Is it ok to email professor about final exam and grades

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the appropriateness of emailing a professor to confirm grades, including homework and midterm scores, and inquiring about the final exam score. It touches on concerns about how such inquiries may be perceived and the implications for student-professor relationships.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express concern about whether emailing a professor for grade confirmation might be seen as nagging or condescending.
  • One participant notes a preference for students to ask questions related to course content rather than grades, indicating a sentiment that grade inquiries are less valuable.
  • Another participant shares a personal anecdote about a past grading error, highlighting the importance of verifying grades to ensure accuracy.
  • One professor mentions a policy against discussing grades via email due to privacy concerns, suggesting that students should come in person for such discussions.
  • Another participant emphasizes that grades are assigned based on scores and rules, not on perceptions of student maturity, suggesting that inquiries based on factual evidence are acceptable.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants exhibit a range of views on the appropriateness of grade inquiries, with some expressing discomfort while others affirm the necessity of ensuring accuracy. There is no consensus on whether such inquiries are acceptable or how they should be approached.

Contextual Notes

Some participants mention privacy policies regarding grade discussions and the importance of evidence when questioning grades, indicating that these factors may influence the appropriateness of inquiries.

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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