57% un-curved class average - typical?

[Cambino]

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The "advanced" bio sequence given my school that suffices as 'one-year' of biology has an un-curved class average of 57% currently, pretty far in the term. Typical?

 

[music2doc]

The "advanced" bio sequence given my school that suffices as 'one-year' of biology has an un-curved class average of 57% currently, pretty far in the term. Typical?

Well, will it be curved? For a gen bio series, this is somewhat low, but not unheard of. For some courses (e.g., ochem), this would seem not entirely uncommon for the average to sit around the D/F line and go uncurved. (I know mine did. It was meant as a weeder and failing half the class definitely gets that job done efficiently!)

 

[mishaS]

My physics 1 class our exam 1 average was 33%, exam 2 not much higher, exam 3 actually had an average above 60%, but that was only because the prof allowed open cheating (he was either out of the classroom or had a newspaper blocking his view, with no proctors on that exam). Because the students who didn't cheat were furious about getting screwed for not cheating, and had complained to the department, we had tons of proctors on the final. Don't remember what the end average was, but my 66% got me a solid A.

Still though, for bio, that seems ridiculously low. We had a weeder bio class (oddly enough the first bio class most students took) which was basically memorizing random facts about the various phyla, with everything that was said, in the notes, or in the power points being fair game (including the text bellow random pictures). Average was still in the 60's I think.

 

[yellowfish]

As long as there's a fair curve (to a C-, C, or so) that's fair. That's pretty much spot on where my class averages were (~55 all tests combined). It's arguably better when the average is this low and the test is curved up because it allows for more differentiation of students. At a 75% average your top students are all getting clumped together, even if many of them know the material much better than others.

 

[235788]

it happens. People just need to start taking it more serious.

 

[blizzah]

The "advanced" bio sequence given my school that suffices as 'one-year' of biology has an un-curved class average of 57% currently, pretty far in the term. Typical?

Doesn't matter what it is at a point DURING the term. Care about what it will be at the end. You can always ask the prof

 

[phltz]

It's hard for us to say if that's typical, because different professors at different schools run things different ways. If you're anxious about the grade situation, talk to the professor. We certainly can't tell you what those numbers mean.

And for everyone talking about if this professor is going to curve things or not, you are using the word "curve" wrong. It is not written in stone that 90% is the cutoff for an A. God did not tell Moses, "Thou shalt use the following scheme to map numerical percentages to letter grades...". Unless a school has a policy stating otherwise, each professor can come up with whatever grading scheme he or she wants. If the professor decides that 75% and up counts as an A, that _is not_ a curve.

Grades can accurately be said to be on a curve if the grading scheme is designed to explicitly achieve a certain distribution of letter grades in the class. If the professor decides that the top 15% of the class gets an A, the next 30% a B, and so on, that _is_ a curve.

 

[Slowpoke]

it's hard for us to say if that's typical, because different professors at different schools run things different ways.

qft

 

[ChartaBona]

Gen Physics II at my school was llike that. It had exams w/ class avg's in the 40's and 50's. I think the lowest I got was an 87 on an exam, and I majored in Biology. The vast majority of the class were math majors who didn't seem put forth much effort. It didn't help that the professor took about 6 days off throughout the semester. In the end, the professor scaled everyone (who needed it) heavily.

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

I had plenty of these classes in engineering. Typically, the teachers eventually lowered the grading scale towards the end of the semester after he/she got tired of listening to us whine about our grades. This sounds pretty typical of bio weed-out class though, so who knows...

 

[jf1987]

It happens, especially in first year because you have tons of *****s and unmotivated people to weed out. Time to kick ass!

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

My first orgo II test average was a 41% with the highest grade an 81%
I got a 75% and there was no curves.
However, EC is going to be given.

 

[infinitessimal]

At my school, in the second orgo I test last semester, several people got 0. The professor gave them 7 points for writing their name, which became 2% on the test. Highest was something like 90, average was 60s, people were pissed. Curve for the course wasn't too big but fair, I think 13% got As to A-'s.

The year before, a (different) prof gave a final with material they hadn't covered yet but were supposed to "be able to figure it out". Average was a 30. My friend got a 35 and went out celebrating.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

At my school, in the second orgo I test last semester, several people got 0. The professor gave them 7 points for writing their name, which became 2% on the test. Highest was something like 90, average was 60s, people were pissed. Curve for the course wasn't too big but fair, I think 13% got As to A-'s.

The year before, a (different) prof gave a final with material they hadn't covered yet but were supposed to "be able to figure it out". Average was a 30. My friend got a 35 and went out celebrating.

0? Wow, now that's just the students fault.

 

[infinitessimal]

0? Wow, now that's just the students fault.

I don't know, I don't think so... It was around 10 students who got zeros. If someone who's taken the course for months can realistically get the same grade as someone who knows nothing about organic chemistry, I think there's something wrong with the teaching...

 

[Kadava Reviva]

The "advanced" bio sequence given my school that suffices as 'one-year' of biology has an un-curved class average of 57% currently, pretty far in the term. Typical?

Statistically speaking, no.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

I don't know, I don't think so... It was around 10 students who got zeros. If someone who's taken the course for months can realistically get the same grade as someone who knows nothing about organic chemistry, I think there's something wrong with the teaching...

Not even. The Prof doesn't make them learn or grasp the material, they should do that themselves.
Even if he is a horrible prof, you should be able to learn enough (even on your own) to avoid a zero.
It's clearly the students fault.

 

[jsp132]

why curve when they really got a 50 percent

because people will be mad they didn't get an easy exam?

 

[idontcaureuknow]

The "advanced" bio sequence given my school that suffices as 'one-year' of biology has an un-curved class average of 57% currently, pretty far in the term. Typical?

As with the aforementioned posts, it really depends. I know in my upper division courses we have had a test average 41% (first pchem II test). After that the test averages skyrocketed to 62% and 63% on the second and third test respectively.

For pchem lab the quiz average was a 12/20 with a grading scale as follows:
50-75%, C
75-90%, B
90-100%, A
He gave one A and approximately 2-3 B's, rest C's.

I've gotten quite used to test averages being well below 80% by now. Approximately 60% averages are the normal point for my courses. Not exactly what I counted as an upper division course, but I recall an analytical chemistry test which had an average of 60, standard deviation of 20, range of 0-100 .

 

[Ub3rmensch]

The "advanced" bio sequence given my school that suffices as 'one-year' of biology has an un-curved class average of 57% currently, pretty far in the term. Typical?

I'm not sure about the class average, but it was definitely the case for the exam averages in my Bio I class. There were ~300 students in the beginning. ~100 dropped, ~100 failed, and only 6-8% made an A.