Should I respond to my professor’s grading comments?
Responding to your professor’s grading feedback
As a college student, you are going to get a lot of feedback from your professors regarding your performance in their classes.
Some professors give their students more feedback than others, but nonetheless, you will have plenty of criticism on your work. And you’ll hopefully get a lot of positive accolades too.
You will likely get some grading comments that you disagree with or you might want to discuss further with your professor. And now you are wondering if you should even respond to their grading comments.
As a former professor myself, I want to help you understand how and when to discuss this feedback with your professor. And most importantly, I will give you EXAMPLES of when you should reply to your professor’s grading comments.
I do believe that there are some instances where a college student should definitely respond to their professor about the feedback they received on their assignments.
But there are other times when I don’t think it’s appropriate.
When should you respond to your professor’s grading?
Comments about feedback you don’t understand
If you got some feedback on your assignment that you don’t understand and want some clarification on, I think you need to reach out to them and discuss it. Later, I will tell you exactly how you should respond to this type of feedback.
You should totally talk with your professor if you don’t understand this feedback because how are you going to improve on future assignments if you don’t know what they want? We want students to know what they did wrong or right so feel free to reach out.
Getting feedback you disagree with
If you simply disagree with the feedback because you think you deserve a better grade, and want to argue with your professor that your grade doesn’t reflect the work that you put into the assignment, I don’t know if this is the right time to respond to their grading comments.
Hear me out.
Your professor has likely graded thousands of assignments, and they have a lot of experience determining what grades students deserve. And your comments to their feedback probably won’t change your grade on that assignment.
It can be insulting for students to tell their professors that they essentially don’t know how to grade assignments. This simply isn’t true. Your professor sees all the enrolled students’ assignments collectively, and they know where your assignment ranks with all the others.
This is a battle you probably won’t win, and I wouldn’t even attempt it either.
I have had a few students reach out to me about my grading comments. It didn’t happen often though. They would try and argue with me about how I graded their assignment or they’d tell me that they deserved a better grade.
Sure, grading is subjective, however, I always graded fairly, and I never altered students’ grades because they told me they wanted a better grade.
I say all this to prove a point. This argument won’t work because your professor has the experience to properly grade assignments, and unless you think that your professor is singling you out for some reason, I would just move on and improve.
How do you thank your professor for grading feedback?
If you simply want to thank your professor for their grading comments, I don’t think that this is necessary either. Your professor likely has hundreds of students each semester, and if lots of students thanked them for their feedback, it would be too overwhelming.
Now, if you really have something unique to say about their feedback, you could send them a quick email expressing that, but this is part of your professor’s job so it isn’t customary to send them any follow-up.
When I was a professor, I never received an email from a student thanking me for the comments I made on their assignment. I suppose it could make you really stand out if you did thank them but I would just wait to do that at the end of the semester.
What if I disagree with my professor’s feedback?
You might be in a situation where your professor has graded your assignment but you really think that your professor made a mistake. Or that they misunderstood your assignment.
I think that students should reach out to their professor to discuss their grading feedback if they think that their professor made an error but approach this CAREFULLY.
You could start the conversation by telling your professor that you reviewed your grading comments, and you want to better understand what you did wrong and how to improve.
Let them explain everything FIRST, and then determine if you need to continue the conversation. This might help you understand their point of view. But if you still disagree, you could ask additional questions.
I would start by saying “what does a PERFECT grade on this assignment look like.” This way your professor can start explaining to you the things that they are looking for when they grade assignments.. And it will help you understand how they grade too.
If you still think they are wrong, you can help them understand why you expected a better grade. And perhaps they can provide even more evidence of how they graded your assignment.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a student wanting to understand how their assignments are graded and why points were deducted, but be professional in your approach.
If you want a more detailed guide on how to deal with grading mistakes, check out my in-depth article here.
How do you respond to your professor’s feedback?
When you respond to your professor’s feedback, you should be professional and polite. It is thoughtful to let them know you appreciate the information so that you can improve in the future.
But I understand that there will be times when you simply don’t agree with their feedback and you think you deserved a better grade.
And you could reach out to gain some more insight into how they graded your assignment and what exactly they are looking for so you could work harder on the next assignment.
Otherwise, if you are wanting to simply respond to their online grading feedback, it really isn’t necessary. If the feedback was in person, it is definitely acceptable to thank them for their time and analysis.
Regardless, any time you talk to your professor, be professional.
Will professors check my comments I left on my grade?
Most professors won’t be checking any comments, left by students, on their grade. If your professor is using a learning management system to provide grading comments, it is very unlikely that your professor will ever see your comment anyway so it’s best to email them instead.
When I was a professor, we used several different learning management systems, and I was never alerted when students left comments on their grade.
Sadly it doesn’t seem like a feature in the gradebook.
If I wanted to see if students were writing comments on their grade or assignment, I would have to go in individually to review that and it would take too much time to do this.
So, if you have questions about your grade, you need to talk with them directly.
If you still have more questions, I have another amazing article to guide you on asking for the feedback that you need to succeed in your college course.
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