Originally Posted by lifesciman1

I'm sure some professors would make an acception with the weighting of the tests if you are usually a consistent student and ask politely. But if the they refuse, there is nothing you can really do because you were given a syllabus with the breakdown at day 1.

They shouldn't make the exception without offering it to the whole class, no matter how consistent of a student you are or how politely you ask.

Originally Posted by L_Blankfein

That is a stupid retort. That hypothetical scenario is hyperbole, not realistic at all. Good try, though.

Haha OP, you don't pose a situational question like this and then ridicule people for providing a valid opinion, just because you're not getting the answer you want to hear. So you got a shitty mark on one test, it happens... grow up and learn from the experience like the rest of us lol.

Originally Posted by marcie

Haha OP, you don't pose a situational question like this and then ridicule people for providing a valid opinion, just because you're not getting the answer you want to hear. So you got a shitty mark on one test, it happens... grow up and learn from the experience like the rest of us lol.

I do not know how you deduced it was me, it was not. Even still, you guys fail to realize the flexibility professors have, regardless of what you think is fair.

Originally Posted by L_Blankfein

I do not know how you deduced it was me, it was not. Even still, you guys fail to realize the flexibility professors have, regardless of what you think is fair.

My bad, I skimmed over your initial post and missed the "His test scores are..." I suppose I'm really just addressing anyone who thinks it's fair to write a bad test and have it magically disappear.

I've never actually heard of any profs adjusting the weighting of a course to increase an individual student's mark (is that what you mean by 'flexibility'?), and I really hope that's not a thing that actually happens. Maybe I'm super naive about this, but IMO, whatever advantage is provided to one student must be made available to all.

physics 1b03 was an 'aberration' on my grade report a few yrs ago... wish i could get that taken care of :(

Originally Posted by L_Blankfein

I do not know how you deduced it was me, it was not. Even still, you guys fail to realize the flexibility professors have, regardless of what you think is fair.

The question wasn't "does a prof have the power to do this". The question was "what would you do if you were a prof", so what we think is fair is very relevant.

Also, if a prof did change the marking scheme for one student, and other students found out, it could become very difficult to keep it just to that one student.

Originally Posted by starfish

They shouldn't make the exception without offering it to the whole class, no matter how consistent of a student you are or how politely you ask.

Of course they shouldn't but I've seen it happen.

To point out an example at Mac, Dr. Day teaches numerous psychology exams and I believe his policy is that IF one of your marks is an aberration AND you're slightly away from the next grade point, he will adjust the mark and award you with the higher mark (I don't think he informs the student).

So it does happen. They don't do this the other way around (dropping a high aberration) because that would cause an uproar unless they announced the policy in the outline (in which case the prof would be hated because no one wants to give up the high mark they got on the easy midterm).

The Dr. Day example is pretty off, he doesn't just drop the whole test mark at all (as the OP asks about), he just has a slight rounding policy if you're just short of a grade point (depending on your test scores and the specific details of his policy).

But it is true with some profs that there are times a student will get an advantage (unfairly in my opinion) and have a poor mark removed etc. for no real reason.

But at the OP, I think this thread's question is legitimate for discussion but your own reasons for it are just trolling or stupid, so I hope this thread gets buried soon =D.

Originally Posted by ikantsepll

To point out an example at Mac, Dr. Day teaches numerous psychology exams and I believe his policy is that IF one of your marks is an aberration AND you're slightly away from the next grade point, he will adjust the mark and award you with the higher mark (I don't think he informs the student).

So it does happen. They don't do this the other way around (dropping a high aberration) because that would cause an uproar unless they announced the policy in the outline (in which case the prof would be hated because no one wants to give up the high mark they got on the easy midterm).

That policy was made clear to the class AND it was offered to the entire class in a uniform way, not just to one student.
If it happened to a student they could easily figure it out because he posts all grades, including the exam grade.

In my experience, a lot of number fudging goes on behind the scenes. I've TA'd a course where a 100% final exam option was given, for instance, with no student prior knowledge. (In fact, when students made inquiries about such a possibility, the professor remained adamant that it was impossible and did not inform them, until he sent out an email a day or two before grade release day). It's perfectly fine for profs at McMaster to introduce new grading schemes for no apparent reason, with one stipulation: No student's mark can suffer, it can only benefit a given student, but need not benefit all students equally. (This is Mac's policy, York for instance, can lower student grades as well, if the distribution is too high).

Informing the students of things that work in their advantage puts the onus on them. I've been in courses where on day 1, we were told that our exam may be worth 100%. Many students relied on this, didn't do any assignments, didn't strive to do well on the quizzes/tests, which are excellent learning opportunities if used properly. Naturally, they did very poorly on the final. For this reason (in my experience at least) alternate policies are not discussed with the students.