grade appeal Forum

[Anonymous User]

anyone appealed in their first year?

what about 2L/3L seminars? suppose you wrote a really good paper and got a B+, would you appeal? Or would you not appeal because grading is too arbitrary?

I am really worried these days. One of the professors seems to play favorites ....

[IStillPlayVideoGames]

Most law schools don't let you appeal. If there is a policy, it would be written. Otherwise, if you really feel burned, talk to the ombudsman.

Or just become his favorite.

[Anonymous User]

I am aware of one situation in which a student got his exam grade, asked the professor where he went wrong, and heard back that the prof had miscalculated his grade -- thus resulting in a higher grade. But that is really the ONLY time I've heard of this thing happening.

[James Bond]

I am aware of one situation in which a student got his exam grade, asked the professor where he went wrong, and heard back that the prof had miscalculated his grade -- thus resulting in a higher grade. But that is really the ONLY time I've heard of this thing happening.

That doesn't strike me as an "appeal"

That sounds more like checking in during office hours to talk

[Oblomov]

I am aware of one situation in which a student got his exam grade, asked the professor where he went wrong, and heard back that the prof had miscalculated his grade -- thus resulting in a higher grade. But that is really the ONLY time I've heard of this thing happening.

This pretty much happened to me. Only time I've ever gone to a prof's office hours or to review an exam was in a class where I did much worse than expected; I didn't even go to bitch but just to figure out how I did so poorly. We were chatting a little and he asked what I got as he was fishing through the stack. As soon as he found my exam he said "well that can't be right." Raw score was equal to an entire letter grade higher. As far as grades go, that was certainly the most productive 5 minutes of my life.

Aside from clerical or computational errors, I've never heard of someone getting a grade changed. If I were a prof, I'd lower it out of spite.

[UofO]

I am aware of one situation in which a student got his exam grade, asked the professor where he went wrong, and heard back that the prof had miscalculated his grade -- thus resulting in a higher grade. But that is really the ONLY time I've heard of this thing happening.

This pretty much happened to me. Only time I've ever gone to a prof's office hours or to review an exam was in a class where I did much worse than expected; I didn't even go to bitch but just to figure out how I did so poorly. We were chatting a little and he asked what I got as he was fishing through the stack. As soon as he found my exam he said "well that can't be right." Raw score was equal to an entire letter grade higher. As far as grades go, that was certainly the most productive 5 minutes of my life.

Aside from clerical or computational errors, I've never heard of someone getting a grade changed. If I were a prof, I'd lower it out of spite.

you'd be one bitch of a prof.

[ToTransferOrNot]

The grade calculation stories are absolutely horrifying. I am going to go to talk about every exam I take now, unless I have a 187. Jeez, a full letter grade adjustment?

That's potentially the difference between $160k and 40k at graduation.

[Anonymous User]

I considered a couple appeals (stratospheric grades with a couple outliers). Ultimately the formal process - actual complaint & hearing after you talk to the professor and go over the exam -wasn't really worth it. You better be right because you're essentially accusing the professor of significant misconduct. This will, ah, cause a shitstorm.

The informal complaining I and others did *did* result in the more annoying one actually grading on the curve the next year as opposed to a half-step below it. Yeah, that was fun...

As far as getting a professor to retroactively adjust a grade - not happening at most schools. There's usually a policy against it unless you can show mathematical error or win a challenge that the professor arbitrarily graded exams.

[Oblomov]

The grade calculation stories are absolutely horrifying. I am going to go to talk about every exam I take now, unless I have a 187. Jeez, a full letter grade adjustment?

It is pretty disconcerting, but I think you typically know how you did on an exam, at least within a letter grade and assuming you're not one of these people who thinks they shit gold. Though I'm glad it went from an A- to a B-; had it been to an B+ I wouldn't have thought twice.

you'd be one bitch of a prof.

Absolutely. The worst tyrants are the petty ones.

[Anonymous User]

what if you think you wrote a good seminar paper and even got it accepted for publication even before the grades come out? if you got a B+ then would you appeal??? (I mean, even A papers may not be good enough to get published)

[BradyToMoss]

what if you think you wrote a good seminar paper and even got it accepted for publication even before the grades come out? if you got a B+ then would you appeal??? (I mean, even A papers may not be good enough to get published)

Employers don't give two shits about your grades in an upper-level seminar graded on the basis of a final paper. And if your professor doesn't love your "published" work, tough shit. You're not going to have any chance of getting the grade changed.

[FrankReynolds]

why do people care so much about their non-1L grades?

[ihatelaw]

ive had professors flat out say they dont change grades unless there is a miscalculation.

the claim is if they missed your answer somewhere in your paragraphs, there is probably a decent chance you didnt write clear enough.

why do people care so much about their non-1L grades?

clerkships, academia. some people may have done mediocrely their 1l year and want to improve so that they could get a different job than what they will do 2l summer.

[FrankReynolds]

clerkships, academia.

and burning bridges with an appeal is probably the worst thing you can do for either of those paths?

[cantaboot]

if you are good enough to even think abotu publishing you shouldn't worry about grades at all.
(assuming that you are realistic)

[gollymolly]

.

[BradyToMoss]

Other reasons to care: there's a very real possibility that many of us could end up at 3L. Also, I have to send my SA firm my transcript when grades come out - even if they don't revoke my summer offer based on a grade decrease, it could give them an easy reason not to give me a permanent offer.

This is my only concern. But firms will ultimately care about the work product you produce this summer. And while a bunch of terrible grades in substantive classes that actually matter (evidence, crimpro, GWATs etc.) may hurt your chances a bit, no one is going to give a damn what you got in a seminar with a final paper.

[ToTransferOrNot]

Er, firms can revoke SA offers because your grades went down? I thought NALP guidelines made those SA offers essentially unrevokable, unless you're axing your entire SA program. I could certainly be wrong though. That would be really awful, though, considering there are a fair number (though not as many as normal) of people who had more than one offer to choose from for the summer.

That said, reap what you sow, I guess.

The main concern is getting no-offered. And the typical response to having no job lined up--try to clerk--obviously doesn't apply if your grades went down enough to get no-offered. Hopefully, the no-offer issue won't be as bad for current 2Ls as it was for the current 3Ls

[Anonymous User]

I wonder why people keep making a big deal of crim pro - it is substantive, but certainly not hard. it's one of the easier classes i've had in law school.

I do't know about your school. At my school you can't really tell whether some of the classes have exams or not. And a few 'basic' and 'useful' classes like health law, family law and labor law have no exams at all. A few other classes have quizzes + papers.

I'd prefer to get As rather than Bs/Cs in my 2nd and 3d year, regardless of what classes I take.

[Anonymous User]

Er, firms can revoke SA offers because your grades went down? I thought NALP guidelines made those SA offers essentially unrevokable, unless you're axing your entire SA program. I could certainly be wrong though. That would be really awful, though, considering there are a fair number (though not as many as normal) of people who had more than one offer to choose from for the summer.

It'd have to be pretty atrocious to actually get the *SA* offer revoked or the SA fired. Being no-offered for totally unacceptable grades, like "Oh, hey, funny, my cum dropped .5" for permanent employment is certainly not unheard of, though. Generally if you're being hired based mostly on grades (overtly grade conscious firm, coming from a school where firm hiring doesn't go below the latin honors crowd, etc.) it's not a great idea to push one's luck in this area.

As far as revoking the SA offer...employment at will and all that...who's gonna stop 'em?

[BradyToMoss]

Quit abusing anonymous.