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So last semester we had an english exam but it counts for this semester for some reason.

In it we had to write a 500-600 word essay comparing how a public figure is represented in two news texts. I wrote 830 words and the teacher gave me an A-. I was surprised as the teacher said my essay was a little confusing as to who I was evaluating.

We had our parent teacher interviews earlier on this term, and my english teacher found out my mum is also an english teacher. Which I guess doesn't really mean much but meh.

In our assignment we had to compare a novel and a poem, and I wrote mine and got my mum to proofread it so it was 100% error free, and I used good language and I got the teacher himself to check it and he said it was good and nothing was wrong with it.

Yet I hand it in and he gives me a B. Like WTF. I look at the criteria sheet (the sheet that says what needs to be fulfilled to achieve different marks) and the teacher had clicked in the 'A' column for some things and high on the B column for others, and he gave me a B. I read some other people's comparisons and they were full of grammar errors and didnt make sense and they got A-'s and B+'s. Like, what the heck.

Why not simply ask why the paper wasn't graded as an A. Be polite about it...tell him that you wanted to know so that you in the future you can do better.

He said my essay had a few structural flaws (controlling idea wasn't evident even though it was the first sentence). But if he had ticked all the B column in that criteria sheet then I would be OK with it, but the whole point of that page is to assist the teacher in reaching a final mark and ticking half A's and B's in it and deciding it is a B, ignoring the A's, is just plain stupid.

Bring it to the administration. It sounds like you are being unfairly graded because you are inherently skilled at English.

You can get marked down for being too many words over the limit, so that might be part of it.

But I'd still take it higher, if you think you deserve the A, fight your corner and good luck to you.

Sometimes teachers here (in lower grades) mark also according to what you're capable of doing. So, if you're capable of getting an A in every piece of work, but you start to get lazy and only just make the word requirement, poorly convey your ideas (even though it may be better than the rest of the class) then you will get given a lower mark, to make you try harder.

Not sure if that happens over there.

(2008-09-10, 11:28 PM)rh1n0 Wrote: [ -> ]Sometimes teachers here (in lower grades) mark also according to what you're capable of doing.

Maybe that's why why I always do bad. The only problem is I actually suck at English . I can do anything but English.

But yest take it to a principle and maybe bring one of your friends papers with that did better than you.

Have another, unbiased English teacher grade it according to the criteria sheet.

English is a pretty subjective subject.
I recall my friend got a D for an assignment. After re-grading with a different teacher, he got a A-...

(2008-09-10, 10:00 PM)Matt_ Wrote: [ -> ]You can get marked down for being too many words over the limit, so that might be part of it.

But I'd still take it higher, if you think you deserve the A, fight your corner and good luck to you.

The exam is where I wrote 830 words when the maximum is 600.

This assignment I wrote 1000 words or so, and the maximum was 1000 so it was the right length.