Error Forgiveness?

[Henneth Annun]

Today I got back a paper I wrote in English, I got full points, but I made a few typos, things like "to" instead of "too". I look over at my friend's paper and see the same mistakes, but he got marked down for them and I didn't. Normally I do better than he does in that class, but he always gets marked down for things I don't get marked down for even when our work is of the same quality.

I think what is happening here is that since my teacher knows that I know what I'm writing and all the gramatical rules, he gives me a break on some things. Other people in class whom he's not sure of, he marks down when they make a mistake because he doesn't know if they know it or not yet.

So...have you ever been awarded some forgiveness because your teachers know what you're capable of? Or not?

Another curious thing is that I can turn in things three weeks late; the teacher says they'll be late and only be worth partial credit, but I get full credit for them anyway.  

[Patron with a Mission]

It is a strange trend. In my high school, the teachers noted mistakes fairly.

In college, however, it's different. Seems to be that teachers are either not careful enough with those who demonstrate that they know what they are doing. I think the mindset is that if you're good enough, you won't make mistakes, and if you do, it's just a minor thing and isn't worth taking points off for.

However, if you're not good enough, and you make those mistakes, it should be fixed, and point should be taken off.

Dunno...that's just my theory.  

[Fervent Fox]

The same thing has happened to me. I was testing for my glider pilot's solo rating and marked down the stall speed as something like "64 mph" instead of "65 mph". However, I was awarded full marks because "I was close enough and they knew what I meant".

To be honest, it seriously annoyed me! In fact, I went and told the teacher that I knew it was wrong and I shouldn't have been given 100%. I think he was quite shocked and he refused to change my grade. I've always been bugged by it.

I think that it has something to do with the teachers knowing you (as my teacher knew me quite well) and your capabilities but I also think part of it might be that the teachers sometimes grade things at different times. If one essay with a few basic grammatical errors was at the beginning, it might get higher marks than one at the end after the teacher has seen the same mistakes through numerous essays and is frustrated by it.

I wouldn't read too much into it - but I would talk to the teacher about it.  

[Gothic Muffin of Doom]

Back when I was in high school, this used to happen all the time. The teachers were sure of my capabilities after reading some of my writings, which they had claimed to be too complicated for the usual reader ( but that was in my French classes though). The same thing happened in most of the other classes.
That really was unfair, and I asked tm many times to reduce my grades, which they never did.  

[Sachiko13]

I've never experienced that, but I did experience something almost as infuriating. After reading Romeo and Juliet, we were supposed to write a letter to the Prince explaining who we thought was at fault for the lover's deaths, and why. Our teacher swore up and down that nobody got anything higher than a regular A (for some reason, our high school counted 98+ as an A+). She loved my paper, and asked if she could use it as an example for those who needed to edit theirs (below a C, I believe). We were all given our papers after she read mine. At the top of my paper was an A+. This astonished me, as I hadn't been able to make it to most of my classes that semester, due to depression issues that had me in the hospital for quite a while, so it didn't make sense that I would be able to even get the highest grade in the class.

I once wrote a paper in 5th grade, which my mother showed to one of her college professors. The instructor guessed the author at a high school level. I was extremely proud of myself.  

[MyOwnBestCritic]

I suppose that this effect is less apparent the higher the level of the class. I noticed this, too, back when I was in normal English classes in high school - I think the teacher was just glad that I used proper grammar and spelling. However, once I got to AP classes, the effect was reduced, and I don't see much of it in college, save with one or two outlier professors.

@Fervent Fox: The standard margin of error for numbers under 10^6 (for my physics class, at least) was 1.5%. 1.5% of 65 is about 1 (0.975), which means that your value could have been anywhere from 64 to 66, and it would have been "close enough" to 65. =]  

[[ Sadistic ]]

I think the thing about teachers marking the way they do sometimes is because as you get older, teachers tend to look for the potential in pieces and essays, compared to spelling and everyday grammar.