Section 11 Grade Appeal Policy - Request a Review in December!

For each homework, we publish a detailed answer sketch and grading rubric. You will also learn your scores on each individual item on each homework.

Clarification of concerns related to potential typographical or other errors in these answer sketches is welcome at any time, but haggling over points on assignments can be a real time sink in a large class. To that end, students are requested not to dispute any grading on homework assignments during the semester, but instead to request a review on a Google Form that will be reviewed by Dr. Love in December.

  • On the course’s Homework page, we include a section about Grading Errors and Regrade Requests. There, you’ll find a link to a Google form (you must log into Google via CWRU to see it) listing all Homework Assignments. Any student who wishes to dispute points can specify the number of points in question next to each relevant assignment or Quiz, and the details of the issues that concern them.
    • If you wish to dispute a grade, just fill out the form, and Dr. Love will review it in December.
    • You can fill out the form at any time, and you can edit the form after submitting it once so that you can add additional requests up until the end of the semester.
    • All forms must be submitted by noon on 2018-12-13.
    • Disputing a grade on a homework with a teaching assistant is pointless.
    • Dr. Love is responsible for all final decisions, and if you have a concern, you should submit your request through the form.

Students are welcome to ask questions of Dr. Love about grading during the term. The TAs and Dr. Love are happy to discuss in a general sense any questions about an assignment, but no grades will be changed until the end of the term. - The one exception is if there is a mistake in adding up points, or some similar clerical error. If you find such an issue, please bring it to Dr. Love’s attention via email, and such problems will be corrected immediately, of course.

In mid-December, after Dr. Love has worked out what letter grade to give each student, he will go through the requests and determine for each whether the student’s letter grade would change if all of the points in dispute were granted. If the answer is no, then he won’t even look at the disputed grade(s). If the answer is yes, then he will look very carefully to see if enough extra points are merited to change a grade. (It will not help your case to submit frivolous requests.)

The main advantage of this system is that it saves all of us the hassle of haggling over points that are never going to mean anything anyway. It also provides “equal access” to students who are too timid to approach us in person with their concerns. Finally, if there is an issue with grading a particular problem or assignment that needs to be reconsidered, Dr. Love will have access to all papers and can make a universal decision1

  1. I got this idea from Jessica Utts at http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v22n2/rossmanint.pdf.↩