Why I (Probably) Won’t Boost Your Grade

AKA Prof. Dee bums you out.

As a new faculty member, I was surprised by how many times I had the same conversation with students regarding a potential grade boost at the end of the semester, to get from a C+ to a B-, or a B+ to an A-, or an A- to an A. While I appreciate these conversations, they often end up taking the same trajectory. While I don’t doubt these conversations will happen in future semesters, I hope by writing this I can ground these conversations in my values and beliefs.

Preamble: Why It’s Great That You’re Asking

I was definitely a bit of a “grade-grubber” in high school and undergraduate. One of my biggest reasons I stopped was because I wanted to preserve my relationships with faculty members, and I was terrified my professors would be mad at me for asking. While this resulted in me dropping the habit, it also resulted in me being a lot more “scared” of asking faculty members for help when I really needed it.

I want to reassure any students reading this that, even when I say no to a student request, I really appreciate that you are standing up for yourself and your values. It is hard to advocate for yourself, and that skill will become more important over time. This is especially the case for women and folks of color(Li and Zafar 2023), and so I especially appreciate that students are getting better at that level of advocacy. With that in mind, usually when a student comes to me, I do like to go through the final exam with them and make sure everything was graded fairly. Typically, I can usually find 1-2 points that I am able to give back¹, so if a student is really on the cusp, this is a good way to get them past that cusp.

I’ve Heard it All

However, once we’re talking half a percentage point or more, there’s usually little I can do. I have heard the laundry list of arguments though², so I want to quickly go over the most common ones:

Argument 1: Adding an Assignment

“If you add an extra-credit assignment, that can give students who really want to do a bit better a chance to boost their grade, while students who are happy with their grade can relax.”

While I love extra credit, post-final-exam extra credit assignments don’t work for me. The reason for this is pragmatism and equity. Pragmatically, once the final exam is done, most students want to enjoy their holiday. If I give you an extra credit assignment, I’d have to give this to not just you, but all other students, which I would need to expect them to do over the holiday³. And frankly, I think it is better to enjoy your break, spend time with your family and recharge. In turn, I don’t feel comfortable giving only the students who ask for extra credit an assignment, as I want to make sure all students have an equal opportunity to boost their grades. I try to address this gap by giving extra credit assignments during the semester, but after the semester, it just does not work pragmatically.

Argument 2: Nonrepresentative Grades

“Grading is arbitrary anyways. If you look at my work, you’ll see I did better on assignments XYZ, which were more relevant, and most of my mistakes were due to silly blunders irrelevant to the learning goals.”

This is the argument that gets me the most, because it often is true. I frequently see an excellent student get a less than perfect grade for arbitrary reasons. It is important that those students know how proud I am of their development, but changing the grade doesn’t help that. Grading is a poor metric for student success. However, I consider grading a responsibility to Stonehill and the scientific community; importantly, that responsibility is not to grade perfectly, but to grade fairly. I owe it to my students to grade how I said I would grade, and I owe it to the scientific community that my grading system is as unbiased as possible. I try to grade in the spirit of humility: making sure the scheme is not just fair but encourages student success and doesn’t punish students arbitrarily for small nits. But finding a “perfect grading scheme” is a lifelong process, and not one that is solved by changing your grade post-hoc.

Argument 3: Career Goals

“As a teacher, you are trying to help us reach our professional goals, and grade X will be better for me than grade Y.”

I love helping students, and I want to make sure that my class prepares them to succeed at whatever they want to do. However, I believe it will always be more important professionally to focus on the big picture, and not dwell on smaller things. College is a marathon, and resilience is key to not burning out. This is significantly more important than any individual grade in any individual class. So while a better grade may help you win the battle, dwelling on the smaller picture will absolutely make it harder for you to win the war.

Conclusion: Maximizing Your Education

Right now, as the cost of education is greater than ever before, I genuinely appreciate the pressure that students feel to “get the most” out of their education. However, I think it is important for students to continuously re-evaluate what “getting the most” is to them. The energy my students spend trying to boost their grades would, in my professional opinion, be better spent taking a class in a field they know nothing about, spending time with friends, or simply taking up a new hobby which keeps them grounded when it all feels like it’s falling apart. I think that is what “getting the most” of one’s education should look like, and your professors at Stonehill are incredibly excited to help you get over the hump of one bad grade and to a more complete education.

References

Li, Cher Hsuehhsiang, and Basit Zafar. 2023. “Ask and You Shall Receive? Gender Differences in Regrades in College.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 15 (2): 359–94.

Footnotes

1. I think I grade pretty fairly, but there will always be variance when grading as many assignments as I do. I also sometimes will realize through this conversation that a problem this year was a touch too difficult or had a wrong answer which makes sense in the head of a student, which results in everyone getting points back (yay!)

2. …mostly because just 8 years ago I was making the exact same arguments

3. And me to grade over the holiday!