Hollar if you got screwed over

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VillageShaman

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Post if you got screwed over bad this semester by teachers who don't realize that we actually do need to care about our grades.

Me first,
My stats teacher decided to say use her own curve (based on a C-) instead of the curve set by the department B-. One person got an A out of 20.
My French teacher did the same.
My GPA is toast.
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That sucks. Did you know about this during the drop/add period? These are important things to look into when selecting classes
 
Nope! My stats teacher kept on loading me with praise. When I went to talk to her she told me how I was at the top of the curve and one of her best students.

Of course being at the top of the curve here is like saying you are on the highest rock at the bottom of the grand canyon.
 
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Haha,

My genetics professor cannot write a test very well at all. In addition after a year of concept based intro biology classes I was not use to the straight memorization type of exams she attempts to write. Well, I got an 84 (86 w/ EC) 84 on the second exam (70% of our class failed) and the 3rd exam I got a 94 (97 w/ EC). Well after the second exam I went to talk to her about what I could do to score better and look over my exam (she does not post a key or give the exam back). I realize that I should have gotten an 88 on the exam. I tell her, she looks at me and says "4 points is not going to make a difference"..I was speechless. Another student pointed out a question that was badly worded and had more than one correct answer. She told him, "well all the questions on the exam could be written better" as if that is ok...wtf...:thumbdown:

Need an 86 for an A in the class...:xf: If I don't get it. Oh well I went down fighting. Back to genetics.
 
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This is exactly why I detested some of my classes in undergrad (and even a few in graduate school). How are students supposed to focus on learning, when the grading is so subjective? And pre-meds are especially concerned about grades, so yes - it's extremely difficult for us when we get C's AFTER the curve (in comparison with say, someone who wants to go to industry right after graduating - where GPAs aren't worth s**t after a few years of experience)

Just play the game... and then focus on 'learning' in medical school.

A C- in one class is not the end of everything. I have one (non-science prereq) and managed to get accepted. It's harder if it's in a science prereq but acing the corresponding portion of the MCAT does help alleviate it some.

Keep your mind on the big picture and you should be fine.
 
Techmed07 said:
Haha,

My genetics professor cannot write a test very well at all. In addition after a year of concept based intro biology classes and thus, was not use to straight memorization type of exams she attempts to write. Well, I got a 84 (86 w/ EC) 84 on the second exam (70% of our class failed) and the 3rd exam I got an 94 (97 w/ EC). Well after the second exam I went to talk to her about what I could do to score better and look over my exam (she does not post a key or give the exam back). I realize that I should have gotten an 88 on the exam. I tell her, she looks at me and says "4 points is not going to make a difference"..I was speechless. Another student pointed out a question that was badly worded and had more than one correct answer. She told him, "well all the questions on the exam could be written better" as if that is ok...wtf...:thumbdown:

Need an 86 for an A in the class...:xf: If I don't get it. Oh well I went down fighting. Back to genetics.
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If I were you and I got an 82-85 on the final and didn't get an A for the course I would go to the chair of the department. That's ridiculous, 4 points is alot!
 
FlowRate said:
I don't think it's an okay methodology in classes that, traditionally, the majority of students should be able to earn and A in. It's simply the nature of the material; stats is easily mastered.
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Yeah I'm not really a fan of forcing a bell curve. I'd much rather have no curve and just straight grades based on overall percentage.
 
JimmerJammerMrK said:
Yeah I'm not really a fan of forcing a bell curve. I'd much rather have no curve and just straight grades based on overall percentage.
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ITA. i don't think anyone's grade should ever be "curved down." if lots of people earned A's, great. if the class average was uber low, it's up to the prof to decide where to curve it up to. in my experience, the average was often made to be a C or C-.
 
If your prof is violating departmental grading policies or diverging from whatever her initial syllabus described, then consider filing some sort of complaint with the department. Otherwise, this stuff happens, and some profs are just strict graders. One bad grade isn't the end of the world.
 
Thats what some of the students want to do. And the grades were pushed down through some underhand tactics.
 
I am going to get a lot of weird looks for not posting about a science class...but most of my science professors have been exceptionally fair, I feel I deserve my grades there.
Anyways I do have some cheese and I shall share my whine with you:
I am a comparative literature minor and last semester I was taking 2 classes for it: one low level basic class and one advanced level that dealt with literary theory. I fell in love with Lit Theory right away and of course I thought I'd share my joy with my other class. Well that didn't go over so well...first my professor (he is a grad student) was apparently really rusty on his lit theory, so I had to actually explain it to him after one of the classes. Anyways, long story short, despite the fact that I got an A on all my papers in that class and having been one of like 3 people who consistently participated in class, I got a B+ staring back at me when I checked my grades.
So I thought that was weird, I never actually even scored below an A on anything. I emailed him and asked him about it. He was like "blah blah blah, B+ is a good grade"..."too much literary theory...blah blah blah".
I've shown my work to several professors in the department that I am close to and they all agreed that he must be off his rocker. I decided not to appeal. But since the beginning of this semester..when I walk on campus, see him-I smile (I am just a nice person that smiles and says hi to people I know)...well he darts his eyes to the ground and pretends not to see me. Classy.
Tasty whine!
 
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I think they should just abolish ABC in general and have a straight up percentage...like Top 10% of the class or something like that then combine everything together. You can graduate with something like 97% which mean u are usually on the top 3% of your classes and about the top 3% of your institution...this makes it way easier for Adcom to compare what is going on with MCAT score in hand.

Btw, there was a teacher that tired to do a bell curve in my high school...lets just say she didnt last long enough to hand out the grade lol...I think it is pretty immoral because no college knows my school, so it is not like we can get adjustment. Instead it would just screw up bunch of people's scholarship.
 
Spiker said:
You can graduate with something like 97% which mean u are usually on the top 3% of your classes and about the top 3% of your institution...this makes it way easier for Adcom to compare what is going on with MCAT score in hand.
Click to expand...

That's what summa cum laude / magna cum laude / cum laude is for. At my school, top 2.5% is summa, 5% is magna, and 10% is cum laude.
 
I wanna say no, but considering half the people here will blame it on the course, with the exception of yours truly, go for it.
 
But how many failed? In one of my classes 22 out of 40 got a D or F (18 F and 4 D) oh and the class was way curved a 73 was an A. Luckily, I was of the 4 who scraped by with an A. :D
 
strummin said:
That's what summa cum laude / magna cum laude / cum laude is for. At my school, top 2.5% is summa, 5% is magna, and 10% is cum laude.
Click to expand...

Your school is rare...Most school does it by GPA. So essentially they are the same thing. I just think it is much easier to judge if class rank is used rather than GPA...
 
VillageShaman said:
Post if you got screwed over bad this semester by teachers who don't realize that we actually do need to care about our grades.

Me first,
My stats teacher decided to say use her own curve (based on a C-) instead of the curve set by the department B-. One person got an A out of 20.
My French teacher did the same.
My GPA is toast.
Click to expand...


Sorry but I have to side w/ the prof here. While I think a C- is a bit low (I prefer straight C or C+), I'm glad these profs are doing their best to widen the grade inflated distribution's top end a bit. I do wonder how you didn't know at the beginning of the semester, though. Usually that's announced early on.

As for "unfair" curving, my chem final tmrw has a set average of a D -- yes, a straight D. The mean grade has been set there by dept policy, which means people are going to get seriously screwed. Won't hurt me, though; I have an A- if I don't show up. (Freshmen class, so there was a little bit of EC available to encourage the students and I got all the EC and perfect grades throughout the class so my grade is significantly above 100. Apparently, it's not an easy class, though, as the average is in the 70s, which should drop a few points tomorrow...)

I guess outside science, I've had a couple of psych profs who basically don't give As. One gave 1 A each semester and then a few A-s (one of my A-s during my academic career, although I got the only A my second class w/ him). The other may have given 1 A my semester w/ him, but that would surprise me. He believed in being "super encouraging," so basically EVERYONE got some sort of B unless you did awful or extremely well (I managed an A- there as well).
 
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0kazak1 said:
But how many failed? In one of my classes 22 out of 40 got a D or F (18 F and 4 D) oh and the class was way curved a 73 was an A. Luckily, I was of the 4 who scraped by with an A. :D
Click to expand...

If 22 out of 40 get a D or F, something is wrong with the professor or the students. Either the professor can't teach worth a dam, or the student's are all dumb. I'd put my money on the former. Teachers with grades like that should be fired if it's a lower-level course not being taught at a CC.
 
Spiker said:
Your school is rare...Most school does it by GPA. So essentially they are the same thing. I just think it is much easier to judge if class rank is used rather than GPA...
Click to expand...


However, at most schools, those ranks are going to correlate to similar percentages. For example, at my school, the top 7-10% of each class get 3.7-3.8 (which is cum laude). The top 4-8% get 3.8-3.9 (magna cum laude), and the top 3-4% get 3.9+ (summa cum laude).
 
NoMoreAMCAS said:
If 22 out of 40 get a D or F, something is wrong with the professor or the students. Either the professor can't teach worth a dam, or the student's are all dumb. I'd put my money on the former. Teachers with grades like that should be fired if it's a lower-level course not being taught at a CC.
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Well, to be honest, the professor wasn't that great, but the top four students in the class, were doing loads better than everyone below. If i remember correctly the top guy was like at ~80, then ~77, then ~75 the me right at 73, then after that next guy was like at 60, so there was a kinda big gap between the top and everyone else.
 
Techmed07 said:
Haha,

My genetics professor cannot write a test very well at all. In addition after a year of concept based intro biology classes I was not use to the straight memorization type of exams she attempts to write. Well, I got an 84 (86 w/ EC) 84 on the second exam (70% of our class failed) and the 3rd exam I got a 94 (97 w/ EC). Well after the second exam I went to talk to her about what I could do to score better and look over my exam (she does not post a key or give the exam back). I realize that I should have gotten an 88 on the exam. I tell her, she looks at me and says "4 points is not going to make a difference"..I was speechless. Another student pointed out a question that was badly worded and had more than one correct answer. She told him, "well all the questions on the exam could be written better" as if that is ok...wtf...:thumbdown:

Need an 86 for an A in the class...:xf: If I don't get it. Oh well I went down fighting. Back to genetics.
Click to expand...

Lol my stupid genetics teacher was crazy this quarter, all the test averages were F(s). The final's average was 48%. Sometimes I think these professors are on crack when they write the tests. But i'm not complaining, me and 7 others in a class of 350 scored the highest(whopping 73%) wohoo A for me! I love the curve. Never learn anything at a UC.
 
I took an interdisciplinary class (english, political science, philosophy) on freedom. For my first college class ever, it definitely shocked me. I learned quite a bit, had fun, and worked hard (read over 14 novels in roughly 7 weeks) but I still earned a B+. I made too many freshman mistakes on two papers we had to write, but for the final paper I finally figured out how to write competently enough to earn a perfect score. To compare though, there was only one A in a class of 25.
 
apumic said:
However, at most schools, those ranks are going to correlate to similar percentages. For example, at my school, the top 7-10% of each class get 3.7-3.8 (which is cum laude). The top 4-8% get 3.8-3.9 (magna cum laude), and the top 3-4% get 3.9+ (summa cum laude).
Click to expand...

Its not going to correlate to percentiles when A's are given out like candy in English classes and many liberal arts majors. They may only correlate within majors or within the sciences as those classes usually have stricter grading scales, and aren't as subjective where a whole class can get an A.

Depending on the class top 10% should be A/A-. However, in a liberal arts class I bet you the top 30-50% are getting A's. There's schools out there (and highly ranked ones actually) where 60-70% of a class year within a liberal arts major has a 3.5+.

Conversely, there's classes where professors write terrible exams or can't teach a scrap. I still don't understand how its acceptable to have a class average of 40% in calculus or orgo (as my undergrad was).
 
VillageShaman said:
Post if you got screwed over bad this semester by teachers who don't realize that we actually do need to care about our grades.

Me first,
My stats teacher decided to say use her own curve (based on a C-) instead of the curve set by the department B-. One person got an A out of 20.
My French teacher did the same.
My GPA is toast.
Click to expand...

yeah that sucks... but its not worst than my precal class...

its the end of the semester and we only have covered 5 chap.. w/c i think ill be screwed for cal-I... she was really slow at the first half of the semester... then class was cancelled 5 TIMES.... i know 5 times... and then she started cramming things.. she claimed that she was sick for 2 weeks and a half... she was often 15-30 min late... and she makes our exams so effin hard... like right now she gave us a take home exam and its due on thursday... then on thursday we have a cummulative exam.. thats how EFFED i am now... whats worst is.. i might not able to get an A nor a B... and this will reflect my gpa..

i might have to talk to her or the dean about it... hopefully i can make them get my grade higher :p
 
I have a microbio lab where the class used to be considered a really easy class, so instead of revamping the course, the prof decided to make tests harder AND change the grading scale so that what is normally a low A is now a B+. I did great on all my lab reports and the practical but the exams (which are over the poorly written lab manual) screwed me over so now I'll probably have a B+ despite having a 93% in the class.

This was announced at the beginning of the semester so it's not like I was blind sided by the grading scale, but the tests themselves will ask something like "why is this process important" and so you write a killer answer about why it's important and you end up losing points because you didn't mention that you used a microscope in the procedure. :eyebrow: It's obnoxious
 
like most people's orgo classes, i'm sure, our exam averages were crazy low and i think my prof did a normal bell curve. however, he was telling me that he used to teach orgo at harvard and got really pressured by the rest of the administration to give mostly A's. he expected that his students would be very smart since it was harvard and all, so he wanted to make his class challenging for them of course. but apparrently all the students freaked out about not everyone getting A's and the school basically made him start giving a ton of A's. so he switched schools to one that actually is known to practice grade DEFLATION = mine :( he was still one of my best profs though ;)
 
VillageShaman said:
Post if you got screwed over bad this semester by teachers who don't realize that we actually do need to care about our grades.

Me first,
My stats teacher decided to say use her own curve (based on a C-) instead of the curve set by the department B-. One person got an A out of 20.
My French teacher did the same.
My GPA is toast.
Click to expand...

well, its not so bad when u consider that many U's dont have a "set curve" or any curve at all.. we get what we get...

I'm sure a curve must've helped u in other classes.. so if it hurts u a bit here its no big when u look at the big "where do applicants to med school come from" picture
 
This thread makes me very sad. Unfair teachers can ruin people's lives. They have no idea the power they wield.
 
slowbutsteady said:
This thread makes me very sad. Unfair teachers can ruin people's lives. They have no idea the power they wield.
Click to expand...

I don't understand the dicks who write tests with like 40% averages then barely give a curve. Uhh I didn't want to make it too easy - it should be challenging! Study harder next time! Stop being concerned with your grades and be concerned with learning! This test is reasonable, I could write it in 15 minutes!

I can't imagine being that much of a prick. College should be hard, yet fair.
 
there was an organic teacher last year who failed 40 out of 42 students. the teacher got put on "grading probation" but I feel really bad for the people who got an F because of him, and can't do anything about it....I definitely stayed clear of that particular teacher...but that is definitely the definition of getting screwed over by a teacher...
 
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