Is it ok to email professor about final exam and grades

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Emailing a professor to confirm grades is generally acceptable, especially if it includes a polite inquiry about potential errors and expresses gratitude for the semester. Professors recognize that students may want to ensure their grades are accurate, and many are willing to help clarify any discrepancies. However, concerns about privacy may prevent professors from discussing grades via email, leading them to prefer in-person discussions. It's important for students to approach this matter with evidence of any potential errors rather than vague complaints, as professors typically base grades strictly on established criteria rather than personal impressions. While some professors may find frequent grade inquiries frustrating, most will not hold it against a student if approached respectfully and with factual support.
Lagraaaange
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Is it ok to email a professor asking them to confirm your grades to this point e.g. you send them all your homework grades and midterm grade in case of error and ask them about your final exam score? Would this be nagging and or condescending. Wouldn't want to hurt my image just before final grades lol
 
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I do not like that kind of questions, but I won't be hurting a student because of it.
It is just sad that so many students' questions are about that kind of stuff instead of questions about their understanding of the content of the course.
 
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PietKuip said:
I do not like that kind of questions, but I won't be hurting a student because of it.
It is just sad that so many students' questions are about that kind of stuff instead of questions about their understanding of the content of the course.
This is mainly to make sure none of my homeworks were misplaced.Also to include a "Thank you for the semester"
 
I have no problem with help making sure i get a student's grade correct, that is part of my job and i wouldn't want to get it wrong. I am very careful about that sort of thing myself though and am unlikely to have it wrong, if anything i am more likely than the student to have omitted some low grades to help him/her. once very early in my career though i gave a fine student a B who probably had never gotten a B before, because of some missing homework scores. I thought he had not submitted them but I have wondered since whether i lost them somehow. it would have been nice to verify with him.
 
Lagraaaange said:
Is it ok to email a professor asking them to confirm your grades to this point e.g. you send them all your homework grades and midterm grade in case of error and ask them about your final exam score? Would this be nagging and or condescending. Wouldn't want to hurt my image just before final grades lol

Unless your school's policy is different, I am not able to communicate any grade information via email due to privacy concerns. I always invite the student to come and discuss the matter with me in person; often they set an appointment. Then, invariably, they don't show up.

If you have evidence of a numerical error, bring it to the professor. Otherwise, if the student has not been even an occasional visitor for office hours, I find their too-late demand to complain about their grade childish.
 
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I think I probably speak not only for myelf but also many others when I say that no matter how I personally feel about grade inquiries, I give the grade strictly based on scores and university and class rules, not my impression of the student's maturity. So complaints don't help unless based on factual evidence of error, but they don't hurt either. Some few people may of course react differently however.
 
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