Any success stories appealing against a grade?

[Letshavesomeicecream]

What do I need to consider and how to I best present my case?
Thank you.

[Georgina1975]

You generally cannot appeal a grade on academic grounds. You can on the grounds of process.

I would speak to my tutor first for further feedback. If still unhappy I would speak to my personal tutor or year tutor. It might be viable to get your work second marked and viewed by the external (if it hasn't been already).

It isn't really about making a "case" - your work is the case. You should always follow the published process too. It should be available to you, perhaps under quality assurance. Ask your personal supervisor/year tutor for the material.

[Letshavesomeicecream]

Thank you Georgina, can you explain a little more what "on the grounds of process" means please? [thnaks]

[Georgina1975]

Well I guess one example might be if you could demonstrate that your work had not been marked against the published assessment criteria. Or that your work had not been marked anonymously (assuming there is an anonymous marking policy in place).

It is difficult to say without knowing the rules and regulations of your particular institution, which is why it is a good idea to get advice from academic staff.

I am not suggesting that you are going to do this, but just in case (and for anybody reading) I do advise against "going straight to the top". I know of students (and, increasingly, parents) going straight to, for example, the Dean of the Faculty (or higher). Typically you would get asked (in the nicest possible way) to follow the correct procedure and probably be judged (in private) for not doing so in the first place.

[Letshavesomeicecream]

Thanks again Georgina, how could I possibly find out if marking hadn't been done anonymously? I know this sounds paranoid, but if a student writes about a very specific, niche subject, and the marker asked the library staff which student took out the books on the reference list, would the library staff tell them?

[Georgina1975]

I am not sure I can answer that question TBH. The only scenario I can think of where I would be asking for a list you describe (and, no, I don't know if that would allowed) is if (a) the student had not supplied references and was on course for a fail as I result and I was going out of my way to help them (b) I thought they were fabricating the material they had used for their work and the references (maybe they got a quote or two off the internet but had claimed to have sourced from the book) and (c) plagiarism (in my institution "intention" does not matter on this issue).

In the case of b and c, I would not need a list from the library - you can often just tell when a student has a superficial engagement with the literature. The work tends to lack analytic depth for a start.

I don't suppose you can find out if your work has been marked anonymously. If you suspect this is the case, then I suggest requesting that that it is second marked and also sent to the external examiner.

[Letshavesomeicecream]

Again many thanks Georgina, you are very helpful . Our works is supposed to be marked anonymously, by two lecturers as well as. An external, but who knows, if this really happened..... I just feel helpless in this case which is not a nice feeling. My course leader has read the essay since and agrees it should be one grade up but also acknowledged that he doesn't teach that module so cannot be sure

[mugglingalong]

You need to bear in mind too that sometimes marks can go down as well as up on appeal. When you look through the feedback do you think that their points are valid or does it seem as if they are talking about an entirely different assignment? Is it possible that you misread the assignment? I have marked perfectly good essays which would have easily been a first or 2i level if they had actually been answering the question that had been set.

[JeanneDeMontbaston]

I agree with others need to follow the university rules for appeal - we can't really help, I don't think? Just because it sounds so specific. Could you go to the student support centre? They might well be able to help and in some places, you are allowed to have a student advocate, who can help you with things.

It is really depressing, but sometimes, they just do disagree about marks. When I graduated, I know my supervisor wrote in my recommendations that he personally felt I deserved a better grade. But that didn't mean it was wrong that I got what I did - he just wanted people to know it was a bit contentious.

I did want to say - please don't get your parents involved. I'm guessing you're not a typical student age given you're on MN, but I noticed georgina posting about parents getting involved, and this is a bad idea because it's not legal for them to discuss results (or any other details) with a student's parents unless the student explicitly consents - most universities get really het up about it and it'll all go more smoothly if that complication isn't brought in.

[chemenger]

Do you mean it is independently double marked or is their a moderation process? Usually if something is double marked you should receive two sets of feedback which will show that the double marking took place. If it is moderation then under our system there should be some evidence that that moderation has taken place but there might not be written feedback from the moderator. Our externals don't mark anything, it isn't their function, but if they did that should mean a third set of feedback. Have you compared the feedback to the assessment criteria? Is it clear from the feedback how the essay failed to get the grade you expected? Academics do differ in their opinions, that does not make the resulting mark wrong.

As far as appeals go, academic judgement is not usually an acceptable ground for appeal. At this university you need to have either information not known at the assessment or something incorrect in the procedure. Incorrect procedure is very unusual here(I am on the appeal committee) because there are QA procedures which monitor compliance in things like double marking, anonymous marking etc.

Our librarians would not tell us what books a student had borrowed.

[UptheChimney]

I echo all the advice of all the other academics on this thread. Academic judgement & evaluation (ie assessment) is not grounds for an appeal, and your course leader really should not have said what s/he said to you.

Did you talk to the markers first? Did you engage with their narrative feedback on your work? There is more to assessment than the numerical mark.

If it's been either double marked or moderated, at least 2 people will have looked at it. They may well have adjusted the mark already. It may be that there was already a discussion about the grade, and the final mark you were given is a compromise between the two markers. This is normal. There will always be different judgements on essays, and this is NOT evidence of bias or incompetence.

And I might well want to check what books had been used in an essay, because of plagiarism. I once suspected plagiarism, went to the library, found the book on the shelf, with the suspect passage highlighted with asterisks. There was direct plagiarism.

You need to be careful that your disappointment at one mark for one piece of work becomes something else. My advice is, move on.

It's rare for academics to have the mental or emotional energy to have a prejudice against students. Really. Generally, we just don't care in that personal way. We assess what is in front of us, and we want to see good work.

[Letshavesomeicecream]

"You need to be careful that your disappointment at one mark for one piece of work becomes something else. My advice is, move on."

What else could happen? [worried]

I met with the markers and it was confirmed that my essay was borderline. I absolutely feel it was marked wrongly but there is nothing further i can do. and [annoyed] [stamps foot and mumbles its not fair].

Anyway, onwards and upwards, i suppose. It's a minor issue in the greater scheme of things.

Thanks again for all the advice

[JeanneDeMontbaston]

Sorry to hear that - but glad you were able to meet them.

Do keep in mind - it's the sort of thing you can mention in future if it becomes relevant. If you were applying for something academic and they really wanted to know about the grade, it'd be fine to say it was borderline.

[Letshavesomeicecream]

Yes, I'm glad I addressed it and happy the markers agreed to meet and discuss. I was also told that more students than usual received the lowest mark . Nevertheless it stings as it can jeopardise whether I receive a pass or distinction at the end of the course and, taking all thing into account, I am still pretty certain that I should have been marked differently so it feels like my work has not been recognised the way it should have. As I said, onwards and up...

[purplepenguin86]

In what way do you think you should have been marked differently? I'm not saying you're not right, but it's quite a big statement to make. I'm sometimes surprised by the mark I get (in both good and bad ways!) but I wouldn't assume it had been marked incorrectly - I may ask for clarification on the feedback, but I would assume the marker was more likely to know what mark I should get than I am?

[anorakgirl]

Just a note on the librarians issue. We can disclose a student's loan history if plagiarism or other fraud is suspected but it very very rarely happens!

[UptheChimney]

I am still pretty certain that I should have been marked differently so it feels like my work has not been recognised the way it should have

I'm not sure why you say this? It was a borderline. This happens.

Presumably your examiners are experts and have a broader perspective on the matter. As I said upthread, you just need to learn and move on. It really doesn't help your learning to obsess over the numerical mark: attend to the narrative feedback about what aspects of the essay worked, and develop these in your next piece of work.

[chemenger]

I often give marks that I know are going to be different from what the student expects but (I hope) my feedback makes it clear why I have given the mark I have. It is almost always because the student has not followed the instructions in the exercise. The thing they find hardest to accept is that we penalise excessive length quite heavily, because it is more difficult to write concisely and with precision than to dump everything you know onto swathes of paper. You need to learn from this disappointment, not just keep on thinking that you are right (having done this essay for the first time) and they are wrong (having seen a range of work). Otherwise you run the risk of continuing to be disappointed.

[UptheChimney]

Wise words, chem !

[Letshavesomeicecream]

"As I said upthread, you just need to learn and move on. It really doesn't help your learning to obsess over the numerical mark: attend to the narrative feedback about what aspects of the essay worked, and develop these in your next piece of work."

Why do you say that i am obsessing over this? I am a dedicated student who normally scores pretty high in course work, especially essays i love writing essays. I am obviously invested as I have put in a lot of effort and have covered the key points, this was confirmed today in my feedback session . The lecturers themselves said, it should have been one mark up but that nothing can be done now, bar an external examiner picking out my work and challenging it, which is unlikely.

the written feedback was not of good quality imo but the feedback session helped, especially as I know i didn't go completely wrong.

I kept exactly to the word count and the lecturers confirmed that my essay was well written.

i have two degrees and am on a post grad so have written plenty of essays to have a good feel for whats what. the module was a fringe module (very specialised subject, and very much open to interpretation) and i think i didn't hit the right tone, so this was subjective.

I have already moved on as i said in my previous posts but posting here has helped to work through some of my feeling.