Failure

Negotiating a Grade Change

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

A former student of mine needed to pass her math course in order to graduate from college. She had a job all lined up, the family was preparing to move across the country so that she could start the job, but ….she was apparently failing her math class….or so it seemed. No degree would equal no job……

She wrote a very impassioned letter to me (I teach public speaking at that college), asking me for help. Rather than  correct the letter itself, I suggested that she submit it to the professor as-is because it wasn’t a bad letter and her situation really shone through in the letter exactly it was. I also suggested she contact the department chair and the head of academic affairs, if she could not get satisfaction from the instructor. The good news was that he responded to her plea, realized he had not counted her extra credit that she had done throughout the term, and adjusted her grade to a C.

Keep in mind that most professors do not get joy from flunking a student and teachers sometimes forget to add in extra points. We are human, so write that impassioned letter and you might just get the results that you are seeking. (Or not, if you messed up all term and waited until the last minute to ask for extra credit……..I had a graduate student recently who lazed around the whole term and then asked for an extra assignment on the last day of class. That did not happen, folks!)

Best,

Dr. Sheri

“I chose not to do this assignment” or how to fail in one easy lesson

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Picture this: A student walks up to me and says, “Dr. Parmelee, I chose not to do this assignment.” I replied, “What???” She repeated herself and walked away. A few weeks later, she failed my class. She was none too pleased when she got her final grade for the course and sent me an email that said, “How dare you flunk me?”  I replied, “Let’s go over the numbers.”

You see, ladies and gentlemen, college is a numbers game. You make the grades, the numbers are high, and you pass the course. You “chose not to do this assignment” and you fail.  For the sake of understanding, let’s say that she had a potential to earn 100 points in that class. Here are her numbers:

The assignment (a group presentation) she did not do was worth 20 points.

The Team Dynamics paper she could not do because she did not do the group assignment (she did not have a team because no one wanted someone who refused to do any work) was worth 10 points.

The Reflection paper on how she felt about working on a team (which she also could not do) was worth 10 points.

So, those totals are 40 points out of the 100 points she could earn for the entire semester, which left her with a 60. At that particular college, 60 points is a low D. If everything else had been perfect for the entire semester, she would have gotten a D. But it wasn’t. If she had lost only one point all semester, she would have gotten a 59 and that is an F.  But she lost a lot more than 1 point on her other assignments. As a result, she ended up with a middle-range F. That’s how the numbers worked.

What are your numbers saying about your work ethic?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Do you want me to fail?

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today’s college-related post is based on what a student asked me recently, “Do you want me to fail? ” My short answer is “no.”

The person in question is one of my online-only students; I will never met him. Still, it is not my wish to fail the individual. It is my goal to teach him how to write.

He wrote a paper recently that received a 49 out of 100 points, so it certainly seems as if I wish him ill, but let me explain how he went so far astray. First, he did not follow the directions, so his format was totally off base (he had been given an example paper to follow, but he chose to ignore it). Next, he took his research references (he used the absolute  minimum required) and dumped the information into his paper. This lead to almost page-long paragraphs, which are dreadful on the eyes. Next, he made no effort to analyze the information, which was required. The paper had no introduction and no conclusion. Finally, what was supposed to be a APA-formatted Reference page was just a bunch of website addresses, with no format at all.

Was I making him fail? No, he was doing pretty good at that all by himself.

Discussion board postings were another issue. The requirement was for two five-sentence paragraphs as a minimum for both initial threads and replies. I was lucky to get two to three sentences out of him, one of which was usually “good post.” Every one of his postings got feedback from me; none of them were changed, even though I gave him 24 hours per posting to fix them.

Do I sit up at night, working on ways to make him fail? Nope. I would love it if he passed with flying colors. The ball, however,  is in his court.

Best,

Dr. Sheri