Grading

Grading in our Program is different from most others. There's no right and wrong, just good, better, best... and sometimes not good enough! Grading has to be subjective, which of course means that there are times when people don’t agree with it.

A disappointing grade is frustrating when you’ve handed something in after staying up late to do it and you've given it everything you’ve got. It has everything in it that you can do, within the limited topic or theme you're given, and it's complete as far as it can be. At least, that's how you see it. You have a sense of ownership of it, even an emotional attachment to it. That makes it easy to want to defend or explain your work when someone offers criticism, when they have things to say other than what a wonderful thing it is and how it couldn’t be improved upon. Even if something is said that could be construed as an additional point, it can come across as a criticism of you for not having thought to put it in. You do have to get used to that. But you have to take these criticisms courteously and realize that engaging your critics creates a dialogue that can actually benefit you and your work, that not every comment is a criticism, and the Prof is showing you respect by listening to what you have to say and reacting thoughtfully to it. Some Profs are better giving constructive criticism than others but we learn to take it all in stride, in public at least.

I'm not the kind of person who says that the Prof must be wrong because I didn't get a mark as high as I would have liked. But what I don't like is that sometimes a person who I don't feel is as qualified gets to grade my work.

A lot of grading is done by grad students who are teaching assistants, more commonly referred to as TAs. Some of them have graduated from programs less demanding than ours. Others have specialized in an area dissimilar to our program. In both cases, the TA is no more informed on our work than we are. So there are times when they have difficulties reviewing our assignments, causing a lack in credibility on their part.

I can think of one instance when my TA was just plain lazy and simple minded. He had received his undergraduate degree in something much less rigorous than this program. His ideas were uninspiring and he spent more time discussing his years as a party animal frat boy than anything else. It was frustrating to take criticism from someone who was never given such assignments in his program. He was just grading according to how our Prof had instructed him and even some of that he didn't follow properly. In this program, we put everything we have into our work, and we can be resentful when someone like this has so much influence over our grades.

For the most part, the TAs do care about assisting us, however, there are always a few duds in the group. Luckily, the Prof is responsible for the content taught and the final say in the grading process. That's good, because all our Profs are people we respect. In the end, I'm confident that my grade will reflect my ability and the work I've done, and that it will be as fair as it could be.