Biased professors

[Leftfield]

Ok, so during our International Business Finance class we went over, as a class, the exam we took during the previous class and I expected to get between a 75-80% based off of the answers discussed in class in comparison to what I know (or thought I knew) that I answered on the exam.

I checked my grade on the exam late last night and was awarded a 91%! :thumbup:

So my question is: Can a professor give bias to students he either likes or respects over other students?

The funny thing is two weeks before this test, in a professional speech class we were to interview a person of the job that we wanted someday and I chose this professor. I feel that we are more colleagues/equals than the typical teacher/student relationship. This is also my third straight quarter with him too.

[eyebyte_atWork]

I used to be a TA in college - to the physics department - and to answer your question I have to say YES.

I would have hated to be a black engineering student in that class - the teacher I was assisting had a really short tolerance level for black students. A double standard. So yes - you can be graded differently due to whether a teacher likes you or not. I never forgot that or recovered any respect I had for him prior to me witnessing that.

[Madrigal]

I have given A's to a student on the grounds that he was the cutest thing in the world (and only 17!). Actually, I wasn't his teacher, I had to give the unbiased opinion on the day of the exam. His real teacher and I got together in the teachers' lounge, she called him a "bon-bon", I giggled, she said, "All A's?" I said, "Well... okay, just do it!" Unfortunately, a male teacher overheard our conversation and then probably lost all respect for me. Now that I think of it, he was surely an INTP. :lol:

[Hypnos]

I used to be a TA in college - to the physics department - and to answer your question I have to say YES.
Man, that is unacceptable. In a class with quantitative scoring, you stick to the formula and maybe leave a little wiggle room in the demarcations.

The professors who knew me were harder on me :)

[eyebyte_atWork]

Man, that is unacceptable. In a class with quantitative scoring, you stick to the formula and maybe leave a little wiggle room in the demarcations.

The professors who knew me were harder on me :)


dude - I do not treat the student differently - the prof did.

[Hypnos]

dude - I do not treat the student differently - the prof did.
I would've reported him to someone I could trust.

[eyebyte_atWork]

I would've reported him to someone I could trust.


If I had thought I would have done some good I would have - in Texas it pays to pick your battles wisely. This prof had been there for thirty years - he retired shortly after I graduated.

[joft]

i think i have developed a reputation with one of my professors from my previous semester who I have for this semester too, by being very quiet, saying profound things whenever i did talk, and scoring high on the tests, so that now he thinks i'm a genius and will probably score all of my "journal entries" highly and be more likely to excuse things like me having an extremely short entry about some topic (like love) because of my "genius"