79% to 80%

[Guest Hegdehog]

Hi!

I know this is a little off-topic, but was wondering if any of you have experienced getting a grade that was one percent off from the next GPA level. I have a 79 (GPA = 3.3)in a particular course right now and want to know if you guys know if I have the chance to have this rounded up to 80 so that I can have a GPA of 4.0. And if so, what can I do?

 

Thanks so much!

[Guest tappety tap]

I am from McGill but I had a 79% in a biology course and wanted that 80. So I talked to the prof and explained my situation and told him that other profs I have had made a policy that they round up if you get one percent from the next letter grade...but my powers of persuasion failed...everytime i look at my transcript, i hate seeing a 79 but nothing much i can do about it!

 

Each prof is different...i would go talk to him/her ASAP before final marks are permanent ....good luck!

 

By the way, in the end, it won't matter AT ALL if you get left with a 79 or get it pushed up...but it can't hurt to try anyways.

[Guest peachy]

I once got a grade bumped up. If you're going to go to the prof, I strongly suggest you come up with some legitimate reason why you want your grade bumped up. When I got my grade bumped up, I brought a test paper where I had added wrong and lost 10% because the error follow-through. I wrote a note to the prof explaining that I hoped that a silly mistake like this wouldn't be reflected on my transcript forever, because it didn't reflect my understanding. I attached the test paper, and he changed the grade.

 

Profs get a LOT of people asking them to change grades. Unless they happen to be really, really nice, or know you well, they aren't going to do it because the 79 will look bad on your transcript. Check out the reasons at www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/change.htm or dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/Humo...aised.html and make sure that you don't use any of the excuses listed there! :lol

[Guest therealcrackers]

Some profs already have a bump and round formula in place; and you never know if your mark has changed from a 78.51 to a 79 or has been put on a curve (rare, but still happens). I had to deal with this on a regular basis as a TA, with students asking for part marks from labs six months previous so they could get the extra 0.5%. My rule was, if you showed me more than two labs, you got no changes, or you might be re-marked downwards if there were errors the other way. Your vigilance in trying to get additional marks is valid, but remember that the human being on the other end of the marking equation deserves your consideration when you try.

[Guest sally2001]

hegdehog,

this happened to me once in my 3rd year digital electronics class. the prof posted the spreadsheet of marks incl lab grades, midterm, final, assignments etc. i had an 84 overall after getting an 88 on the final. at my school 80-84 = A- and 85-89 = A. i emailed him and asked him to raise my mark solely based on my superior exam over my term mark. basically he told me that he felt he had been fairly generous over the term and wouldn't do it.

personally, i have never gone after that that 0.5% here and there, but seeing as you know that 3.3 to 3.7 GPA difference is quite significant, i think you should ask your prof. the worst he can do is say no (see my situation above). good luck.

[Guest Biochem10]

Tappety tap, that's funny because I also got a 79% in a biology class-perhaps we were in the same class?? Everytime I look at my transcript I cringe at that 79% especially since my mark going into the exam was an A...it was first year and I guess I was out having too much fun instead of studying!!!! I've never asked for a re-evaluation in a class, even though it was 1% away from an A-, I knew i didn't deserve a better grade.

[Guest McGill03]

I had a friend who got a 69.7 in a bio course (at McGill). The prof gave her a 69. She went to ask if the grade could be rounded up. The prof answered, "If you wanted a higher grade, you should've answered more questions right on the final."

 

If any of you reading this end up being profs later on, remember what it was like to be a student.

[Guest mying]

I only ever did this once. It was a distance ed course with group work -- and it hadn't turned out favourably. I was able to demonstrate to the prof, by pointing her towards the group discussion are on WebCT, that I had really spearheaded that group and tried to get quality work out of them. She granted me the "upgrade" because, frankly, my group had dragged my mark down.

 

They have to have a good reason, and you have to be able to demonstrate it. And you have to get your appeal, whether official or unofficial, in before the marks get made "permanent", whatever that date may be at your school.

[Guest UofCMeds2005]

In my third year I wrote a really tough exam and I ended up with a 78-80 (?). I knew the material really well I was just running out of time and read the question wrong in my haste. I placed my paper down in the done pile and realized my mistake at that instant. So, I looked at the monitor and said, "I just want to check one last thing. She said "sorry but no". Even though there was still 5 min left. More than half my class had scammed last years exam which was id to this one - I was not so lucky (sorry that is another vent). Anyways, I was really upset as I was trying to raise my avg for meds. I went and discussed the exam with my prof-that second. It was kind of funny - my defence was that I really understood the material, so he gave me 5 other questions to do on the spot. I did them nearly flawlessly. So, he gave me full marks on the question raising my mark to an 89%. That was a major deal, as our final was cancelled due to a bomb threat - so my mark stuck

[Guest not rex morgan]

In my final year, 5/9 courses were 1% under the next letter grade. Didn't matter at UBC as they look at percentages anyways, but it really hurt my chances at other schools. I didn't try to get them bumped up then. Two of those marks were 89, and in courses that I had a good rapport with the prof. I would have felt like a tool asking for an A+. In my second year, I had an average that was 1% below the cutoff for my scholarship renewal. I found one prof who really didn't care and he simply said "sure, how much do you need?" Another prof let me look at my final to see if anything was marked wrong, and a few marks were not added in, so that brought me up a percent. I couldn't get enough profs to help me in the end, though. However, it may be worth asking to see that final, and looking for calculation error. It's hard for them to tell you that you should have studied harder when their TAs added wrong. Just be respectful and ask politely if you could do a quick add. I'm surprised TAs don't make more calculation errors with the number of papers they have to go through, plus their own research. As a side bar, I had had a car accident that year and was in physio. The awards office accepted that excuse and I got my scholarship renewed for the next two years.

[Guest Hegdehog]

Wow! I didn't expect to get such a nifty response from all of ya!

 

But....Sigh...

 

I checked with the prof and he's not budging I think what's really bugging me here is that this is not the first time I've been stuck with a crummy mark (the other times were all due to profs fiddling with class averages...which caused me to get B+s instead of As). What I don't get is how some people seem to always get their 78s and 83s rounded up to 80s and 85s, respectively...is there a back-door that I'm not aware of? Gee...I feel like I'm on this nasty train of bad luck... :x

[Guest Dannyboy]

Don't feel so bad about you situation Hedgehog--79% is hardly a "crummy" mark. I also think that those people who "always" get their marks bumped up 2% are fictitious. I can see 1% but 2%? I suppose it could happen but I've honestly never known it to even occasionally happen let alone consistently happen (unless you are talking about marks getting scaled--that is a totally different sitch).

 

I always take what people say about their marks with a gigantic grain of salt. About the scaling not working in your favour--it is best to remember the times that it most definitly does work in your favour. NONE of my courses ever scaled their marks and there were many times that it was really the only fair thing to do but, alas, it did not happen. I've lost plenty of grades because I was less than .5% off; once I was .1 off.

 

I've also had profs deliberately screw me over with my marks--I've been in classes where I got higher percentages than people who got much better marks. Ya know what? C'est la vie. In the end, I continued to do my thing, work hard, learn lots, and enjoy being given an opportunity to become educated.

 

I understand how you must feel but I hope in time that you are proud of the mark you worked very hard to earn.

[Guest strider2004]

Geez people, I can't believe you're worried about a 79%. The worst mark on my transcript is a 62%(full year course) and the 2nd worst is a 70%. They were both counted towards my GPA. One mark won't make or break you.

[Guest fox]

One thing to consider when asking a prof to change your marks is whether you are planning to ask for a reference. I worked for a prof for a summer and had him as a teacher and he told me that he HATED when people asked him to change his marks and he really appreciated that I would never do that and that was why he would always write me a really good letter of reference. Just like strider 2004, I had marks below 80 in 5/40 courses and I still got in. In fact, according to the rejection letters I got last year when I applied, I was in the top 10% of all applicants mark-wise (even at Mac, where they get 4000 applications). I really wouldn't worry too much about a 79%.

[Guest mying]

So he won't budge -- that's his perogative and you cannot fault him for that.

 

Perspective: It's just a 79. I realize that for the purposes of the OMSAS GPA scale sometimes that 1% can make a difference, but chin up. Kick some butt on the next class.

 

I don't want to get into a compare the grades thing but as was mentioned some of us have 60s... and 50s... on our transcripts. And we got in.

[Guest UofCMeds2005]

I agree. I got into a lot of med schools, including UofT and OofU, which are very GPA driven. I had a 59% and a 64% in two of my first year courses. So, I would have loved a 79%.

 

I also agree that it depends on the prof. In my situation I was very fortunate to have a nice prof. I told him that I wanted to get into med and I had been working really hard for the past two years to get a 4.0 and a 78 would pretty much be the end of me (A little dramatic - but b/c of the aforementioned marks I listed). He said simply that he wasn't there to ruin my life, but to teach. If I understood the material I derserved the mark. Infact, he also changed several other students marks that year.

[Guest Hegdehog]

Thanks for cheer-up!

 

Come to think of it...I'm not upset over just the 79%...I think I'm more upset with the handful of marks that I have that are at 78%, all because of scaling down...and these are in my 3rd and 4th yr courses. (And to strider2004, who probably thinks I'm a worry-wort for no reason...I even have a 62% in a 3rd year course.) I realize that I can't do anything about it and crying over spilled milk does no good...but would you happen to know if that would seriously jeopardize my chances of applying to meds?

 

For those of you who did get into meds with a few marks less than 80, if you could please share some input, was your GPA drastically affected by such marks? (Cuz, I know if they happened in your first and second year courses, it seems to count less than if they occurred in your 3rd and 4th yr courses.)

 

In addition, could you please let me know which schools were more willing to accept applicants with a less than perfect GPA. (I know I should take what I hear with a grain of salt...but people keep insisting that some make it to Meds (not necessarily at McMaster) with 3.0 GPA...is that true?)

 

Thanks!

[Guest mying]

Sounds like what you need to do is take a moment and pull out a copy of the OMSAS application guide -- or the online version -- and information from the school websites for the ones outside Ontario. And you need to have a real good read of the requirements for each school. If you know what exact goals you're aiming for, you'll know what you've already got down pat and what you need to improve, and you'll find it easier to achieve them.

 

For example, Western only looks at your two best years and only looks that you meet a cut-off (generated every year based on that year's applicant pool). Queen's will first look at your cumulative score for the first cutoff, but if that doesn't make it your most recent two years of undergrad might make the second cutoff. And Toronto is different and Ottawa is different and Mac is different.

 

Cut-offs are strict. You will probably notice that they all quote numbers in the 3.5-3.9 range, depending on the school and the stream of application. For someone to get into medical school with a 3.0 OMSAS GPA (don't forget the conversion on the OMSAS scale) would be extremely rare and likely either a very unusual circumstance OR a misreported story. Perhaps it was someone with 3.0 in their first year. Or a 3.0 on their school's unique GPA conversion scale.

 

The variety in admissions criteria between all the schools really works well for the variety of applicants. Good luck!

[Guest EMHC]

Hi everyone

 

From what i'm seeing on this thread is that med school is really really really looking at 80%+. Just finished 1st year, and I have a bunch of 70-80 % marks, so does this mean that my chances of acceptance down the road has shrunk dramatically?:|

 

EMHC

[Guest Lakers4life]

lol...when I saw this post up I thought you guys were going to be talking about how in meds 79%=pass and 80%=honours....so, as much as a 79 sucks in undergrad, it doesn't get any better in meds either!