Thursday, May 10, 2012

The Easy "A" Nightmare

    When it comes to college classes everyone has a couple classes guaranteed to be an easy A due to simplicity or because of the skills the student already has. This is the true story of my easy "A" nightmare. Entering into my third semester of college I had options for electives related to my field of study. I carefully considered them and chose the one that would fit my work schedule. My adviser Mr. B was kind enough to explain why it was a bad choice to pick a class just because it was easier to schedule and not make fun of me in the process. He directed me to a class I was unaware of dealing with database manipulation. More specifically it was Oracle database SQL.
    That was going to be my third semester at Southwest Tennessee Community College with a concentration in Web Page Development. My classes were Web Page Design, JavaScript, Systems Analysis and Design, and Oracle Database SQL.
    Within two weeks of starting the class I realized it was going to be an easy "A". I only had one thing to learn and that was the syntax of the Oracle language. It started off easy enough. I would program code to simply view all files in a folder. Then I would program code to view specific files from different folders. After that, I was creating files, permissions, views, restrictions, the whole works. All in all as long as I knew what I wanted to do, I could program the code appropriately to do exactly what I wanted. This was my easiest class and surprisingly I learned more information Oracle SQL than in any other class I had this semester.
    So how did I fail? The day grades were available to students I eagerly checked my status at 8am. Only one grade so far. An "A" in Systems Analysis and Design. Then I panicked. Maybe I only got one passing grade? No they would show me the rest I thought to myself. Even if I failed a class, which I have never done before. I was a little skeptical passing on JavaScript though. I put a "?" for answers on three of the questions on the final.
   So the next day comes. My grades were as follows,"A(Web Site Design),A(Systems Analysis and Design),B(JavaScript),F(Oracle). So what happened? I immediately called the Southwest Tennessee Community College and talked to the Admissions and Records office. Their only advice was e-mail the instructor. "How about a phone number so I can get this settled right now huh", is what I said. But that option was out of the question. I believed this was a massive mistake and needed answers.
    So I emailed my teacher and gave my login information for the online database we were using in class to show all my grades were above adequate for the class. I passed both mid-terms and both finals no problem. All my homework grades were either a "99" or "100". So what happened. He responded with my login id# was 17 and not 16 like I had been using all semester. So my conclusion is he could find my grades all semester under the id# 16 and when it came time to report grades he mixed mine up and gave me an F. How could this happen?
    I get more and more upset the longer it takes to get this issue resolved. I emailed him my phone number hours ago and still haven't heard anything. However I do believe my final grade WILL change to it's proper spot in the A or B area. I absorbed the information in this course as quick as it was thrown at me. This was my version of an easy "A" that has turned into a nightmare. A random fluke or negligence. Who is at fault? 

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