Appealing a Grade Forum

[r973]

Does anyone have any knowledge of law students successfully appealing a final grade for a course? Before you begin to scream at me, here are some of the facts:

Many students have complained about irregularities, errors, and problems in the final exam, which the Dean has agreed existed; a crazy method for calculating the final grade was determined by the Dean; I do not think the method articulated by the Dean was entirely clear and reflected the grade I was actually given.

What do you think? Does it hurt to try and appeal?

[Kohinoor]

Does anyone have any knowledge of law students successfully appealing a final grade for a course? Before you begin to scream at me, here are some of the facts:

Many students have complained about irregularities, errors, and problems in the final exam, which the Dean has agreed existed; a crazy method for calculating the final grade was determined by the Dean; I do not think the method articulated by the Dean was entirely clear and reflected the grade I was actually given.

What do you think? Does it hurt to try and appeal?

Unless there is no room for subjectivity, good luck!

[enygma]

i know of someone who did this successfully. he was ridiculously persistent after being told no many times. let me say that although the grade looks better, it was likely not worth the hit to the way his classmates and the administration view him.

[Kohinoor]

i know of someone who did this successfully. he was ridiculously persistent after being told no many times. let me say that although the grade looks better, it was likely not worth the hit to the way his classmates and the administration view him.

*gets B- changed to B*
*gets all B-s for rest of law school career*

[zanda]

i know of someone who did this successfully. he was ridiculously persistent after being told no many times. let me say that although the grade looks better, it was likely not worth the hit to the way his classmates and the administration view him.

how did his classmates find out?

[enygma]

i know of someone who did this successfully. he was ridiculously persistent after being told no many times. let me say that although the grade looks better, it was likely not worth the hit to the way his classmates and the administration view him.

how did his classmates find out?

he talked about it repeatedly. he also really really really deserved the low grade that was invalidated.

[ScaredWorkedBored]

Generally means you have to go to war publicly with your professor and accuse them of some sort of misconduct. Not generally a way to make friends and influence people. Most law schools explicitly prohibit changing grades otherwise, "other than for mathematical error."

If this was a pervasive problem in the course, then it's different because, frankly, there's safety in numbers. But most of the time, you get screwed, you get screwed and it's seriously not worth the shitstorm.

[StudentAthlete]

Generally means you have to go to war publicly with your professor and accuse them of some sort of misconduct. Not generally a way to make friends and influence people. Most law schools explicitly prohibit changing grades otherwise, "other than for mathematical error."

If this was a pervasive problem in the course, then it's different because, frankly, there's safety in numbers. But most of the time, you get screwed, you get screwed and it's seriously not worth the shitstorm.

I agree. Unless the grade is grossly disproportionate to what it should have been (not sure how you're calculating this) but I would err on the side of not pursuing this

[keg411]

The only way you should ever do this is if there is a clerical error (this happened to a friend of mine and almost really really killed her rank and her entire future since she goes to a very low ranked school; she would have dropped out of the Top 15% had she not said anything). And the only way to find out is to go to your professor about your exam to see if there was just a mistake or if you deserved the grade.

[accent]

Hello,

I submitted a brief in support of my appeal. The prof did not know my name, he was only given an exam number.
I spent 12-14 hours on the brief, fancy exhibits&covers, thousands of details and of course I had grounds to appeal. The brief looked like one you would submit with the court clerk.

The appeal was granted.