I just looked at my final grade, and I was shocked to see that I earned [not an A]. I counted up my points, and I got [182] out of a total of [200] points, which is [91%]. I noticed that you changed the weights on the exams and quizzes at the last minute, and that must be why my grade dropped to [not an A]. Could you please recheck my grade, because I think you made a mistake.Sincerely,
Iva Lithocranium
Sigh.
No, son, there is no mistake. You are innumerate. (Check your dictionary.) Please read your syllabus, and ask someone to show you how to compute a weighted average. The weights on exams and quizzes are the same as those promised in the syllabus. (You'll find that information right above the part where I reserve the right to change the weights on exams and quizzes if I so choose.)
9 comments:
I had a similar problem with a mass of students.
The course was based on a total of 400 points, with the final grade being a direct correlation to the 4.0 GPA scale standard on just about every college grade report scheme.
All students had to do is keep track of all their points, add them together, and they'd VERY EASILY have some idea of their grade. I even provided a breakdown on the syllabus.
Far too many of them just didn't get it. One student insisted, up through the end of the course, that the 8 out of 10 she received on a quiz was an 80. Not even 80%! Just an 80...
I could NEVER, ever expect them to understand something as complicated as weights and averages! hehe
Wow, that is a brave email for a student to send. Saying you changed the weights "at the last minute" is kind of a forceful way of implying that you have wronged this student. Good luck completing grades for the rest of the class.
I wonder, would Iva's condition improve if you performed s lithotomy on him or her?
I think the sad irony that AP has left as an exercise to the readers is that this her "efforts primarily consist of delivering statistics lectures to social science majors."
I didn't do too well in stats, but I *think* a working knowledge of percentages is a requirement for passage in such a class.
Wow, you reserve the right to change weights? I've always thought those were sacrosanct and I was stuck with them for better or for worse, though I did it once in consultation with a class. Do the students object? Do you give them a pedagogical rationale? I'm just curious about how you present this to them.
My syllabus actually links to a long explanation of how I do the math for weighted grades, so my first "you did my grade wrong" response is "feel free to check my math using the instructions here", but then students can't figure out that the instructions use *examples* that they need to adjust to the exact requirements of that class.
So now my syllabus has a line about how learning to apply a general rule to a specific situation is the college-level equivalent of putting square blocks into square holes in preschool. My syllabus is scary long--it even scares me.
Dance - my syllabus is 17 pages long. I have never had to change the weights, but I would like to have the option if I thought it necessary, hence the escape clause.
I guess I imagine writing a bad exam or a breach in test security that would make me want to shift things around.
Bravo to your student for even noticing that there was weighting at all! Despite writing it in my syllabus, explaining it in class, and having the weights displayed in the online gradebook many of my students simply did not know that their grades were weighted!
**I am also left wondering if there are actually classes *without* weighting??
Ah, thanks. I hadn't thought about miswriting an exam or test security.
They always claim that one changed the grading scale at the last minute - it's their first sally.
More interesting: when my students first stopped understanding weighted averages I showed them on the board by hand. They looked in amazement -- how could I do that, how could I know how to do that. They then said, "we have never seen anyone do arithmetic without a calculator before."
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