[ZAMIRZ]

well, this is going to be long, but I'd appreciate your advice because the OT forum here seems to give good, well-rounded and thoughtful responses.

I took two classes with the same professor this past fall semester at a local junior college. I also applied to various schools, one of which I hope to transfer to in the fall. Anyway, I took and completed the classes. I showed up to all the sessions except once in each class. I took all the tests, most of the extra credit quizzes, handed in all the papers and generally enjoyed both classes.

This past monday evening I was at a friend's house and I get a call on the cell phone from the professor. He claims he doesn't have a score for the subjective portion of one of the exams and is also missing an essay of mine. I tell him kindly that I took both portions of the exam and turned both in and I also tell him I turned the paper in as well. He tells me he needs the subjective portion in his box by the next morning. I ask him what I got on the objective (scantron) part of the exam and he says 9.4/10. I began panicking because I was leaving to go on vacation early the next morning with my family and expressed this to him. He told me that I must turn it in by tomorrow because time is running out. At this point, I lost the call. Once that happened I left my friend's house immediately and headed home. On my way home, he calls back and explains to me that he has the score for the subjective portion (12/15) of the exam but is missing the objective portion. This struck me as very odd since he even expressed what grade I got on the objective portion. Nevertheless, I double and triple checked with him what exactly it was he needed and he told me to simply fax him the graded scantron which I luckily still had and to email him the paper he claims he does not have. So I do this and leave for vacation.

Upon returning I checked my grades and noticed I had recieved two Bs instead of what I thought would most certainly be a B and an A. Now these two courses involve my major so doing well was something I took very seriously. I have a feeling he may have missed something other than what he called and requested of me that monday evening but am at a loss for how to go about approaching the professor. He seems to me to be very disorganized and I have this feeling that he may have misplaced one of the assignments or not recorded a score for one of the tests. I sent him an email earlier this evening that reads as follows:

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In Political Science 14 I noticed I recieved a B. I
was just wondering what contributed to my grade
falling to a B, because up until the final I had
gotten As on both the first and second test as well as
a 4/5 on the first paper, not to mention I had taken
all of the extra credit quizes with the exception of
two early on. I can't imagine I did so terribly on
the final or the second paper which I turned in to you
on the monday following our final. Sorry to take up
any of your time, I would greatly appreciate it if you
could get back to me on this matter.

best regards,

Amir K

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I'm waiting on his response and am in a tight jamb right now because I need to submit my grades from this past semester to the schools I've applied to within the next week. I really do not know what to do with regards to the grade, but I'm frustrated now because I really need an A in this class. If he doesn't respond to my email or gives me the runaround, do you guys think I should file a claim with the college? I'm trying to be very sincere with the instructor, but at the same time I want to strangle him. I just don't know what the right thing to do is, because I've never been in such a situation.