Were all other students at 73 thus inspected? Was the exam mark already published? If the first question is answered by yes, and the second by no, you can subject all borderline students to precisely the same procedure and tie-breaking via exam which seems to have been happening here. However, if only a single student is subject to this, it's clearly not ok. Furthermore, if the weights of grades have been announced ahead of time, and the role of non-exam marks is important, then the students have been mislead on these.

Thank you for your comment, there were no other students with borderline scores, and we did not publish final exam scores as we were instructed not to. The fact is that I was told to take off the points from the final exam, with the sole reasoning to lower the students final grade to have them not pass. The original grade I gave 66.5 was the fairly earned grade. I was told to reduce it to a 62.5 and the student was not informed of this point deduction and the reduced point grade he saw was the grade he thought he earned, but it was supposed to be the 66.5.

You are right to feel bad. It was completely unethical. The professor should be considered for termination.

Are you really asking about legality (as in: the law)?

Not specifically the law, but academically illegal as well, like a form of misconduct. She was telling me to do this like she had been doing it normally for her whole career.

I assume her students aren't aware of this. Grading by "gut feeling" is pernicious. Make it stop. You need a better mentor. STAT.

I don't completely understand. The students need 73 percent for a passing grade. After the grade change, they got a C-. So is C- a failing grade?

Thank you Buffy for comments, and yes, students need a 73%, which is a C for a passing grade, after the grade change, it dropped to 72.36%, which is a C-, a failing grade (they cannot move on the the next level class with a C-).

You might also want to add a country tag. In sone countries, grading is completely up the professors and it is not seen as misconduct at all even if it is outright horrible like in your story.

I am not following either. My answer was based on the student awarding a 66 (fail), the sup asking if he is sure, then the student agreeing to a 72 (pass). Any reasoning would have to be factual and based on the script. For borderline essays, that is easy to find but now the OP presents it as an arbitrary decision.

Unethical it is, of cours e.

Thanks, this happened in the United States. The student wasn't passed, he was failed. More specifically, he was passing, that was changed to failing.

Whatever you do, before you do something, think about what doing something means for you. Willthe prof take you doing something easy? Are you far in your phd? Are other people "better"? Do you have to lrave the country if your advisor decides to let you fall? Etc.

I am deleting my answer and am not convinved that the information given is accurate and reflects the actual situation. This is the first time I hear for a 7X passing grade for a final exam.

Not the final exam, but the final grade. The final grade needed is at least a 73%. I know most classes in the US require a 70% final grade to pass the class. But for ours, it's 73%. You could get a 0 on the final exam and if it didn't drop your score to below 73%, you'd still be passing.

You aren't Santa Claus who "gives" grades. It is worse than I thought. You and your professor have just changed the course of someone else's life without any justification whatever. This was a purely evil act.

You should feel bad. Bad whatever way you try to justify this. There should be a marking scheme and it should be applied to all in the same manner. Then there is some controllability, independant of whether exams are the way to grade or not, but that is a different question.

This is unethical. It means that you graded the final differently for this student than all the rest. Likely it’ll never come back to you, since most students blame themselves. After your grades are finished, they are simply what they are and if someone passes, well that’s it then.