Unless the course material is something like math, marking and grading can be an extremely subjective topic. Here are some tips from a professors’ perspective on how you can best improve your grades:
· If there is a particular style guide that your professor would like you to use, try to read and understand that style guide thoroughly. Your professor will probably be using it to judge your work, this will help you to follow the style he or she likes
· Ask your professor if they are willing to review your assignments before you hand them in. If they agree, this will help you to get the highest marks you can
· If your professor will not agree to review your work before submission, there are writing centres on most campuses that can help you to improve your writing and catch flaws or errors in your assignments
· Before you hand in assignments, make sure you read your work out loud to catch any errors you may have made – this will greatly improve the flow and the quality of your work – plus, make sure that you have not made any typos
· It is also a good idea to get someone else to read your work as well. There is that old saying that “two eyes are better than one.”
If at any time you are unsure of a mark you have received and would like to question your professor about it, feel free to do so – these are your rights as a student. Professors are not perfect and they make mistakes too. Marking and grading is a difficult thing to do and sometimes there is always that margin of error where a professor gets an assignment and does not really know what mark or grade to put on it.
One foolproof way to make sure you get the best grades you can is making sure your work is clear and simple. If you try to sound smart – you are probably shooting yourself in the foot and actually damaging the kind of mark you could get. If you keep your writing plain, simple, clear and something that anyone could understand – you will make sure you are communicating your ideas clearly. This is what makes the difference between an A+ and a B-.
Plus, if you are proud of the work you have done – your professor will be too.
