Doing what is asked of you is a C?

[Trippy Turtle]

I think a C should be doing exactly what you are told to do but it being mediocre. Like if you had to make a poster about Tsunamis then you just have exactly what is listed on the page. To score a B you might have added pictures and extra information. To score an A you would add lots of interesting information, relevant pictures and great detail.
Sadly at my School in projects like this the information is normally 50% of the task and then 50% is on making it look pretty. I could pass by making a great work of art and telling people that Tsunamis happen when Poseidon gets mad.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Eh. Depends on what level you're studying this at, and what the subject is.

I had a teacher in primary school who apparently routinely gave me bad marks because I wasn't enthusiastic about my work.

The thing is, I was the one 'gifted' student in the class, and already doing stuff above and beyond anyone else.

Furthermore, if you're doing a test, where the answers are either right or wrong... And answer all of them perfectly, but then get marked down for 'not being enthusiastic about your work', that sends exactly the opposite message to what you would hope.

There's no scope in those kind of things for actually doing better than 'perfect', because that's just not the way the work is structured.

If someone then does such a task perfectly, telling them it wasn't good enough because they weren't enthusiastic enough is basically telling them "Don't even bother to do what you're asked to, because no matter how well you do it will never be good enough."

Also, you can't fake enthusiasm in any real meaningful way...

 

[CrystalShadow]

That is absolutely wrong in every way. If you do 100% of the work with 100% correctness you deserve a 100%. End of story.

If you do 75% of the work with 100% correctness you get a C. If you do 100% of the work with 75% correctness you get a C. Asking you to do more than what is asked is ridiculous. If you want more, you have to require it.

At my university a syllabus is considered a contract between the students and the proffessor. In it he has to clearly list out all expected assignments and their value towards your final grade. It would be impossible for him to do something like this. If he tried every single person in the entire class would formally contest their grade and the asshole would get fired.

EDIT: I'm going to assume this isn't a math based class. I'm in Civil Engineering so the majority of my classes were problem based. You get all the problems right, you get an A. I would be so pissed if I got every question on every exam and homework correct and I still got a C. That would be fucked up.

Hmmm. I would agree in principle for mathematics, but I noticed the university I went to did something even more annoying.

They graded tests based on a bell curve. That means, you aren't graded on how well you did, but how well you did in relation to everyone else taking the same test that year.

That doesn't sound so bad until you realise that it means 40% of the class fails! Every time! regardless of actual performance!

If 60% of the class gets 100 out of 100 right, anyone that gets less than that fails.

Sure, it identifies the best of the best. But it also means people potentially fail even if they're better than 99% of the rest of the population...

 

[omicron1]

It's the same principle as "70% is a good game." Sure, numerically it may be true, but when it's a question of how the market sees it, a 70% (or a C) will be compared directly with all the other scores you're given. Unless all classes are weighted equally, such a "balanced" approach to grading does nothing but hurt the person being graded.

 

[C F]

Sounds like a fair teacher. And by fair, I mean harsh. Which is good. He sounds like he's reserving his As for students who show complete comprehension and have mastered the ability to bend the subject matter to their wills.

All students are expected to learn something. That's the goal of the class. If you show to some extent you've learned what has been given to you, then you are following the goal, as is expected. You get that C, which is a passing grade for a reason. If you want to bring home the gold, don't just learn the subject. Master it.

Hmmm. I would agree in principle for mathematics, but I noticed the university I went to did something even more annoying.

They graded tests based on a bell curve.

Ouch. Grades are given individually for a reason.

Thankfully, I had only one professor who did this, and he was a fun guy. He had no-holds-barred tests on everything mankind learned about astronomy. And there's no way that we would master the entire field from one-night-a-week lectures. If we were going by standard grades, we all would have failed. Thankfully, he also acknowledged the fact no one uses astronomy in their average life, and it is simply science for science's sake. So whatever you learned, good for you. It was easily my funnest and most memorable class to date.
Getting my A simply proved that I observed and took in more than the average person. And since that's fundamentally what astronomy is all about, I find that quite fitting.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

You say semester then teacher. Not sure if you're at Uni or school.

Well, in Aus the school year is split into 2 semesters, which are in turn split into 2 terms each. I'm guessing he's talking about school.

 

[Naeo]

Whenever I got told that sort of thing, it was usually in the sense of "if you only follow the literal letter of what is asked of you, you'll get a C. If you do what this is intended to get you to do, you will have a higher grade." Example: "do a presentation on X with at least 3 sources." A C might be a boring visual, reading straight off of the notes/powerpoint/whatever, and merely regurgitating facts. Yes, it is technically a presentation on X with 3 sources. But something like a nicely formatted visual that's a concise version of what you're saying (i.e. you add more during the presentation than just what is on the visual) and you synthesize some of the info in the different sources (rather than just regurgitating it), you'd get a higher grade.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

If you are told what needs to happen for an A, a C for what is the minimum is fair.

However, a teacher should HAVE to give information on what is required for an A.

A C for good work is fair in a world where that is ALWAYS the case, but it is not.

Another point: How well did you do the work? If it was bare minimum/poorly, you deserve a C as a C is the worst you can do without failing the class. If you did well, a B and if you did everything perfectly, and A is in order.

Honestly, this whole thread calls to mind that Extra Credit episode about how crap modern grade systems are.

 

[sean360h]

Hello Escapists, long time no see in the forums.

Anyway, I have a bit of situation I wanted your opinions on.

The new semester just started, and I find myself with a teacher who... Well, I don't like him. The general consensus seems to be he's a self centered jerk, but that's besides the point. What I wanted to ask you guys is if you agree with this statement: "Doing exactly what you're asked is average work, and will be rewarded with a C, an average grade."

Thoughts?

Personally, I don't like it. Maybe that's because my grade is on the line, but still, it just doesn't seem like a good way to grade. If I'm asked to do a certain amount of work, and I do it, I'm really going to be rewarded with a C? I don't know, that seems like a little spit in the face to me.

But again, that's just me. Am I wrong on this one? Please, tell me if I am.

Also, feel free to share stories of teachers you haven't exactly hit it off with. I love reading the silly stuff that teachers can do sometimes.

That sounds about right an A is doing what you are asked and going the extra mile
It encourages understanding of the topic you are dealing with anybody can learn of pages of text and do well in an exam/assessment
He says that but there is a good chance he will give a good grade for exactly what he asks if its well done

 

[Warforger]

Thoughts?

It makes sense because overall a C is those students who just listen to the lecture, read the book the day before the quiz (depending if the class requires notes) and then not do too well on tests since they don't make much of an effort, a B student tends to be one who tries at the subject to get better grades and may have gotten better grades on tests but either his/her earlier work is dragging the grade down or they don't study effectively, an A student devotes their time into planning their studying, into trying to understand the subject and studying effectively, so it makes because overall that's the way it is.

I am of course assuming you mean college courses, if they're high school normal courses then for all those grades add a letter to them and they become pretty accurate, except then you lump those kids who know the subject too well but can't be arsed to do the homework because they feel the test will bring their grade up.

Personally I hate the school system, every class except Computer Science requires memorization of everything, very little of it is based off of actual intelligence and it's not like there's a better way of teaching, it would be really difficult to get kids to see say chemical reactions naturally as well as expensive.

 

[WeAreStevo]

This is the policy at my University. C level work is essentially saying "You did the paper. Good job. Nothing special here, and minimal effort was put in. Otherwise GPA's would be unfairly slanted and people who DO put in hard work would not be rewarded for their efforts.

Personally, an A is not that difficult. Just write a paper like a boss. I do

 

[elvor0]

It's a bullshit statement that teachers use because how do you describe average. I will give you a good example. Say that you want me to bring the groceries into the house and put them away. It's an easy task and I do as I am told with no mistakes. I put everything where you want it and you come up to me with a pissed off look on your face. So while I was putting away the groceries you got mad because I didn't juggle oranges after I was done. It's stupid reasoning because some things can only be done by following the rules. I think you should grade him at the end of the year. Slap a C- onto his desk and tell him that the reason he got it was because he didn't break dance into the classroom.

That's a shit example, University degree...not quite the same as moving oranges. You either just do classes and nothing else, or you study outside of uni because it should be something that you want to do well in and show that you're good at it. All you can do with moving oranges is move pick up, move put down. It's not exactly the most mentally taxing of tasks and neither does it have a wide spectrum of outcomes in job quality.

Also, not sure how you can't understand the average thing, did you do maths? The average would be.. the average result that people get, say 50%, thus 50% is a C as that is the average capability of a student. The whole point of A grade is that you've gone beyond what the average person did, if they were handed out for just doing the bare minimum it would defeat the point.

 

[Elate]

-snip-

In all fairness if you're writing an academic piece (I assume they are since they're essays) you probably shouldn't be using jokes anyway. I can't see how she can REFUSE to mark it though, even if it's just to say that jokes etc aren't appropriate and thus you lose marks for it. You might want to report that as I'm quite sure you're within your rights if she is refusing to mark your work, even to mark it wrong.

I had a lecturer I couldn't stand, he was teaching web design, and half his presentations were from 5-7 years ago. Worryingly that isn't even an exaggeration, we saw his files once "Last modified 2001" and he was presenting them in 2011. If I'm expected to attend the lectures, I expect them to be up to date, considering I'm paying for them. So, I just didn't attend them anymore. Funnily enough, we all complained, we don't have him anymore, we have a 2 hour tutorial with a fairly young guy (who we only had for 1 hour last semester) who actually knows what he is doing and while he may not be experienced, since this his first year, he's friendly and has more knowledge and some supposed specialist.

 

[NoeL]

Most university assignments come with a marking criteria so you can see exactly how many marks are being awarded for each section, and how much proficiency you need to display to get those marks. If you followed the marking criteria and still didn't get good marks, I'd complain.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Hello Escapists, long time no see in the forums.

Anyway, I have a bit of situation I wanted your opinions on.

The new semester just started, and I find myself with a teacher who... Well, I don't like him. The general consensus seems to be he's a self centered jerk, but that's besides the point. What I wanted to ask you guys is if you agree with this statement: "Doing exactly what you're asked is average work, and will be rewarded with a C, an average grade."

Thoughts?

Personally, I don't like it. Maybe that's because my grade is on the line, but still, it just doesn't seem like a good way to grade. If I'm asked to do a certain amount of work, and I do it, I'm really going to be rewarded with a C? I don't know, that seems like a little spit in the face to me.

But again, that's just me. Am I wrong on this one? Please, tell me if I am.

Also, feel free to share stories of teachers you haven't exactly hit it off with. I love reading the silly stuff that teachers can do sometimes.

Full disclosure: I'm a teacher of history in the United States and my students are in the 12-13 year old range.

As a teacher, I think I might see what he's going for. The grade system has become inflated over the years. Nowadays, students, parents, and even school administrators expect that a student "doing what their told" should yield an "A" or at least a "B," in a non-honors class at the very least.

Ideally, a "C" should be what most students in the class are making; making a "C" should be generally acceptable and respectable; making a "B" or an "A" should be considered something special. None of this is the case.

If you saw the Jimquisition video "Hate out of ten," the same principle applies. It used to be that "C" was average, "B" was good, and "A" was excellent. But now an "A" or a "B" isn't really considered special or exemplary anymore, it's become expected. "B" is the new average, "A" is the new good, and "A+ 100%" is the new "excellent."

I'll confess. The average grade in my non-honors classes is a "B" because this is not an issue I'm willing to the rock the boat on with my students, their parents, and my administrators. At the same time, I have a level of respect for this professor for trying to combat grade inflation. I know it may seem discouraging, but if you're personally invested in your success in this class, and you're willing to work hard for your grade, then you should do just fine...unless of course he's actually being unfair in his grading and crossing the line from "challenging" to "punishing" regarding his grades and assignments. If he is actually unfair, you could always talk to the administration about it.

In either case, I wish you good luck. I had a really hard professor in college and I ended up chickening out and switching to another class. I regret that...a teacher who pushes you in a rigorous, but fair and challenging way, is hard to come by.

So for the too-long post, but I hope something I've said was helpful.

 

[astrav1]

Hello Escapists, long time no see in the forums.

Anyway, I have a bit of situation I wanted your opinions on.

The new semester just started, and I find myself with a teacher who... Well, I don't like him. The general consensus seems to be he's a self centered jerk, but that's besides the point. What I wanted to ask you guys is if you agree with this statement: "Doing exactly what you're asked is average work, and will be rewarded with a C, an average grade."

Thoughts?

Personally, I don't like it. Maybe that's because my grade is on the line, but still, it just doesn't seem like a good way to grade. If I'm asked to do a certain amount of work, and I do it, I'm really going to be rewarded with a C? I don't know, that seems like a little spit in the face to me.

But again, that's just me. Am I wrong on this one? Please, tell me if I am.

Also, feel free to share stories of teachers you haven't exactly hit it off with. I love reading the silly stuff that teachers can do sometimes.

Sadly it is reasonable, a little harsh, but reasonable. Sometimes eachers want the student to go above and beyond for an above C. I wish you luck.