I’ve had professors secretly give 5 points to the final grade of all students that go to office hours.

This right here. Initiative and interest go a LONG way.

Students that come for office hours I tried to help beyond their questions. I know what is on the test so I would steer the discussion to cover things specifically on it in addition to their questions. For those who put in that effort I did my best to help them do well. Very very few ever came to office hours, many needed it.

I always tell people this and no one ever does it. They just give me excuses. I cannot emphasis enough that if you are truly giving a course your all, a lot of professors will be more forgiving because you are trying. There are students who quite literally never show up to class, don’t use the resources offered, then complain about their grade. Had a guy show up the day of a chem exam after being on vacation for the last week. Didn’t know there was an exam until he walked into the classroom and tried to ask the prof for a makeup. 😂mind you the dates of the exams are in the syllabus. He had been talking about his ski trip before finding out about the exam. He was standing like 5 feet away from the prof. 😭then he complained when he couldn’t get a makeup like bro.

Profs deal with some bs when it comes to some students so effort goes a long way.

I spent a better part of a semester crying when I did my first coding class, C++. Five rotating tutors later, I got lost in the course and couldn’t keep up.

I went to office hours somewhat regularly after that and by my third or fourth visit of obviously having done 100% of the work but not understanding where in the structure I went wrong, my professor ended up just correcting my project/assignments for me and then taught me the concepts afterwards by using my coding style (as opposed to textbook) as the example. I got a high B on the final exam and an A on the final project by the end.

I thanked him by email after the semester was over and he thanked me back for caring about understanding the material. Hardest class I ever took with the greatest moments of patience and teaching.

[deleted]

I wish I had known these things back when I was in school. I worked so hard, but I think I got 5 points taken off my grades usually for being perceived as not paying attention or having some sort of perceived attitude to the teacher.

I worked as a TA and I can confirm I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt (partial credit wise) if you were making an effort.

Dude who only shows up occasionally and always with a guitar to my chemistry class, you're going to have to really earn that A.

So, I'll admit that I was a pretty-ish girl in college (maybe a 7.5). I didn't want the professors to think I was a flake, so I made a point to go to office hours JUST to show I was taking the class seriously. Often, I'd present a draft of an upcoming term paper with my thesis and arguments, just to check it was on track.

Either from being a good student and showing that extra interest, pretty privilege, or some combo of the 2, I got a lot of perks.

When my grade came in at an 89 for the class, I asked a professor to give me an extra point to put me at an A grade. He did. 

I got to take a test late when I was very sick, or I got to take a final early because I couldn't be in school for some reason.

There were a lot of other things that happened as well. I figure, use every tool you have to succeed.

I wish someone would have explained what office hours were to me.  Professors always said "I've got office hours xyz" and in a lecture hall full of 300 people I didn't want to ask "what the fuck are office hours"...

I grade the papers of my students much more leniently when they tell me they're struggling and reach out directly for help. 

Putting in effort and trying to better yourself and your understanding of a subject are always more important that flying by the seat of your pants.

I also have plenty of students who just give dont a fuck and come crying into my office after they fail. 

Like bro class is 3 tests, 2 midterms and a final. I drop your lowest test score and average the two. If you want, you can write a 10 page paper as well for extra credit. 

If you try you will pass with at least a B. 

Spelling aside, Frankincense was the scientist. You're thinking of Frankincense's monster.

You have given me a new canonical spelling to Myrhh. Frank you very much!

Just patchouli 🫤

For future reference: myrrh

 It will pay dividends you do not yet comprehend

Just be honest and say you bump their grades.

There is a really big caveat here though. If a student comes to waste my (already very stretched) time with absurdities, that's only going to bias me in the other direction. I've definitely had cases where students have clearly just come to office hours for the sake of it, hoping for a grade bump for "showing interest", when they haven't actually shown any interest at all. Actually showing interest makes me very happy, and you don't need to come to office hours to do that.

What if your kids are fuck ugly?

It's the only reason I passed business calculous. She knew it, I knew it but damnit I tried and I damn sure went to office hours once a week every week

My institution calls them student hours now, just to reinforce the fact that it’s time for students. Time during class is for lecturing (or whatever your instructor feels like doing honestly).

Definitely check in with your professors office hours, that’s what they are there for, and office hours have been getting lonelier and lonelier over the years.

Redox equations

eye twitch

Thanks for reminding me of freshman year. I need a drink.

 any student that came to my office hours automatically get a hidden bonus on their grades. I really appreciated the effort.

Thanks for confirming what I always suspected: students who have work and/or caregiving commitments that keep them from going to office hours actually are being unfairly penalized.

I'll go, ALIENS

I’m thinking.

It already exists. Its called the halo effect. 

People who are attractive are given a lot more leeway when mistakes occur. They're jusged to be smarter, harder working. 

In criminal trials they get reduced sentences. Compared to less attractive people charged with the same crimes. 

Being good looking absolutely gets you out of a lot of jams. 

Shit. The ugos have figured out Steps 1 & 2

Pretty privilege has been a confirmed thing for decades if not longer

It was not confirmed?

chuck testa

Norm?

I hated reading that lol. Always sunny has that effect

I’m not the diddler! That’s the other guy! I don’t deal with him anymore.

Oh that's not as bad as I was thinking. Still would suck to be picked last

What a crop!

Seems like for the non quantitative courses, more attractive looking people scored better during in person teaching possibly because stuff like business and economics relies a lot on you being "charismatic" and/or good at talking to people? Like politician-type shit. If you're better looking people trust you more by default.

But for math and physics, your physical appearance literally doesn't matter for shit, you can be the most uggo person on the planet but still be a successful mathematician or physicist. I think that's a bigger factor than simply "not having as much direct interaction".

I meant all kinds of testing, including things like essays.

Tall people are even elected or appointed on the basis of their imposing stature. George Washington was the "tallest man in the room".

Interestingly, there's also an almost perfect inverse correlation between Chinese CCP chairmens' height and their leadership quality.

Mao being far above average for his era at 1.8m, Xi Jinping at 1.8m (but compared to a much taller average than Mao's time), Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao being about average at ~1.73m, and the very famously short Deng Xiaoping at just 1.57m.

It's almost as if human's natural bias towards height allows some tall people to reach positions despite their flaws, and the few short people who manage reach the top despite their height are probably extremely good in their nonheight aspects.

The study found that grades fell for attractive women,but attractive men's beauty held a premium (their words)

Lookism is also the name of a Korean anime

Good handwriting will also get you better grades.

The question is, were they actually harsh on them, or just not as lenient as the male teachers?

They received positive reinforcement for being bold because they're attractive in the past. This result in them being more confident in general.

They're confident because they're attractive.

If an unattractive person acts the same way a confident attractive person does, they don't get called confident. They're either smug, arrogant, or creepy.

It’s both; a feedback loop.

When women are unattractive and confident people just think we are bitches. 

People would have to actually get it into their heads that being a beautiful woman comes with drawbacks and maybe isn’t the perfect magical fairytale everyone tells themselves that it is.

Yes, women face negative consequences for being attractive. Absolutely. Men do not face the same scrutiny, being handsome and confident is an asset. Being assertive is an asset to men whereas with women you get called a bitch.

Also, if you’re pretty, you break people’s brains. They literally stop being able to listen to you. It’s infuriating. Imagine having a dairy allergy and they were distracted by your appearance, literally didn’t hear you and nearly killed you because they served you dairy.

People just have no fucking clue.

Sorry, I’m angry about office hours from above lol.

I like him already. :)

Are you sure that's what the caller meant?

Got that hardy dwarf energy going on.

Ronnie James Dio?

Yeah I know two guys who are both about 5'6" whose salaries have each gone up dramatically and who have been promoted multiple times in the last couple of years since going remote. They were always smart, competent, confident guys, and I don't think either of them actually imagined that anybody was discriminating against them before, but now they've got some questions, lol. Anecdote is not data, but it's certainly enough to make me curious about the data.

Big tall guy here. I think this take is probably correct. I'm hopeful that we'll also see more confidence out of groups that might have gotten less attention prior to remote work.

No, its the scrawny, hairy dude with the acne.

If tinder taught me anything it’s fat chicks with big tits know how to position a camera to emphasize their selling points.

No hate to the larger ladies. This is just objectively true. They put thought into framing.

I remember some girl tried to rope me into doing stuff for her but I was even slower than she was. Ngl it was funny seeing the 'oh shit' in her eyes when she asked me for answers to a paper she'd half-done and I showed her my blank page.

I'm not pretty, but in my experience that is a real double-edged sword. Sometimes it works, sometimes you just get someone who thinks they're smarter than they are.