Another Letter From a Student

Dear Teacher,

I’m a junior student selecting your class this term “An Insight Into Britain”. This is the second time I selected your lesson. Yet I really want to know your standard for meaturing the final marks because six months later I will apply for my postgraduate degree in Britain. Therefore, the average mark above 85 will be required then. Since last term I got a relatively low mark in one of my courses. So if you could give me a final mark above 85 I would very very very appreciate that! I understand that it is uncommon for you. But I really need that score and the classes in the third year are fewer now, which means there is little chance for me to improve the average score any more. Please this is my last chance. If you find that my inclass job is not bad, please think of that, OK?

Anne Nonymos – From the English Department, studying the major of English Translation and Interpretation.

I received this email from one of my students (shown above) which asks me to give her a higher mark because she’s going abroad. I find it a little strange, because the implication is “Please favour me over other students”, and if she wanted to get a high mark, she should work for it and not get it simply by asking. Another point of contention is the timing, because surely if marks were the utmost importance to her, then she’d ask me at the beginning of the semester when I have power to give specific suggestions and pointers to her on how to do better.

Regardless of all that, she did well enough in the exams to score 86% without any funny business going on, so the issue is moot. I’m surprised the department let her do my course for a second time, and I’m sure this gave her an unwarranted advantage if she actually came to my course the first time round, especially since the listening material over the course didn’t change (the questions and the exams did). But for the enterprising student, there were ways to find transcripts online of the listening exercise, while they wouldn’t have seen the questions, having read the transcript before hand I’m sure would have been a big help, and thankfully this was not the only form of assessment on the course.

However, from having taught 2 years of classes. 1,500 students and around 900 hours of teaching time, and from talking with other foreign teachers, it is not an uncommon request from students on my other courses, with the timing always being at the end of the semester, never at the start. I don’t discount seeing hard work as part of a course assessment, but perhaps it’s just that some teachers are corrupt, and will favour students as a result of a strong relationship or bribery in one form or another.

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2. Example TEM4 Oral Test #4
3. Chinese Universities
4. Class Speeches
5. Student Feedback