Regrade requests

If there was an arithmetic error in adding up points on your exam, let me know right away, and I will record the correct grade.  This doesn't constitute a regrade request.

My experience with regrade requests is that fewer than 10% of them lead to a change in an exam grade, and an even smaller percentage have any effect on the final grade for the course.  It seems a waste of my time to regrade these exams, and a waste of your time to agonize over the possiblity of gaining an additional point.  You can almost certainly gain more points in the course by devoting this time to studying for the next exam.  If you sincerely feel that your exam was unfairly graded, I will consider regrading it.  However, I reserve the right to regrade the entire exam, which may result in either an increase or a decrease in your grade. 

When calculating the final letter grades for the course, I give extra consideration to each student who is near a cut-off, to see if there is some justification for bumping the letter grade up a notch.   I will keep a record of all regrade requests, and students who have asked for this extra consideration during the course of the semester may not receive additional consideration at the time that final grades are assigned. 

Unfortunately, there have been several instances in the past where students have modified an answer after the exam had been graded, and then submitted the exam for a regrade.  Because of this, I will not consider regrades of exams that were written in pencil.  Also, a random sample of exams are photocopied before they are returned.  Any indication that a regrade has been requested for a modified exam will be considered cheating, and disciplinary action will be taken. 

If you feel that a regrade request is justified, print out the Regrade Request Form, fill it in, and staple it to the front of your exam.   I am not sure how quickly I will be able to look at these, so if you want to study from your exam, make a copy for yourself before handing it in.

The following are the usual circumstances that may lead to an increase in points:

• Your answer is really the same as the one on the answer key, but the TA didn't realize it.  
  Your explanation should make it clear why you believe your answer is the same.  For example, "The answer key says we were expected to write 'anterior pituitary gland', and I wrote 'adenohypophysis', which is another name for the same gland."
  
  

• Your answer is different from the one provided on the answer key, but your answer is also correct.
  Your explanation should make it clear that you have read the answer key, and why you think that your answer is equally good. 

  Note: The following are not valid reasons for regrades:

• "Most of what I wrote is correct, so I think I deserve more partial credit." 
  Partial credit is given equally for all students who write a particular answer, so it would not be fair to give you more points for this without adding points to all students who wrote the same answer.
  




• "I am just 1 point away from an A, so I thought it was worth scrounging around to find an extra point somewhere."
  It's not.
  




• "I wrote so much, and the TA didn't notice that the correct answer is buried somewhere within this long paragraph." 
  You will lose points if the correct answer is accompanied by incorrect information or by so much irrelevant information that it gives the impression that you didn't know the answer, and were just writing down everything you could think of on this topic.