Bad grades

I’ve just finished marking two of my six classes today. I’ve already gotten my first complaint (a double complaint via email and text message).

The student has a reason to complain (just not to me). His girlfriend received similar marks but she got a B+ while he got a C+. Why?

My response (via email since I don’t know how to text message): There’s only one reason: the grading curve. As you know I have to add up students’ points and rank them. There were only 5 points separating you and XXXX and only two more points would have put you in the B+ range. Naturally I would like to raise your grade, but I can not do this unless the university drops the curve for our class.

Filed Under: Stories from class