down from time to time (i.e., ochem/biochem and company).
 
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