This isn't an America issue and more than your IT class was a Denmark issue. No need to be rude.

Where I taught (in America), yes, you could "just complain" but usually you got laughed out of the office. But this might not be an entitlement issue. The student might be legitimately correct in this case. And that's why I'm giving advice. It doesn't hurt me to to give the benefit of the doubt, ESPECIALLY since I've seen things like simple gradebook mistakes have big end-of-semester results (like failing or not failing!). In the end, yes, they're students, but they're also customers, and they deserve to be treated fairly. If not, they are not getting what they paid for, and it reflects badly on the school.

Of course, if they don't have a legitimate issue, and their work was worthless the whole semester, I hope their appeal fails! But I'd rather assume the best and be wrong than assume the worst and not help someone who's a victim. Sure, life isn't fair, but we can still try our best to get what we deserve.

Endymion

United States3701 Posts

April 30 2012 22:18 GMT

#103

On May 01 2012 05:33 Grovbolle wrote:
I like that in America you can just complain if your professor flunks you.

TDL lives in canada..

Zocat

Germany2229 Posts

April 30 2012 23:24 GMT

#104

On April 30 2012 04:41 Torte de Lini wrote:

Show nested quote +

I didn't know that part [the extra steps to fail me]. I might just ask her why I failed, but I don't want her lamblasting me.

That's honestly the only reasonable thing you wrote in the entire thread.
You want to present your case and yet dont even know why you failed....

Grovbolle

Denmark3805 Posts

May 01 2012 07:06 GMT

#105

On May 01 2012 07:18 Endymion wrote:

Show nested quote +

TDL lives in canada..

My bad

Excomm

United States152 Posts

May 01 2012 09:09 GMT

#106

Pretty tough situation. I can kind of understand the lack of general guidelines and the funky syllabus if it was being treated as a grad class (I don't know if you have taken any before but generally they consist of whatever the professor feels like discussing at the time). That said, it is unusual for a professor to fail a person in a grad course unless they feel you really have a poor understanding of the topics or blow off attending the class.

It's hard to provide any advice without knowing a lot more about the situation, but it sounds to me like the teacher didn't feel that you were relating your writing/research to what was being discussed in class. It also sounds like you didn't get pre-approval of your research topic before turning in the paper the first time, which would have helped both of you become less frustrated with the project.

It really sucks that the teacher failed you for the class, but like you realized at the end you should be more proactive in a situation where you might fail a class as it is otherwise taken as a lack of effort (even though it sounds like you put reasonable effort into the project).

If the teacher is available, I would go to talk to her to find out what went wrong. Grading is actually really stressful for many teachers and I'm sure she did not want to fail you for the course. Now that it is over it will be easier to talk with her about what you could have done better (she probably has very specific reasons for giving a failing grade).

All the niceties aside, if this is a professor that is involved in your graduation (meaning you may be taking another course from her or she might review a thesis by you later on) you should take her assumption that you might have a mental illness very seriously (it means she has a poor opinion of your performance and is looking for a way to justify it). I had a professor in grad school accuse me of doing drugs (even though I've only had alcohol fewer than 20 times in my life and never done any other drugs) and this accusation went all the way up to the head of my department without my knowledge. Nothing good ever came of it. Make sure the department stands behind you on this issue and things will work themselves out.

ticklishmusic

United States15977 Posts

May 01 2012 18:24 GMT

#107

If a professor asks you if you have mental illness that many times, I think you should report it to the Dean of whatever at your school. This teacher seems highly unreasonable.

Torte de Lini

Germany38463 Posts

May 01 2012 19:32 GMT

#108

So I saw my advisor.
He's good friends with Yael Glick and he said maybe she asked out of worry or interest (which I assure you, she did not). Then he said not to interpret it too far and file a grade re-evaluation about it.

He also asked inquisitively if I did have a mental illness.

P.S: I know he's good friends with her because I had two teachers confirm it.

P.S.S: Done with this blog entry, just gonna handle it on my own. Thanks for all criticisms and suggestions.

MountainDewJunkie

United States10341 Posts

May 02 2012 02:46 GMT

#109

I agree with the earlier sentiment that you claim a decent portion of the "fault" while simultaneously naming this blog "My professor failed me." However, in the next breath, I have a story. I have failed a 400 level class in my major before. I was indeed the only failure. But that was all on me, I sucked at it and didn't put in a lot of effort (passed it the next year) BUT that is not my story. But now this is: my girlfriend's brother in law took a calc class last quarter at a college. Now this guy may a brute, but he's fucking smart. A's and A-'s in everything. But his personality is controversial to put it lightly, but is sincere and respectful of "authority" and elders. Anyway, he managed to fail the class, but logged inconsistencies in grading, as well as instances where he would go to get help from the professor (one thing he does in every class) but would be met with no real help and an occasional "stealth" insult. Now this is calculus. There IS right and wrong. So this was easy for him to challenge. After a whole 1 day of official review by the dean, the prof was punished, the student passed, and he was given a full refund for the course. Wow. Anyway, the point of my story is that there is still lots of bullshit out there and it's not impossible that a professor "has it out for you."

Though this coincides with another issue brought up earlier: it is a bitch to fail students, even with emotional motivation. I've had dozens of professors that I could tell did not like me at all, AT ALL, wanted me to fuck off and all that, but kept their grading unbiased (for me) and didn't fail me. My last prof didn't respect me as a human being ffs, but I still got my B. But boy just talking to him he made me feel like a criminal

I've bombed a few classes (meaning I withdrew them), but usually out of my lack of effort or inability to balance school with other aspects of my life. I'm trying to say that most emotionally stable professsors would not punish themselves by failing a student they hated only to have them return for the same course the next year. I have no doubt this prof did not respect you or your beliefs, but not to the point where you were failed out of spite. Maybe your papers were really bad in comparison to your peers. I learned the hard way not to dick around in upper-division courses (no SC, no partying, no exceptions, or else I was sunk).