DEALING WITH ARGUABLY LEGITIMATE EXAM GRIPES: A POSSIBLE PARETO IMPROVEMENT

Students sometimes have heart-felt and arguably legitimate complaints about exam grading. This note suggests a strategy for dealing in a serious, judicious and seemingly fair and responsive way with such complaints. The suggested strategy allows the professor to take such complaints seriously, without giving him/her the reputation as an easy mark. Moreover, it uses a characteristic of letter-grade systems to lower the transactions costs of dealing seriously with such complaints.