My grade is unacceptable

From a reader: This one was handwritten on a piece of paper left for another TA in a shared office, so there's no email to forward. But a student left his TA a note saying that the grade he had received for [course] was "unacceptable." He asked her to suggest a "mutually convenient time" when they could meet "to negotiate a grade that will be acceptable to us both."

The joy of final course grades

A reader has kindly submitted this astounding email from their archives:

Subject: Grades

Dr. [Last Name],

I received my grades early this morning and I saw I got a C- in [your service course]. I don't know all of my grades for [course number] but this does not seem absurd. However, I am concerned about how [my best friend and co-major] managed to get a C+ in the class. Not to put [my best friend] down, but for me it's safe to say that my attendance, effort and grades were consistently better than [best friend]'s throughout the semester. The fact alone that I attended double the classes he did and turned in triple the amount of homeworks than he is grounds for a better grade in my opinion, at least the same! Unless he did substantially better than me on the final, I cannot possibly see how my grade is so much lower. Not to be an added burden, but I would appreciate it if you could justify this difference.

Thanks a lot,
[First Name Last Name]

My suggestion for a reply: "Oops, I guess your friend should have a C- too. I'll be sure to let him know you pointed this out."

Please email me the answers

Here's one from a reader who apparently has a national reputation for helping students cram for finals. This student was not in the reader's course, nor even a student at his school!

From: [Student not from where I work]
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 2:30 PM
To: [Professor]
Subject: [Course I taught in Spring Semester 2008]

Dear [Prof's Last Name],

I m a [discipline in which you teach] student and i am taking the course of [junior/senior level subject], our supplementary book is [Classic text on the subject]. I have a final exam on 17th of January and i am trying to solve exercises on the book but i am having some difficulties with the exercises at the end of the section [specific number]. if you have answers to these questions could you please mail them to me, not all of them are necessary i m trying to solve as much as i can so that i can trust myself more. Thanks for your attention.

[First name of student]

Leave your suggested email responses to this student in the comments...