How subjective are 1L grades? Forum

[rawrab]

I'm starting to get a little nervous over the fact that due to my shyness I haven't built ANY relationships with my 1L profs. It's definitely something I plan on working on next year. But I notice a lot of people in my section are really buddy buddy with a lot of them. I didn't do very well on my midterms - Bs and a C - (year long classes) but plan on hopefully doing better on my finals. I'm scared though that my profs will look at my midterm grades, have no idea who I am and then not give me as good a grade as some of my fellow classmates who spent a lot of time kissing their ass in the profs office. I'm just really kicking myself for being so shy and hoping it won't hurt my grades too much...

how subjective/objective is the grading?

[Ludo!]

Does your school not do blind grading?

[flcath]

Are you at a TTT?

[rawrab]

They do blind grading but how does that work exactly, they read it grade it and then look at that w/ your midterm and decide what to give you or use a formula?

yes I'm at a TTT (but have full ride w/ job lined up so not complete waste for going)

[09042014]

At my school they seem pretty fair. Even in classes that claim to care about participation I haven't gotten pwnd by it.

[BeenDidThat]

They do blind grading but how does that work exactly, they read it grade it and then look at that w/ your midterm and decide what to give you or use a formula?

yes I'm at a TTT (but have full ride w/ job lined up so not complete waste for going)

I call bullshit. Why are you worried about grades, then? Unless there is a big stip on the scholly or, you know, you go to one of those TTT's that flunks 30% of their class...?

[Bildungsroman]

They do blind grading but how does that work exactly, they read it grade it and then look at that w/ your midterm and decide what to give you or use a formula?

I would assume it works the way blind grading normally works - you submit your exams with an exam identification number, the professor grades without knowing which number represents which student, the professor sends the grades to the Registrar, and the registrar matches the grades to the student. For classes with a midterm this would just be done twice and the Registrar would calculate them together.

[rawrab]

I call bullshit. Why are you worried about grades, then? Unless there is a big stip on the scholly or, you know, you go to one of those TTT's that flunks 30% of their class...?

need to keep a 3.0 for the scholly. Also pride I guess ha

I would assume it works the way blind grading normally works - you submit your exams with an exam identification number, the professor grades without knowing which number represents which student, the professor sends the grades to the Registrar, and the registrar matches the grades to the student. For classes with a midterm this would just be done twice and the Registrar would calculate them together.

exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

[monkey85]

You only need look at Xeoh85's classic studying and transferring advice threads to find the answer: (s)he didn't talk to any profs, blew finals out of the water, and STILL got recommendations so that he could transfer into HYS.

Professor relationships are unnecessary to get good grades.

[MissJewsbury]

I just spoke with a prof about this last week at an ASD. The process for 1L courses was blind grading by an ID number, input grades based on ID, prof then gets to see which student scored which grade and can adjust if he wants. This particluar prof said he adjusts grades up half a grade point for outstanding participation which he tells students early on will be the case. He said he usually only adjusts for 6-8 students in a 100 person section.

So - bottom-line is, at this school, there is "blind grading" but not blind grade submitting.

[bruss]

I just spoke with a prof about this last week at an ASD. The process for 1L courses was blind grading by an ID number, input grades based on ID, prof then gets to see which student scored which grade and can adjust if he wants. This particluar prof said he adjusts grades up half a grade point for outstanding participation which he tells students early on will be the case. He said he usually only adjusts for 6-8 students in a 100 person section.

So - bottom-line is, at this school, there is "blind grading" but not blind grade submitting.

This is what I've heard

[apl6783]

My lowest grade was in my writing class where I knew the teacher the best. My highest grade was an A+, where the teacher did not (and still does not) know who I am.

Sometimes when I look up at the moon, I wonder if my contracts professor is looking up at that same moon thinking "who is that kid that booked my contracts exam last semester? Would I even recognize him if I saw him in the hallway?"

(he would not)

GENERAL RULE:

Good performance, participation, relationship with teacher, etc., can help you.
Bad performance, no participation, etc., almost never hurts you. The only exception is if you literally never go to class and the teacher somehow notices.

[shock259]

I just spoke with a prof about this last week at an ASD. The process for 1L courses was blind grading by an ID number, input grades based on ID, prof then gets to see which student scored which grade and can adjust if he wants. This particluar prof said he adjusts grades up half a grade point for outstanding participation which he tells students early on will be the case. He said he usually only adjusts for 6-8 students in a 100 person section.

So - bottom-line is, at this school, there is "blind grading" but not blind grade submitting.

This is how my school does it too. I've had some courses where professors say 10% of the final grade is participation, but I don't think they factor it in unless you are horribly absent/rude/offensive. They may also factor it in if you are particularly insightful or come to office hours a ton. I got top grades in both of those classes and I screwed up quite a bit of cold-calling.

It's really not worth trying to get close to the professor so he/she can raise your grade at the end. The professor may not adjust and it is a pretty big time sink. Just study.

[DrGuano]

They do blind grading but how does that work exactly, they read it grade it and then look at that w/ your midterm and decide what to give you or use a formula?

I would assume it works the way blind grading normally works - you submit your exams with an exam identification number, the professor grades without knowing which number represents which student, the professor sends the grades to the Registrar, and the registrar matches the grades to the student. For classes with a midterm this would just be done twice and the Registrar would calculate them together.

I had a professor that gave us a graded paper before the exam. Both were graded blindly. He graded them, then sent them to his secretary who matched them up to the right student. She calculated the grades in the end. One would hope she didn't screw anything up, as you never know unless you ask to see your exam (we got the paper back). Anyway, that's how it was done in that class.