Korean Job Discussion Forums

[MA_TESOL]

I started at this new university and a colleague warned me that once grades are submitted that students would harass me about the grade I gave them. He stated that it would be the students who I had given an "A" to. He says he turns his cell phone off for 2 weeks in order to avoid the disputes. Well, they do not have my cell phone number, but they do have an e-mail I use for the course. Already I have received 5 complaints about having given "A's" and not an "A+." They want to know why and have me reconsider. They tell me that they worked hard etc.

I don't know, but back where I come from an "A" is a good grade? I believe the giving of A+ should be rare? An A+ is more than tests scores and attendance, it encumbers really going the extra mile. I am a defender of the A+ and would hate to see it loose its integrity by becoming too common.

My colleague warned me to be very careful about changing grades as it would send a message to the students that I a bit wishy washy.

To change a grade we have to submit forms and justification--to many of these changes does not go down well with the admin

[cruisemonkey]

So, don't change their grades.

[poet13]

If you change one grade, you will have an avalanche of students wanting theirs changed as well. If you don't change them, some of those students will go higher and complain. Then you might have to defend the F you gave some punk to your superiors, you know, the one who didn't attend half of the classes, failed some of the quizzes, and didn't do any of the homework....but feels he should have passed anyways.


Resist the urge. Don't do it.

[globalgirlk]

-A, A, A+; Those exist? I think I live in an alternate universe of something b/c all I see is the letter w/o the plus or minus sign. Yeah, it is a bit crazy to complain about getting only an "A".

[I_Am_The_Kiwi]

lower the grade.....give them an A-

take one students exam back, go over it with a fine tooth comb and find an errors, lower the grade and see how many more come to you for a recount.

[ChinaBoy]

[wittman2]

At my hagwon, the counter teachers can go in and change the teacher's report cards. I used to care; now I give the majority of the students A- unless they're really really bad, even then we can only give C's. Anything lower and the teachers get in trouble.

[MA_TESOL]

The way a Korean professor just explained it to me was that there is an unwritten agreement to give A+'s to seniors, rather than just A's, so their GPA is raised and they become more marketable. She stated that she does not give B- or A-. We are on a curve and an A could be an A+ which does not effect the curve.

[doc_ido]

Does your school have guidelines on how many As, Bs etc you are allowed to give out? I have a system whereby students are simply arranged in descending order of final percentage and then award as many grades as I can. If anyone complains I can then just point to the school policy and say that I gave out as many as I could. I guess the +/- is still a bit subjective though.

One of my classes is made up of adult students with high expectations, and I'm not allowed to award less than a B. :/

[mrsquirrel]

I use the stairs method for grading.

Always find it works best.

First three stairs are A's
Next 3 B's
Next C's
etc etc

Makes life so much easier.

[joshuahirtle27]

[joshuahirtle27]

[quote="ChinaBoy"]

[thematrixiam]

[esetters21]

[buster brown]

At our uni we give number grades. Whenever I have to curve upwards to fit the percentages, I never give 68, 69, 78, 79, 88 or 89. That way whenever some kid calls to have his B+ changed to an A, I can tell them it's too far away, if it was only 1 or 2 points I would do it. It's kept me from getting too many requests this time around.