Blind Grading Forum

[ajr]

You're dramatically over-valuing this anecdotal evidence.

Perhaps, but apparently “Blind Grading” isn’t exactly as advertised. I was advised countless times that class participation had zero effect on exam grades. To me Zero is “0.”

This, however is positively not true, at least at my school. People get bumped up/ down one grade level all the time, based on a number of factors such as class participation.

[fundamentallybroken]

I'm surprised that a law prof was allowed to raise one's grade from a "B" to an "A-". This large of a grade increase defeats the purpose of blind grading. Usually class participation grade bumps are limited to half-a-grade (e.g., from a "B" to a "B+").

Tenured professors apparently have a lot of leeway to do stuff like this. My contracts professor flat out told us that sometimes he does not follow the school curve because he's tenured and "he can do whatever the fuck he wants." LOL. No joke he said that.

My Crim Law prof never curves, and has to fight the Registrar every semester to do so. Kind of crazy that in a 40 person class there were ~10 As. Of course, the flip side is that (anecdotally), she actually failed someone as well.

In other classes, at my school, the profs grade blindly, then turn the exams in to the Registrar for curve checks. If they want to bump someone up or down, they give the registrar a list of the students to bump, and the registrar does it while checking the curve. I think this is a good way to do it, because it's at least harder to bump one person up from a B to an A- if you have no idea what they got yet.

[Breezin]

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[Skyblaze]

Read your syllabus...

Any of my Professors that reserved the right to bump for participation explicitly said so in their syllabus, and explicitly said it was only for very rare circumstances.

[canesfan1986]

I don't get it. It's clearly on the syllabus. If you choose not to read it or take advantage of it, that's on you, but that is an EASY grade boost.

[Breezin]

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[canesfan1986]

I don't get it. It's clearly on the syllabus. If you choose not to read it or take advantage of it, that's on you, but that is an EASY grade boost.

What don't you get?

People are reacting to how big of a boost you got for raising your hand a lot in class. I'm upset by it. Even assuming you had lots of insightful things to say, you underperformed most (and maybe almost all) of your classmates on the exam. Maybe you aren't good at analyzing fact patterns, or maybe you're a bad writer. I don't know. But you don't deserve an A-.

Considering I aced every other class, I'd say it was probably the MC test. You know, I think a fundamental skill would be reading the syllabus. If you did, maybe you would have chosen to participate.

Edit: My other exams were all written and the professors didn't give grade boosts. Considering that I may be #1 at my school, I think I analyze fact patterns far better than my classmates, and probably am not as good at MC tests (not that I studied much for it).

[Breezin]

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[canesfan1986]

I don't get it. It's clearly on the syllabus. If you choose not to read it or take advantage of it, that's on you, but that is an EASY grade boost.

What don't you get?

People are reacting to how big of a boost you got for raising your hand a lot in class. I'm upset by it. Even assuming you had lots of insightful things to say, you underperformed most (and maybe almost all) of your classmates on the exam. Maybe you aren't good at analyzing fact patterns, or maybe you're a bad writer. I don't know. But you don't deserve an A-.

Considering I aced every other class, I'd say it was probably the MC test. You know, I think a fundamental skill would be reading the syllabus. If you did, maybe you would have chosen to participate.

Edit: My other exams were all written and the professors didn't give grade boosts. Considering that I may be #1 at my school, I think I analyze fact patterns far better than my classmates, and probably am not as good at MC tests (not that I studied much for it).

Unlike you being #1 at a Tier 2 law school, the bolded statement above is relevant to whether you deserve a grade boost.

You don't deserve it. You did worse than most of your classmates on the exam. And you didn't study a lot for it. Now apologize.

I'll take my A- all the way to the T14. And I forgot where potential employers care about how you got your grade. All they see is the letter grade. And because I didn't study before the exam doesn't mean I didn't work. I did tons of work during the semester, but half of the professor's exam had nothing to do with fact patterns. I thought I knew it better because I worked plenty during the semester. Bottom line is it got me into the T14 and I'll probably go to Columbia. So you can keep fishing for an apology, but I have ZERO sympathy for your crying.

[canesfan1986]

The point of this thread was whether teachers give grade boosts, not to air your grievances with the system. The answer is yes. Period.

[AVBucks4239]

The point of this thread was whether teachers give grade boosts, not to air your grievances with the system. The answer is yes. Period.

Not that I care, but just to clear things up...

You've said two different grade bumps, one from a B to an A- and one from a B+ to an A-. Which one is it?

[canesfan1986]

The point of this thread was whether teachers give grade boosts, not to air your grievances with the system. The answer is yes. Period.

Not that I care, but just to clear things up...

You've said two different grade bumps, one from a B to an A- and one from a B+ to an A-. Which one is it?

Mine was B to A-. He rarely gives 2/3 boost but he did for me. Some people I assume got 1/3, i.e. B+ to A-.

[Lawst]

The thing is to know the profs who bump and the ones who don't - some put it on their syllabus, some don't. That's when you ask 2Ls and 3Ls for the rundown.
I got bumped from a B to a B+ in one class last semester. One prof this semester supposedly bumps up two stages on occasion, but that does seem like a lot. I do know that he's somewhat generous with bumps, so I made a point to participate semi-regularly (not gunner level) to guard against getting what would effectively be a bump down if I didn't participate at all.

[Breezin]

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[canesfan1986]

You're right. It's more impressive that someone is better able to answer 100 questions about where a yellow T-Rex can go, what strengthens a science professors argument, and whether someone can understand what the author meant in line 41 about bees.

If you don't like the policy, raise your damned hand instead of being the cool guy who says nothing. Otherwise, stop whining.

[Breezin]

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[canesfan1986]

I'll admit it, but why would I apologize for it? I read it in the syllabus and made a conscious effort to try to get that 2/3 boost. I was well-prepared for class every day and I made it easier for the professor to do his job. I can only see harm if it's not disclosed at the beginning. Otherwise, everyone is well aware of the possibility. Can we at least agree that it's fair if everyone knows or should know about it?

[fundamentallybroken]

This sexual tension is killing me.

[canesfan1986]

This sexual tension is killing me.

LOL! Greatest post I have ever read on here.

[Breezin]

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[Renne Walker]

In UG if a prof wanted to bump someone’s grade (for whatever reason), fine ― it did not directly affect anyone else’s score/grade. But throw The Curve into the mix and if a student with a B+ suddenly gets bumped to an A-, some other student with a A- could be downgraded to a B+ because only so many A- grades are allowed. Am I understanding this right?

Scanning through the posts, I now believe “blind grading” means something other than an exam score is sacrosanct against a professor’s impulse. In short, [some] professors may “blind grade,” but there is more to the story.

[jess]

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[AZN MegaPoaster]

I don't get it. It's clearly on the syllabus. If you choose not to read it or take advantage of it, that's on you, but that is an EASY grade boost.

What don't you get?

People are reacting to how big of a boost you got for raising your hand a lot in class. I'm upset by it. Even assuming you had lots of insightful things to say, you underperformed most (and maybe almost all) of your classmates on the exam. Maybe you aren't good at analyzing fact patterns, or maybe you're a bad writer. I don't know. But you don't deserve an A-.

Considering I aced every other class, I'd say it was probably the MC test. You know, I think a fundamental skill would be reading the syllabus. If you did, maybe you would have chosen to participate.

Edit: My other exams were all written and the professors didn't give grade boosts. Considering that I may be #1 at my school, I think I analyze fact patterns far better than my classmates, and probably am not as good at MC tests (not that I studied much for it).

Unlike you being #1 at a Tier 2 law school, the bolded statement above is relevant to whether you deserve a grade boost.

You don't deserve it. You did worse than most of your classmates on the exam. And you didn't study a lot for it. Now apologize.

Lol'd. 180.

[bartleby]

wow I thought that thing on the syllabus was just so a prof reserved the right to LOWER a grade if some guy was flagrantly slacking off

[ilovesf]

At my school, it means that the prof just sees an exam number when he is grading. He gives it a grade. Then he goes back and matches it up to the student. He then has the option of slightly raising or slightly lowering it in some classes for "participation." After that, hesubmits everyone's grades to the registrar. The registrar then has to approve of the curve he used.

So much for the myth that being active in class has no bearing on your grade. Now I wish I had listened to the advice someone offered me. . . .raise your hand and never take it down!

This is still largely no myth. Most law professors can barely be bothered to grade the exams, let alone put in the extra effort to learn names, take note of meaningful participation, and make according adjustments.

This might be true for some professors, but this hasn't been my experience so far, except for one class where the professor made no effort. I was really surprised by how most of my professors made a real effort to lean everyone's name really quickly. One of my friends started skipping class a lot and his professor wrote him an e-mail asking if he was ok and that she was worried about him. That was a class of around 90 people and he hadn't done anything to stick out. I never really participated in any of my classes and I think almost all of the professors knew my name except for one.