Why did I get this grade?

[firecat88]

To me, it makes perfect sense- You slack off in class, don't turn in your homework, and do poorly on the tests, you're going to get a bad grade. But I suppose that it's not allowed if it makes sense.

Also, the only time I've ever even pondered how the heck I got a certain grade was in my Legal Environment of Business class. I think I've mentioned it before, but I got the highest grade of everyone in the class on the paper we had to write for it. Which was weird to me because I never finished reading one of the books for it (Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". x.x That book is horribly depressing, I'm sorry).

[Merriweather]

The only time I ever asked "why did I get this grade?" was when I got an A on an essay for my history class...considering I had plagerized a light beer comercial because I didn't think my teacher was paying attention.

I only went to an instructor once and asked about my grade, in college. It was a statistics class, very straightforward, we knew in advance how much of our grade was based on homework, each exam, etc. And according to how I added it up, I should have gotten an A, and my final grade was a B. Went to the instructor, he started to give me his official "that's the way it is speech" as he looked up his grade book, then switched to an apology as he realized that yep, he'd made the mistake, it should indeed be an A. He was quick to get it changed for me too, which I appreciated. A mistaken B is a very big deal when you have a 4.0 GPA

[Andara Bledin]

The only time I ever asked "why did I get this grade?" was when I got an A on an essay for my history class...considering I had plagerized a light beer comercial because I didn't think my teacher was paying attention.

I had a person in my study group plagiarize "Parents Just Don't Understand" for a writing assignment once. I'm about 50% sure the teacher recognized it but let it go because it was well-written.

As for the OP, since the reasons for the grade are written on the paper prior to their coming up and asking, you could always tell them they have reading comprehension issues.... >_>

^-.-^

[auntiem]

The only time I asked about a grade on a paper was on the one that only said "you write like a dead white man" B-

[dalesys]

..."you write like a dead white man" B-

Did you get a poe grade?

[gremcint]

Did you get a poe grade?

Now she was just Tolkien aback.

[EricKei]

Now she was just Tolkien aback.

Sounds like someone was just feeding you a Heinlein.

[Tama]

Hey, enough of this Pratchetting...

[Jay 2K Winger]

Hey, enough of this Pratchetting...

He's not dead yet.

I'm giving you such a Frost-y look.

[Tama]

Don't Shakespeare me, I didn't realize it was dead authors only.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Don't Shakespeare me, I didn't realize it was dead authors only.

Going by this:

The only time I asked about a grade on a paper was on the one that only said "you write like a dead white man" B-

So yeah, dead white men only.

[Tama]

I apologize. I read that and didn't make the connection.

I'm such a doofus sometimes.

[RealUnimportant]

I've Azimov of this; stop Clarkeing around!

[Jay]

I wish I could just say, "Because that's the grade you got."

How about, "You got that grade because of all those notes I wrote explaining why you got that grade. Read them and get back to me if you have something more specific you need to know about those comments"?

[Miss Fatale]

In your case, I can definitely understand the frustration as you've taken the time to explain why they got the mark they did beforehand. The entitlement part, is it because they're arguing with you and insisting that you change the marks regardless of feedback? Or is it literally just the "why" question that leads you to that impression? Like they're expecting you to remember what you wrote and not even try to go over the points with you to understand better.

It's the "why." If the student said, "I don't understand why you deducted points for this" or "I don't understand your comment about X," that'd be fine.

But I always get this question without any hint that they actually read my feedback.

They should question me -- I believe we should question everything. And because I'm human, I make mistakes, so I appreciate when they are brought to my attention. But use logic in those questions, show thoughtfulness, not just a knee-jerk reaction.