It’s not supposed to happen, but it does: You’re sure you deserve a A; your instructor gives you B.

Now what?

“This first thing is to talk to your instructor,” said Molly Mulloy, administrative officer at Kansas University’s governance office in Strong Hall, Room 33.

“If that’s not satisfactory, you should talk to either the chairperson of the department or ask for a hearing in front of the committee that handles the department’s grade appeals,” Mulloy said.

If you still feel wronged, you have the right to file an appeal with the university’s judicial board.

“Every year, a few cases  very few, like two or three  are appealed to the board,” Mulloy said. “But by then, the issue is almost always black and white, in other words, ‘What happened? And how does it compare with what’s in the course syllabus?'”

That usually amounts to adding test-score numbers, Mulloy said, noting there’s little chance the board will reverse an instructor’s discretion on, say, the number of points awarded on an essay question.

“Once an appeal reaches the judicial-board level, there’s not much second guessing,” Mulloy said. “That’s why these kinds of disputes are usually resolved on the one-on-one level.”

The best way to settle a dispute over grades is to stay out of harm’s way, and the best way to do that, say those who’ve been there, is with good, old-fashioned communication.

“Talk to your instructors, definitely,” said Mary Ann Rasnak, director of KU’s Student Development Center, Room 22 in Strong Hall.

A few years ago, Rasnak said, Iowa State University surveyed its professors on the traits of their best students. Not surprisingly, three of the top four responses involved communication  in class and out.

“Professors really do want to get to know their students,” she said, adding that student-professor conversations don’t have to be about class.

“It can be about anything. This is KU Â you can talk about basketball. You can just say, ‘Hi.'”

This chitchat isn’t about sucking up; it’s about building rapport. With rapport comes an understanding of expectations.

College, after all, isn’t high school, where, if your teacher thought you looked confused, he or she probably asked if that was the case.

“But in college, that teacher is thinking, ‘Gee, that student looks confused. I hope he or she comes to see me,'” Rasnak said.

If there’s rapport, that conversation is much more likely.

It also helps to know how to get the most out of your studies because  if you don’t know already  studying doesn’t result in doing well on tests.

“When you study, you’re basically storing information in your long-term memory. That usually means you’re reading, reading, reading,” Rasnak said. “That’s good, but taking a test isn’t about storage, it’s about retrieval.

“So when you’re studying, you need to set aside some time to see how much you can remember without looking at the book or at your notes.”

For example, if you’re assigned 12 math problems, Rasnak suggested doing the first 10 with the book open and the last two with it closed. She also favors flash cards for self-testing.

And there’s nothing wrong, she said, with using previous years’ exams to test yourself.

“Some students think that’s not being academically honest, but a lot of professors make (past tests) available because they’re a good way to measure what you know and what you need to work on.”