Should I Discuss a Small Grade Discrepancy with My Professor?

[Newtime]

I received .5 points off (the whole assignment is out of ten points) for something on my previous homework. I know that a few other people had the exact same thing and did not have any points taken off. Is it worth it to talk to my professor about this? A half of a point might not seem like much but when everything is only graded out of ten, I think it's worth fighting for.

I'm not even sure what I would say to my professor and I certainly don't want consistency in the "wrong" direction: I don't want my friends' grades to be lowered. However, what I was counted off for in the first place was a bit nit-picky and learning others were not counted off fore the same thing only added to my frustration.

It may be best to just let it go.

 

[thegreenlaser]

"Nit-picky" or not, if you got it wrong, you got it wrong, so I don't see how you can argue that you deserve the mark. The only thing that would be fair for the teacher to do in this situation would be to make everyone who did it wrong lose the mark. You made a mistake and lost marks for it. I wouldn't argue it.

 

[Newtime]

You made a mistake and lost marks for it. I wouldn't argue it.

I suppose this is what it comes down to. You're right, thanks.

 

[Choppy]

What is worth investigating is the 'why.' It's perfectly acceptable to speak with the professor during office hours and ask "I noticed that I lost a half mark on the last homework assignment for [insert reason], but it seems like others did a similar thing and didn't lose a mark. I just wanted clarification to make sure that I wasn't missing something so I don't make the same mistake again."

 

[Newtime]

What is worth investigating is the 'why.' It's perfectly acceptable to speak with the professor during office hours and ask "I noticed that I lost a half mark on the last homework assignment for [insert reason], but it seems like others did a similar thing and didn't lose a mark. I just wanted clarification to make sure that I wasn't missing something so I don't make the same mistake again."

Before I asked my friends how they did, I asked my professor why I lost .5 points on the question since to begin with I felt at worst I deserved a comment on the side. He feels the same way as the grader. This was annoying, but I couldn't argue it. The frustrating thing was seeing others who had the exact same thing with no points taken off. However, as thegreenlaser said, when it comes down to it, my answer wasn't completely clear/correct and the grader acted accordingly.


For what it's worth, the question involved considering the continuity of a function f. For the past few weeks, all functions have domain some compact set in R. So in my proof, I said $$\forall \epsilon > 0, \exists \delta > 0$$ such that $$\vert x-y \vert < \delta$$ implies $$\vert f(x) - f(y) \vert < \epsilon$$. Of course, this is true only if f is uniformly continuous. I thought this would be obvious since the domain is a compact set. The grader remarked that I should have clarified this. I agree, but I don't think it warranted points off.

In any case, I don't think I'll be bringing this up to my professor again.

 

[physics girl phd]

What is worth investigating is the 'why.' It's perfectly acceptable to speak with the professor during office hours and ask "I noticed that I lost a half mark on the last homework assignment for [insert reason], but it seems like others did a similar thing and didn't lose a mark. I just wanted clarification to make sure that I wasn't missing something so I don't make the same mistake again."

This wording is EXCELLENT. It alerts the professor that the grader is having some inconsistencies, without being aggressive or spiteful. Since graders are typically, in my experience, assigned to a professor by someone higher up in the department (someone assigned this form of work, like an associate chair of the graduate program, etc.)... he or she may have not had much input into the selection... but might then talk about the issue privately with the grader and the person who assigns these positions... and, if it's a reoccurring problem, this might influence the grader's next assignment.

 

[mathwonk]

I believe you are learning a little lesson here about teaching and communication. I am afraid I must agree that you deserve the points off in this case for the following reasons:

1) it was not "nit picky": You left out a key step and one which many people would have not understood. You took it for granted that you would be given credit for knowing a non trivial theorem just because it had been presented in class. How then is the grader supposed to distinguish between people who know this fact and know it is important here but assume it is not worth mentioning, and those people who either do not know the theorem involved, or know the theorem but do not realize it is important here?

You are expecting the grader to see inside your head and give you credit for key steps you did not write down. You only get credit for what you write down. Under this philosophy, all math research papers would consist of one sentence: "the result follows from things that are already known."

2) The fact that you think not everyone had the same grading standards applied is usually wrong. In my own experience at least, 99 times out of 100 the student arguing this point does not realize that all answers differ in subtle ways, and that his own answer is in fact not quite the same as the one which was graded differently.

Even if you were correct on this point, you have things backward. The point of grading is more to further instruction than to rank the class. Taking off points is the only way to get a student's attention. Suppose a student missed this point and did not understand it, and yet lost no points. That student is less fortunate than you, because he will not find out his error.

Arguing on this basis makes one come off like a person more interested in 1/2 a point than in learning the material well. Taking off a tiny amount for something that matters, to remind that it matters, and that saying it explicitly matters, is a gift that helps the student.

I just noticed this was a homework grade, not a test grade or exam grade. Everything I said is hereby doubled in emphasis. Homework is the place where all errors are attempted to be caught, so they will not occur on the exams.

 

[Newtime]

Thanks for the responses.

To mathwonk: your "1)" is almost exactly what my professor said when I initially brought this up and it's a good point.

Like I said, I won't be pursuing this further with the professor or grader and at least I will not make this same mistake again.

 

[mathwonk]

Congratulations. you seem like a wise man.