Teaching/Grading
I am a PhD student in math and this semester I was teaching an upper-level undergraduate course (juniors and seniors, math majors mostly). This is not the first time I am teaching this course, so I do have some experience. Now I am grading the final exams and I have no idea which grade I should give to one of the students.
The syllabus states that the grade is determined according to their performance in several components: homework, one midterm, class participation and the final. Each component has a different weight. To get a B one needs to have 70%. The student I am talking about has around 90% for the homework and 95% on the midterm. I suspect that she cheated on the midterm but I cannot prove it. Of course, I cannot prove that somebody helped her with her homework either. She never participated in class. And her grade on the final (under my careful control) is only 48. Also, a few weeks before the final she started to come to my office and ask some questions that I couldn't expect from someone who got 90+ on the midterm. Moreover, she emailed me with a few similar (very silly) questions before the final and at the end of her message, after her signature there was a link to her facebook and twitter account. So, I was curious and went to her twitter and read many nasty comments about me and the course I am teaching. This is not illegal but rather unpleasant as she played very nice person during my last office hours.
If I calculate her course grade according to the syllabus, it's a B. Now I understand that I have to change the grading policy in my syllabus but for the current class it's too late. I just think that the student in question didn't demonstrate on her final that she deserved a B.
I wouldn't consider myself as a mean person who simply wants to get revenge. So far I have had very good evaluations from my students and was "promoted" from a TA to a "Course instructor". I thought that probably I should email her and tell her what I think (that she deserves at most C+) and probably give her an opportunity to retake the final (if she knows her stuff - she will get a better grade). At the same time I really dislike her attitude and double game. What would you guys do?
The syllabus states that the grade is determined according to their performance in several components: homework, one midterm, class participation and the final. Each component has a different weight. To get a B one needs to have 70%. The student I am talking about has around 90% for the homework and 95% on the midterm. I suspect that she cheated on the midterm but I cannot prove it. Of course, I cannot prove that somebody helped her with her homework either. She never participated in class. And her grade on the final (under my careful control) is only 48. Also, a few weeks before the final she started to come to my office and ask some questions that I couldn't expect from someone who got 90+ on the midterm. Moreover, she emailed me with a few similar (very silly) questions before the final and at the end of her message, after her signature there was a link to her facebook and twitter account. So, I was curious and went to her twitter and read many nasty comments about me and the course I am teaching. This is not illegal but rather unpleasant as she played very nice person during my last office hours.
If I calculate her course grade according to the syllabus, it's a B. Now I understand that I have to change the grading policy in my syllabus but for the current class it's too late. I just think that the student in question didn't demonstrate on her final that she deserved a B.
I wouldn't consider myself as a mean person who simply wants to get revenge. So far I have had very good evaluations from my students and was "promoted" from a TA to a "Course instructor". I thought that probably I should email her and tell her what I think (that she deserves at most C+) and probably give her an opportunity to retake the final (if she knows her stuff - she will get a better grade). At the same time I really dislike her attitude and double game. What would you guys do?