Sorry for the lack of make-up on my ghostly face... Did I scare you??? (~_~lll
Anyway, I decided to bring the incident to the attention of my professor in an email:
Dear Dr. XXX,
I would like to bring to your attention of an incident that happened in the TC3411 Numerical Methods Laboratory session this evening, 20-Feb-2008.
I was given a B+ by the female grader for today's practical session, which I was unable to comprehend why, since the classmate that I was coaching had an A from the male grader. Both of us were graded at the exact same time.
I requested for an clarification from the female grader on what made the difference to my grade, since both me and the classmate had similar works? I was informed by her that it was because I did the exercise "slower" than others. I was surprised to hear that we were being judged on how fast the grader thought we have done the exercise, and not the quality of our work itself.
I found her reasoning on this to be lacking in impartialness, since:
- There is a classroom full of students, and only 2 graders. They cannot response to all students at the same time. Most students find themselves having to wait and constantly "vye" for the attention of the graders to have our work graded. If the timing at the point of grading was a crucial judgment on our grades, then what accounts for the amount of waiting time to have the graders come to us?
- We should not be faulted in our grades, if we had spent time coaching our classmates in their exercise before we approach the grader.
- I have on occasions waited for the crowd to "disperse" before approaching the graders, as I was not in a hurry to go off, and see no reason to delay time for other classmates who have work commitments to rush off to right after the lesson.
I have expressed my concerns to her that the time of grading is not representative of how fast we did our exercise, and hence should not be used as a critical basis for our grades. Eventually she agreed to change my grade for this session to an A.
I would just like to confirm with you that I indeed have an A grading for this exercise, and would also appreciate your advice if timeliness is indeed a critical consideration in the grading system.
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Thank you very much for taking the time to read through this email. I look forward to your reply.
Warmest Regards,
Law XXXX XXX (U06XXXXM)