GRADING STANDARDS

Please review the guidelines on the bottom of the Grade Sheet. If you do all your work pretty much on time, you have a case for a "B". If you do extra work or work you feel is much better than average, that would put a plus on the "B" (earn you a "B+") To be eligible for an "A" (but not guaranteed one) you would need to plan and do a fully revised and properly formatted project by the due date. 

Anything less than what is required or any work that is missing or chronically late and you blow the "B." So there it is. I don't give the grade. I assist you in determining it by providing a set of guidelines and requirements.

For more on grading logic and standards: CLICK HERE.

 

As for the grading, I'm trying to not assign grades unless there is a really sub-standard job at which point I tell a student that the work is at best "Okay" which is a "C" or less. If you do the work on time as required and if you have put in a genuine effort to do the work up to college standards, it should be at least a "B" for the assignment and ultimately for the term. If you know the work is better, add a plus ("B+"). "A" would require something really excellent or at least extra work and extra credit.

 

Some students have asked me what a "C" grade would be... The question usually comes at the end of the term as more an act of desperation! Most students think that "C" is no longer acceptable. That is called "grade inflation."  A "C" is literally equivalent to "Satisfactory," and that is "Okay!" There is no shame in a "C" and no one I know has died from one. 

However, even requesting a "C" should require some quality--a college level of work. For instance, some last-minute or very short work that is sent, un-proofed and clearly carelessly, is really not enough for a "C." There is nothing "satisfactory" about such work. It is an attempt to steal a grade.

 

Similarly, telling me how hard  you worked on something is not, per se, a good argument for a grade. Just to begin with, I've had students who tell me they actually read every link on the course website, and therefore should get a decent course grade. Well duh! That is called reading your "textbook," and it is simply necessary, not the reason to be given college credit.

 

I sometimes have to tell students my "mechanic story," to try and introduce some perspective on grades. "I deserve such-and-such a grade," a student will argue, "because I worked so hard."  

Well, imagine your car isn't running right. When you step down on the gas  hard to pull into traffic--as when you often must in order to enter an expressway or to get cross a lane of traffic making a left--the car just plain stalls.

A car that stalls when  you step down on the gas can be a nuisance or worse, dangerous. So you go to the mechanic and leave the car for the day to be fixed. When you return, you are told that the entire fuel injection system was repaired and the car has been tuned up. The bill is $468.50. (That's about what I paid..)

You hand them your credit card. receive the keys, and start up your car. When you step down hard on the gas to pull out into traffic, the car stalls out! Of course you restart it, back it up into the lot and go into the mechanic to complain. 

"I almost got killed out there. The car stalled when I stepped down on the gas. I want my money back!"

"Oh," says the mechanic, "I worked very hard on that car. I deserve to get paid."

Not! It isn't any different with a college course. Working hard may be necessary but it isn't reason alone for you to get credit let alone a good grade. The quality of the work is what we are evaluating here. If it isn't good, you need to know that. If it truly isn't even "okay," then either learn to make it better--send revised work that is suitable--or have the sense to accept the grade you have earned...

 

which brings me back to... 

I am your teacher not a dictator. I want you to learn to have solid, self-critical skills. You are being offered a dialog this term over your work and then a dialog about your grade. The guidelines should keep you honest. Students as often will assign themselves a grade more accurately than I might. Grading is a work in progress. Make progress! Do your best!