Good Failure

Grades.

At RP, it's always standard to issue grades with comments to the team and individual. For my science module at least, this facilitator has a habit of reviewing the class before giving the grades.

"It is my practice to give a brief review after I publish the grades the the problem.

This class has very good potential to do very well for this module. Considering many of you do not have a background in biology, the effort put into the work is commendable. After a few more weeks, with more familiarization, the grades will naturally improve if the consistency is there.

In general, good work. For the 3rd meeting, there was very good coverage of content, as well as the demonstration of the basic understanding. Keep up the motivation to do well and you all will gain alot from this module."

And this is only the comment for the entire class, considering that to the 95% of the class, this was their elective. It went to team comments next...

"Good tie back to the problem statement. The presentation was detailed and in depth, with good illustrations which is commendable. At the same time, the rotation of presenters is a little imbalanced. For the next problem, perhaps this team can try to even out the presentation so it does not seem too imbalanced. Other than that, an excellent work."

Before I even move on, please note the insatiable usage of the word "good". Either we were really that good, he was running out of vocabulary or this was just to make us feel better if we actually didn't do as "good" as it was supposed to be. Finally it came to individual comments...

"You're a bright student and with more effort and participation and contributions in all 3 meetings, you will do very well. You shine during the 3rd meeting, presenting pretty well and demonstrates your understanding. I look forward to seeing the development of milestones over the next few weeks. "

Sounds promising and inspiring isn't it? But guess what I got...

C+. (Actually, in the grades itself it was a C, but considering it shouldn't be possible to give grades with a +, he probably had to mention it externally)

Now someone please explain the rationale to me with the neverending usage of "good" and also how the fact that the comments are actually helpful in improving you. I don't mind if I had areas which I need to improve, but the action behind the comments is ironic.

Oh well, Mei Yin warned me about him...