Request a grade change from the registrar with the math shown

About this exercise

A scoring error on a student's final exam changes her course grade, and you're emailing the registrar. Keep it under 80 words, plain text: student name, ID, course and old-to-new letter grade in the first sentence, then the weighted grade math on one line, then the reason in one sentence. Use the gradebook's weights and the cutoffs in your syllabus. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

• Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 80 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part instead: "3 sentences, each under 20 words."
• Burying the request. The AI opens with background on the exam before saying what changes. Try: Add: "First sentence: name, ID, course, old and new grade."
• Not checking the cutoff. The AI assumes a higher score means a higher letter; 84.8 is still a B by the syllabus. Try: Add: "Check the new percentage against my cutoffs: B is 80-86.9."
• Hiding the math. The registrar has to trust a number with no work shown. Try: Add: "Show the weighted math on one line."
• Ignoring where it will be pasted. AI loves bold and headings, which show up as stray ** and # symbols in the email. Try: Name the place and the format: "For the email. Plain text, no bold or headings."

What a strong prompt includes

• Puts the request first
• Checks the cutoffs
• Shows the math
• States the reason
• Sets a word limit

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