Guidelines for Appealing your Grade

Disclaimer: This document summarizes my general grade appeal policies. I did not write this page with any particular course in mind. As such, anything written in the syllabus or announced in class supercedes what you find below.

My Philosophy about Grade Appeals

None of us is perfect. I acknowledge that I occasionally misread your work. I read your papers extremely quickly when grading. Remember, if I spent 10 minutes on each exam in a class with 100 students, it would take me 1000 minutes (17 hours) to read them all--not to mention time spent writing comments and then recording all the grades. I understand that moving quickly causes me to make occasional mistakes.

If you sincerely think there was a mistake, read on for instructions about what to do. However, your reasons should be based on the actual content of the exam. If you tell me, "I'm a straight A student, and this grade will screw up my GPA, keep me out of law school, and prevent me from fulfilling my dreams," I rapidly become unsympathetic. Grades are earned, not begged.

General Guidelines

  • I do not re-grade exams written in pencil or using excessive whiteout.
  • Wait at least 24 hours after receiving your assignment back before contacting me about a regrade. Let your emotions cool off.
  • Read every comment I wrote on your exam before making your appeal. Re-read the assignment instructions. Usually, I will also give feedback in class about what students generally did well or poorly. Ask yourself whether those explanations might actually warrant your lower-than-expected grade.
  • Make your appeal within two weeks of when I pass the assignment back. (For final exams, you have until the second week of the following term if necessary, but sooner is better.)
  • Realize that your grade may go up or down.

Different Types of Appeal

There are a few situations where you might request a re-grade. Note that each situation has a different solution.

  • Arithmetic error. If I added up your total score incorrectly, simply bring me your exam, show me the arithmetic error, and I will fix it.
  • Multiple choice exam. Here, the concern is usually whether the question was fair. If you think a question was unfair, send me an email and explain your reasoning. You do not need to follow the re-grade procedures below, but you do need to adhere to the guidelines above.
  • Essays and open-ended responses. If you think I mis-graded an open-ended assignment, follow the procedures below.

For Open-Ended Assignments: Regrade Procedures

To request a regrade, simply return your exam or term paper to me after informing me (in person or by email) that you would like a regrade. If the assignment was typed (e.g. a term paper), you also need to give me a clean (freshly printed) copy of the assignment. That's all you need to do.

You do not need to write up your reasons for a regrade. I will re-read your entire exam--including the parts that you do not want re-graded. As I do so, I ignore any comments I wrote on your exam previously. (Yes, really; I typically have somebody cover all my comments with sticky notes before I do the re-grade.) Then, I give you a new grade. It might be higher or lower than the original grade.

Important: Grade appeals are not risk-free. I have overheard students saying that they will request an appeal because they think their grade can only go up. This belief is mistaken. Since I re-grade your assignment without looking at the original grade, your score really can go up or down.

Think about it for a moment. I re-read the entire exam much more closely when regrading than I do the first time through. I notice several things that I missed the first time through. Some are good; some are bad. You should not request a regrade unless you are certain that the good things I missed outweigh the bad things I overlooked. Unless you think I skipped a paragraph on accident, this is probably not the case.