“Everyone should have his/her own opinion, don’t you agree?” This witticism, written on the blackboard by my Canadian literature professor, hit home. It seemed particularly relevant to student-instructor communication, especially since none of my classmates, of the forty in that lecture, had vocally disagreed with the professor all semester.
This is not to say that every professor discourages students from expressing their thoughts, or that every student should always have a chance to express themselves constantly— English majors are all too familiar with the lone speaker who insists on turning everything into a phallic symbol. Yet increasingly, my experience at U of T involves regurgitating my instructors’ opinions back to them, instead of articulating my own, whether in class discussion or in an assignment.
This year, I took a chance. I was inspired by the subject matter in one course, and thought thoroughly about the topic. Excited, I found myself starting the essay long before my usual night-before dash to the finish. When I turned it in, I felt a strange sensation not familiar to many procrastinators: pride. The result? I was slapped with a low mark and the comment that the paper didn’t adequately reflect the positions represented in the course.
My first instinct was, naturally, to sulk. I pouted my way across Sid Smith before I remembered something: a student can contest a grade on an assignment. After asking around, I was shocked to find that surprisingly few of my fellow students (myself included) had any knowledge of the actual details of this process. In my three years at U of T, no professor or teaching assistant had even mentioned it as an option, and heretofore I was resigned to harbouring quiet resentment towards my professors after a bad mark. But the method exists. There is another way.
Contesting a paper is done through the department that offers the course in question. Initially, they recommend that you attempt to discuss the paper with the person who marked it. I contacted my professor, wrote out a list of disagreements to her comments, and met with her in person. She stood by her mark. Next, go to the department with a copy of both your graded and ungraded papers, where they will be submitted along with your request to be reevaluated. If they find your reasons sensible, an impartial third party will re-mark your work without knowing your original grade.
But contesting a paper is a gamble. Once you ask for a re-mark, you must accept the grade your second marker awards, whether it is higher or lower than the original. While many papers I had written certainly had not been worth a re-mark, I had faith that this particular paper had been substantially undervalued. A month later, the department contacted me. They had raised my mark over 10 per cent, resulting in a completely different letter grade in the course.
This was satisfying, but more rewarding was the knowledge that my professor’s opinion was not the be-all and end-all of the university experience. Sure, profs and TAs are usually rather brilliant (that PhD has to be good for something) but they’re not almighty, and they can be challenged. The sad truth is that most students aren’t aware of the processes to defend their academic position. There’s no use for students to suffer in silence. If you think you’ve done good work, show that prof who’s boss.
