Students begging for grades: It's not pretty

[Mark Stellmack]

I teach hundreds of students each semester; this situation probably does not occur very often in smaller classes:  Without fail, and with increasing frequency in recent years, after I post final exam scores and again after I post final grades each semester, I receive a flurry of emails from students who are only a point or two below the cutoff for the next higher grade.  Sometimes they ask me something like, "Is there anything I can do to get a few more points?"  But increasingly often, they simply say, "Can you please bump me up to the next grade?" without any justification whatsoever.  My usual response is to explain that someone will always be close to the cutoff for the next higher grade and if I bump them up, someone else will be just below the new cutoff.  I try to respond as tactfully as I can, but such requests don't leave me with the best impression of the student.