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I hate it when students whine about the unfairness of their lousy grades and how they really deserved a higher one. It's even worse when the Treasury Departmen

by hugh3 15y ago

I hate it when students whine about the unfairness of their lousy grades and how they really deserved a higher one. It's even worse when the Treasury Department does it.

checker 15y ago
I would whine if a teacher's mistake sent me from a D to an F if a D would let me "pass".
- hugh3 15y ago
  Well this is a difference between an A and a B. Or rather it's the difference between an AAA and an AA+, because grade inflation in the credit rating world is even worse than grade inflation in academia. But there's a logical flaw here. Even if there was an error in the initial calculation, that doesn't mean that the end result should be different. You can show me that you actually got 81% rather than 80% if you like, but that's still a B.
andrewflnr 15y ago
Agreed. The real mistake made by all the rating agencies was in not downgrading the US years ago. And I say that as an American citizen who wants to be patriotic, but is just disgusted by the unrestrained spending in Washington. If the rating agencies had all had the courage to rock the boat and drop us a point a couple years ago, I think that the sound of money going away might have woken up even our political leaders to do something to stop it.
- exit 15y ago
  "wants to be patriotic"? it's easy for me to skip over this part of your comment, but the more i think about it the more it bothers me that i have absolutely no clue what you mean by that. i agree with the rest of your comment by the the way.
nick007 15y ago
This isn't whining - the Treasury isn't simply complaining about the downgrade. They are pointing out a fact that the original justification for the downgrade was proved to be wrong, yet after realizing this S&P maintained the same conclusion based on a different set of justifications. This would be like a student pointing out that the teacher incorrectly graded his paper; and after acknowledging that fact, the teacher maintains the same grade.
- btilly 15y ago
  It is worse than that. In the original guidance that S&P gave, their target level of deficits for the USA was exactly what the real plan, without their mistake, was. So the government actually is achieving exactly what S&P wanted them to achieve. For better or for worse I believe that the reason for S&P's downgrade is that they gave guidance of $4 trillion, they didn't see a $4 trillion deal, and they would be embarrassed if they failed to downgrade given how publicly they said that they would if they didn't see $4 trillion.
- shaggyfrog 15y ago
  > This would be like a student pointing out that the teacher incorrectly graded his paper; and after acknowledging that fact, the teacher maintains the same grade. Way back when I was a university undergrad, I got a 0 for a proof on a statistics exam, but the proof was correct. When I showed this to the professor, she agreed, but said it wasn't the proof she was "looking for", and so the 0 stayed. Maybe she's working for S&P now.
- white_devil 15y ago
  How about the US being insolvent? Is that enough justification?
gareim 15y ago
I ended up going to summer school for physics because my teacher "unfairly" gave me an F. She told us at the beginning of the school year that we only had to do 10 of those honor questions (out of 20 possible) every unit and at the end of the year told us "Oh, I meant you only had to do 10 to not drop a letter grade" which was retarded and the class went nuts at this. And once, another student accidentally took home my packet for the weekend on the day it was due and when I tried explaining it to the teacher the following Monday, all she could do was smile and say I get a zero regardless. It was worth a SIXTH of my grade. She also never taught us and just threw homework and tests at us. I was pretty pissed that I ended up getting an F instead of a C or D even. If you think an A to a B doesn't matter, change ALL your A's to B's and see how you like it being "fair". As for the credit downgrade, maybe it was right maybe it wasn't. Still trying to decide for myself. P.S. That damn physics teacher is still teaching (aka sipping her Diet Pepsi in her chair all day) at my school.
- gareim 15y ago
  You know, I'm not against people downvoting me, but I'd like to know why. I'd like people to tell me why they disagree so I can at least learn from my mistakes.
  - marvin 15y ago
    I didn't downvote you, but your comment isn't very relevant to the topic. I'm guessing that's why.
    - gareim 15y ago
      I disagreed with the guy I was replying to, but yeah, I do see that what I said wasn't relevant to the OP. Thanks for at least explaining. :)
  - jackpirate 15y ago
    You are whining. There are lots of legitimate reasons to complain about teachers. You gave one legit (changing course requirements midway), and lots of illegitimate ones. You do not have a respectful tone. Plus, the fact that you would have only gotten a D makes you look retarded in the eyes of most on HN. It's hard to get sympathy from an intellectually snobby group by bragging about your failure to excel. In short, this is not how a polite student who deserved an A but received a B/C would have responded.
redthrowaway 15y ago
If your Math professor claims you failed a midterm, then you show them they forgot to count a page's worth of marks, but they said you still the same grade because they doubted your "willingness" to pass, you'd be well within your rights to complain.
- esrauch 15y ago
  I really don't think that it is as simple as that. If your professor refused to write you a recommendation for a research position because your grades are a bit low and he doesn't think you are responsible because you were dangerously close to missing important deadlines, then you show that his grade calculation was wrong but he still won't recommend you because the second part was still true.

by hugh3 15y ago

I hate it when students whine about the unfairness of their lousy grades and how they really deserved a higher one. It's even worse when the Treasury Department does it.

checker 15y ago

I would whine if a teacher's mistake sent me from a D to an F if a D would let me "pass".

hugh3 15y ago
Well this is a difference between an A and a B. Or rather it's the difference between an AAA and an AA+, because grade inflation in the credit rating world is even worse than grade inflation in academia. But there's a logical flaw here. Even if there was an error in the initial calculation, that doesn't mean that the end result should be different. You can show me that you actually got 81% rather than 80% if you like, but that's still a B.

andrewflnr 15y ago

Agreed. The real mistake made by all the rating agencies was in not downgrading the US years ago. And I say that as an American citizen who wants to be patriotic, but is just disgusted by the unrestrained spending in Washington. If the rating agencies had all had the courage to rock the boat and drop us a point a couple years ago, I think that the sound of money going away might have woken up even our political leaders to do something to stop it.

exit 15y ago
"wants to be patriotic"? it's easy for me to skip over this part of your comment, but the more i think about it the more it bothers me that i have absolutely no clue what you mean by that. i agree with the rest of your comment by the the way.

nick007 15y ago

This isn't whining - the Treasury isn't simply complaining about the downgrade. They are pointing out a fact that the original justification for the downgrade was proved to be wrong, yet after realizing this S&P maintained the same conclusion based on a different set of justifications. This would be like a student pointing out that the teacher incorrectly graded his paper; and after acknowledging that fact, the teacher maintains the same grade.

btilly 15y ago
It is worse than that. In the original guidance that S&P gave, their target level of deficits for the USA was exactly what the real plan, without their mistake, was. So the government actually is achieving exactly what S&P wanted them to achieve. For better or for worse I believe that the reason for S&P's downgrade is that they gave guidance of $4 trillion, they didn't see a $4 trillion deal, and they would be embarrassed if they failed to downgrade given how publicly they said that they would if they didn't see $4 trillion.
shaggyfrog 15y ago
> This would be like a student pointing out that the teacher incorrectly graded his paper; and after acknowledging that fact, the teacher maintains the same grade. Way back when I was a university undergrad, I got a 0 for a proof on a statistics exam, but the proof was correct. When I showed this to the professor, she agreed, but said it wasn't the proof she was "looking for", and so the 0 stayed. Maybe she's working for S&P now.
white_devil 15y ago
How about the US being insolvent? Is that enough justification?

gareim 15y ago

I ended up going to summer school for physics because my teacher "unfairly" gave me an F. She told us at the beginning of the school year that we only had to do 10 of those honor questions (out of 20 possible) every unit and at the end of the year told us "Oh, I meant you only had to do 10 to not drop a letter grade" which was retarded and the class went nuts at this. And once, another student accidentally took home my packet for the weekend on the day it was due and when I tried explaining it to the teacher the following Monday, all she could do was smile and say I get a zero regardless. It was worth a SIXTH of my grade. She also never taught us and just threw homework and tests at us. I was pretty pissed that I ended up getting an F instead of a C or D even. If you think an A to a B doesn't matter, change ALL your A's to B's and see how you like it being "fair". As for the credit downgrade, maybe it was right maybe it wasn't. Still trying to decide for myself. P.S. That damn physics teacher is still teaching (aka sipping her Diet Pepsi in her chair all day) at my school.

gareim 15y ago
You know, I'm not against people downvoting me, but I'd like to know why. I'd like people to tell me why they disagree so I can at least learn from my mistakes.
- marvin 15y ago
  I didn't downvote you, but your comment isn't very relevant to the topic. I'm guessing that's why.
  - gareim 15y ago
    I disagreed with the guy I was replying to, but yeah, I do see that what I said wasn't relevant to the OP. Thanks for at least explaining. :)
- jackpirate 15y ago
  You are whining. There are lots of legitimate reasons to complain about teachers. You gave one legit (changing course requirements midway), and lots of illegitimate ones. You do not have a respectful tone. Plus, the fact that you would have only gotten a D makes you look retarded in the eyes of most on HN. It's hard to get sympathy from an intellectually snobby group by bragging about your failure to excel. In short, this is not how a polite student who deserved an A but received a B/C would have responded.

redthrowaway 15y ago

If your Math professor claims you failed a midterm, then you show them they forgot to count a page's worth of marks, but they said you still the same grade because they doubted your "willingness" to pass, you'd be well within your rights to complain.

esrauch 15y ago
I really don't think that it is as simple as that. If your professor refused to write you a recommendation for a research position because your grades are a bit low and he doesn't think you are responsible because you were dangerously close to missing important deadlines, then you show that his grade calculation was wrong but he still won't recommend you because the second part was still true.