Requesting/Discussing a Grade Change Forum

[BigZuck]

Of course if they screw up and don't fix it, that sucks. I don't think we have evidence here that the prof screwed up, is all. I also don't think the procedures are intended to prevent profs from fixing their mistakes, but to prevent them caving to/having to deal with strivers who think they can argue their way to a better grade.

(And FWIW the policy at my school that made it hard to change grades exempted mechanical/arithmetic errors, too.)

The OP said "mistake" twice, I assumed it was similar to the situations I've heard of and could fall under the unbrella of mechanical/arithmetic/whatever. But yeah, maybe I missed what the situation really was.

I'll stop harping on this now.

[merlin-]

HLS policy fwiw:

"After an instructor has submitted a grade to the Registrar (generally through HELIOS), the instructor may change the grade only if it was incorrect as a result of an arithmetical, administrative, or other mechanical error. A grade may not be changed as a result of a reevaluation of a student’s work except by vote of the faculty. "

http://hls.harvard.edu/dept/academics/h ... e-changes/

That makes more sense to me. Under the HLS policy, if the professor miscounted points—which is the situation I'm aware of in which a law school grade was changed—there's no requirement that the change be approved by a vote of the faculty.

And by the way, the situation Zuck described—straight up not grading a section of a student's final—seems to fall under "arithmetical, administrative, or other mechanical error." It is not "a reevaluation of a student's work" to evaluate a section that was never evaluated in the first place.

I wrote about the vote, without thinking this was a "arithmetical, administrative, or other mechanical error."
I interpretted the "mistake" to be along the lines of the professor not realizing the value of one of his analysis/issue spot.

[rcharter1978]

I'm curious, how did your meeting go? If you want to share, for some reason this thread just popped into my mind.

He didn't change it. He said it's a very rigorous process to get a grade changed once it's posted. He wasn't mean about it though!

Good for you, sounds like you went in with a good attitude and if you ever have him as a professor again I'm sure he will be open to helping you as much as he can. And at least you asked, as they say, a closed mouth doesn't get fed!

[foregetaboutdre]

prof in one of my classes this semester mentioned "grade changes" for some odd reason. he said it virtually never happens and doesn't know anyone who's done it. then he backtracked a bit saying that he heard of a change only due to arithmetic error of adding up pts on an exam.

[MsAvocadoPit]

Sorry to hear it didn't turn out the way you wanted, but I just wanted to add, for future reference/others wondering, that it can happen and does in limited circumstances. My school has a year long 1L Civ Pro class, and it was known that the "midterm/pencil" grades were changed if the professor missed an issue and didn't add it into the points. This resulted in maybe 5-10 points and didn't change the grade that much, and really it didn't matter that much because midterm grades for yearlong classes aren't calculated in the GPA/are not final, but ultimately it helped for your end of year grade. Don't know how much this helps, but definitely different than just adding points incorrectly.

Last year in 2L, in Con Law 2 (we have Con law split into 2 different/separate semesters), the Professor sent out an email about an excel calculation error, and that she apologized for any inconvenience for the change in grades. This was only a few days after the grades had been released. I went from A- to A, so I was pleasantly surprised. My friend went from C to B-, and another friend went from B- to C+. We had a few participation points and "midterm" points up for grabs that added to our final exam (not much), but I believe the error came from those "gimme" points (maybe 1-2) which was significant for a few people on the curve cut-offs.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents!