Background provided by Instructor: After taking the last exam, this student has realized she will not be receiving an A for my class. The final grade is based on several short writing assignments, and three exams (which were weighted higher than the assignments). She earned a 50 on Prelim 1, 72 on Prelim 2, and an 84 on Prelim 3. She is now writing to set up a meeting to go over her last exam – and to perhaps convince me that because she studied so hard she deserves an A. She is one of nearly 500 students enrolled in my class.
I just took the prelim and I’m really disappointed in some of the questions. Attached is my study guide that I have created over the past five days on top of the review of all the notes and just generally keeping up with the assignments and I would really appreciate it if you took the time to review it, considering it probably took me a solid 36 hours to compose. I would appreciate if I could see which questions I apparently got wrong during a meeting time with you. I went above and beyond to prepare for this class and thoroughly enjoyed the material; this is clear to see if you review all my assignments throughout the class because I received a 100 on every single assignment, therefore I knew the material and was well prepared. I just did not do well on the three exams. I also attempted to receive advice from you on how to better prepare for the exams, to which you replied, “I have no idea what else to tell you – if you read the chapters and study your notes from lecture you should be able to do well”. Unfortunately, this did not occur. It’s a little sad to think that after this much studying I couldn’t even receive an A on this final exam. I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to write papers, create a presentation, or any other work that could be done. Please let me know a time that you can meet.