Class of 2022...how you doin'?

[ziggyandjazzy]

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I don't understand the concept of curving from a logistics perspective. Set a realistic goal for an A, B, C, etc. My undergrad maintained the 90+ for an A, 80-89.9 for a B, etc. Fair to everyone in my book.

Though I would never want harder questions. Definitely would want more points/questions. But not purposely harder ones.

Our two tests per quarter during 1st and 4th quarter this year were worth 90% of the grade. Absolute trash to me.

I didn't mean purposefully harder questions. But when a class has an average around 94%, I would rather them make them slightly harder to actually have a naturally reasonable curve, like you said. Otherwise it really punishes stupid mistakes.
My undergrad always used the 90+ is an A, like you said, and it worked because they wrote exams properly.
That sounds super rough to have so much of your grade from a single test. Sounds so stressful. I would almost always prefer more questions and more tests because it gives you more of an opportunity to show what you know, and little mistakes have a lot less of an impact. Each test for us is usually around 25-30% of our grade.

 

[battie]

I didn't mean purposefully harder questions. But when a class has an average around 94%, I would rather them make them slightly harder to actually have a naturally reasonable curve, like you said.

I would actually have no problem with the entire class having a 90+ score if they're meeting that standard. That's what I meant that I don't understand the point of a curve. It never made sense to me to purposely limit the number of As, Bs, etc within a class by making a curve. If anything, I think vet schools should go Pass/Fail like human medical schools and keep rankings based on a percentage like Illinois does.

I 100% would rather have a test every week worth 100 points a piece, than 1 test every 4 weeks worth 450. Absolutely.

 

[CoffeeQuestionMark]

I don't understand how you could get a B- with a 40% but to get an A, you would need a 98%. This means anyone in between those two percentages would be in the B range which still doesn't make any sense.

That's the curve. An A is 98 percent in relation to the curve. So if the curve tops out at 85 percent, where 85 equals 100, it is 98 percent of 85

 

[ziggyandjazzy]

I would actually have no problem with the entire class having a 90+ score if they're meeting that standard. That's what I meant that I don't understand the point of a curve. It never made sense to me to purposely limit the number of As, Bs, etc within a class by making a curve. If anything, I think vet schools should go Pass/Fail like human medical schools and keep rankings based on a percentage like Illinois does.

I 100% would rather have a test every week worth 100 points a piece, than 1 test every 4 weeks worth 450. Absolutely.

All I know is our profs are kinda forced to break us up that way, at least that's what I've been told. Like, if a prof has too many people getting As, the school gets mad at them. So instead of the prof making their tests harder, they just raise the cut off for an A. It's pretty annoying. I guess they want like an actual way of differentiating people based off GPA and dont want grade inflation? Otherwise idk. I was told CSU gives so many As that internships/residencies dont even look at GPA for them, but I have no idea the accuracy of that statement. Doing it based off percentage, which I know WSU does, make a lot of sense in that regard. It could even the playing field between how certain profs grade, etc.

That's the curve. An A is 98 percent in relation to the curve. So if the curve tops out at 85 percent, where 85 equals 100, it is 98 percent of 85

Ok well then we've been talking about apples and oranges this whole time. So for your school, you would need 98 percentile for an A. 98 percent and percentile aren't the same thing. For the class I referenced, you need 95%, not percentile. The two aren't really comparable. Most of our classes aren't graded on a curve (with the exception of the super hard one I mentioned earlier and a few others). I hate grading on a curve because it actively encourages people to sabotage or not help their other class mates out.

 

[vetmedhead]

I don't understand the concept of curving from a logistics perspective. Set a realistic goal for an A, B, C, etc. My undergrad maintained the 90+ for an A, 80-89.9 for a B, etc. Fair to everyone in my book.

Though I would never want harder questions. Definitely would want more points/questions. But not purposely harder ones.

Our two tests per quarter during 1st and 4th quarter this year were worth 90% of the grade. Absolute trash to me.

The vet school doesn't do this, but I never minded curves in ****ass hard classes. I had two semesters of ochem with an absolutely fabulous professor who taught really well and spent a lot of one on one time with the students to help us understand what was going on, and our exam score averages were still like 50-60% because ochem is terrible. He curved things by standard deviations for each exam and was pretty open with us about that system. It worked well and certainly wasn't decided upon just to keep an arbitrary number of people at different grade cutoffs, and to me was a better curving system than what I've had other professors do, which is figuring out who the top scorer was and setting their grade as the 100% cutoff.

I think most classes don't need curving systems at all (and would argue that most if not all veterinary subjects don't need it) and just need to have more thought out/fair test questions, but some subjects have inherently complex/dense/terrible material and it's challenging to write an exam that is easy to score well on that isn't also completely missing huge chunks of concepts/materials that are important to the subject.

I was told CSU gives so many As that internships/residencies dont even look at GPA for them, but I have no idea the accuracy of that statement.

CSU definitely doesn't just toss out As like candy, and we have a few classes where there were straight up maybe 3-5 people out of our class of ~150 who got an A. As far as I know professors aren't discouraged from having too many students receive As though, so there's not an incentive for them to keep people out of certain grade brackets.

 

[vetmedhead]

As an aside, why is it that the classes that insist on doing the whole +/- thing are always the super hard classes? I hate +/- with a passion

 

[deleted676737]

As an aside, why is it that the classes that insist on doing the whole +/- thing are always the super hard classes? I hate +/- with a passion

Woah, wait, +/- grades are done on an individual class-by-class basis at your vet school? At my former vet school, all classes are graded on a system with +/-. My undergrad didn’t use +/- at all.

That’s kind of interesting.

 

[vetmedhead]

Woah, wait, +/- grades are done on an individual class-by-class basis at your vet school? At my former vet school, all classes are graded on a system with +/-. My undergrad didn’t use +/- at all.

That’s kind of interesting.

Yeah, I believe the course coordinators are allowed to choose whether the class will be on +/- or on a traditional A/B/C etc cutoff. The cutoffs for +/- are consistent across the university if they are used. I think professors might also have the option to do a + system only, but I'm not sure because I've never seen it used. We haven't had many that did +/-, usually one or two classes a semester

 

[battie]

and our exam score averages were still like 50-60% because ochem is terrible. He curved things by standard deviations for each exam and was pretty open with us about that system. It worked well and certainly wasn't decided upon just to keep an arbitrary number of people at different grade cutoffs, and to me was a better curving system than what I've had other professors do, which is figuring out who the top scorer was and setting their grade as the 100% cutoff.

You're jogging my memory. My O Chem retake that I did at Metro in Denver was set up like this. It was beautiful to me after my first O Chem where the prof purposely tried to fail people and did grade shenanigans. I actually scored the highest at one point. I did better because I wasnt worried about having to pass based off arbitrary numbers cause I knew I would do closish to the average. That was a good grading system for me.

/fair test questions

@SportPonies and I had this test question for public health: how many people in the US are injured in work place accidents per year? What system of government does the US fall under?

**** that noise. **** that noise so hard. And since I've gotten my grades back, **** that noise right out of second year.

 

[deleted676737]

Also, yeah, would totally be for vet schools moving to a pass/fail system of grading (with “hidden” ranks for things like internships/residences). But I admit that I am probably extremely biased on that front, having been dismissed nearly halfway through without a chance to even repeat or anything despite technically passing all of my classes... *grumblegrumble*.

 

[ziggyandjazzy]

As an aside, why is it that the classes that insist on doing the whole +/- thing are always the super hard classes? I hate +/- with a passion

I hate when places don't do +/- tbh. In high school we didn't have that but I have had +/- in undergrad and vet school and I much prefer it. Because if there is none, someone with an 89 gets the same final grade as someone with a 80. To me, that large of a gap shows a large enough difference in knowledge (or like, ability to take a test lol) that they warrant different grades.
Why do you hate +/-?!

 

[vetmedhead]

I hate when places don't do +/- tbh. In high school we didn't have that but I have had +/- in undergrad and vet school and I much prefer it. Because if there is none, someone with an 89 gets the same final grade as someone with a 80. To me, that large of a gap shows a large enough difference in knowledge (or like, ability to take a test lol) that they warrant different grades.
Why do you hate +/-?!

I think they punish effort just as equally as they reward it. It's nice if you make it into a + zone instead of a -, but I think it puts too much emphasis on trying to scrub for a grade rather than on learning the material, and adds extra stress for students to make it to certain cutoff milestones that I think aren't necessary. It sucks when you are where you want to be in a class and then realize that mistakes on a final that would have still netted you a B in a traditional system are now possibly dropping you from a B+ to a B-, which is a difference of 2/3 of a GPA point (significant in a bigger credit class) but which could only be the difference of ~4% in the class. Very easy to do if you have a final in a hard class that's worth a big percentage of your grade, and pretty crappy if it happens to a student who was otherwise doing well in the class and would have been unaffected by a small fluctuation if graded on a traditional scale.

I don't personally see much difference between students who received an 85% and an 87%, but the stratification of this scheme arbitrarily says that one is worth about a third of a GPA point more than the other. I think this becomes more extreme at the high end of a GPA scale, where you would need like 94-95% to be considered worthy of an A in a subject even though I think no one would argue that someone with a 90-93 doesn't have an excellent understanding of the material. Combined with the fact that (at my school at least) an A+ doesn't confer any additional points toward a GPA, it just feels like an arbitrary system that isn't rewarding what it thinks it is.

 

[vetmedhead]

I had this test question for public health: how many people in the US are injured in work place accidents per year? What system of government does the US fall under?

**** that noise. **** that noise so hard. And since I've gotten my grades back, **** that noise right out of second year.

I had to know stuff like this for, like, actual public health classes. Seems odd to have it for vet stuff unless you had a specific section about workplace safety or veterinary policy or something haha

 

[vetmedhead]

To me, that large of a gap shows a large enough difference in knowledge (or like, ability to take a test lol) that they warrant different grades.

To add on to the previous, the bolded is also exactly why I don't like +/- . I kind of have the philosophy that in schooling you just need to demonstrate sufficient knowledge to earn whatever cutoff, and because of that the cutoffs should be spaced farther apart because then what is sufficient to move to the next cutoff is clear and obvious. I think when you break things up into chunks that are too small then the breakoffs have no meaning because you could easily have a student who understands the material well but did not test well, and you're looking at the data so closely that you're saying that that student isn't as qualified in the subject as the other student even if understanding is similar. Things get noisy the closer your look, and I've always been a big picture person anyway lol.

Honestly I kind of hate grading systems in general because I think beyond pass/fail a lot of distinguishment is arbitrary. Nobody gets through one class an expert on a subject, and even professors will tell you they have a lot to learn still, so it feels odd to me sometimes that we do anything beyond pronouncing someone proficient in a subject (because ultimately that is what's important and why failing as a concept exists). I have many classmates who are straight C students who I would gladly trust with the care of all of my animals (and maybe sometimes myself lol) and I have classmates who are straight A students who I wouldn't leave alone with a dead starfish.

 

[battie]

I had to know stuff like this for, like, actual public health classes. Seems odd to have it for vet stuff unless you had a specific section about workplace safety or veterinary policy or something haha

We had a specific public health class with some OSHA stuff. I don't ever remember that stuff even coming up.

 

[MixedAnimals77]

I think beyond pass/fail a lot of distinguishment is arbitrary. Nobody gets through one class an expert on a subject, and even professors will tell you they have a lot to learn still, so it feels odd to me sometimes that we do anything beyond pronouncing someone proficient in a subject (because ultimately that is what's important and why failing as a concept exists). I have many classmates who are straight C students who I would gladly trust with the care of all of my animals (and maybe sometimes myself lol) and I have classmates who are straight A students who I wouldn't leave alone with a dead starfish.

Reasons I love the pass fail system. Only sucks when you have to get your ranking for things 🙄

 

[TheGirlWithTheFernTattoo]

We don't do letter grades, just straight percentages. Then we get ranked but you specifically have to go request student services to show it to you if you want to know. And she tells you she hates that you are there asking that and tries to guilt trip you into not looking. 😛

I really like it. No fussing over what you'd need to increase a letter, just straight up what you got.

 

[ziggyandjazzy]

I think they punish effort just as equally as they reward it. It's nice if you make it into a + zone instead of a -, but I think it puts too much emphasis on trying to scrub for a grade rather than on learning the material, and adds extra stress for students to make it to certain cutoff milestones that I think aren't necessary. It sucks when you are where you want to be in a class and then realize that mistakes on a final that would have still netted you a B in a traditional system are now possibly dropping you from a B+ to a B-, which is a difference of 2/3 of a GPA point (significant in a bigger credit class) but which could only be the difference of ~4% in the class. Very easy to do if you have a final in a hard class that's worth a big percentage of your grade, and pretty crappy if it happens to a student who was otherwise doing well in the class and would have been unaffected by a small fluctuation if graded on a traditional scale.

I don't personally see much difference between students who received an 85% and an 87%, but the stratification of this scheme arbitrarily says that one is worth about a third of a GPA point more than the other. I think this becomes more extreme at the high end of a GPA scale, where you would need like 94-95% to be considered worthy of an A in a subject even though I think no one would argue that someone with a 90-93 doesn't have an excellent understanding of the material. Combined with the fact that (at my school at least) an A+ doesn't confer any additional points toward a GPA, it just feels like an arbitrary system that isn't rewarding what it thinks it is.

I mean I think I get what you're saying, I just disagree. I think adding in pluses and minuses actually makes a GPA a lot more like grading people based on their percentage, which everyone here seems to be in favor of. So you say you don't think there is that much of a difference between an 87% and an 85%, which I can get behind. But what about the example I used previously, an 89% vs an 80%? In one of our classes, we may have 300 questions. That difference in percentage is the one person answering 27 more questions correctly than the other person. That, to me, is not negligible. And honestly, it sucks to be the person with the 89% in that scenario.

And for me, having +/- makes things incredibly less stressful. You used the example of going from an 87 to an 83 and that your grade would decrease by 2/3. What about going from a 90 to an 89?? Literally 1 percentage point. If you're in a system without +/- and you dont make the 90%, then that's an entire 1.0 grade/GPA change for way more negligible of a difference. But with +/-, if you just don't make the cut off, your grade/GPA only decreases by 0.33 for that class.

Anyways, I came to this thread to rant about our grades and have basically been met with 0 people agreeing with me or really any support and ive had a ****ty enough day that im just going to drop this.

 

[twelvetigers]

Grades are dumb and have no real bearing on how smart or dumb you are. They also don’t matter beyond internship/residency.

 

[vetmedhead]

I mean I think I get what you're saying, I just disagree. I think adding in pluses and minuses actually makes a GPA a lot more like grading people based on their percentage, which everyone here seems to be in favor of. So you say you don't think there is that much of a difference between an 87% and an 85%, which I can get behind. But what about the example I used previously, an 89% vs an 80%? In one of our classes, we may have 300 questions. That difference in percentage is the one person answering 27 more questions correctly than the other person. That, to me, is not negligible. And honestly, it sucks to be the person with the 89% in that scenario.

And for me, having +/- makes things incredibly less stressful. You used the example of going from an 87 to an 83 and that your grade would decrease by 2/3. What about going from a 90 to an 89?? Literally 1 percentage point. If you're in a system without +/- and you dont make the 90%, then that's an entire 1.0 grade/GPA change for way more negligible of a difference. But with +/-, if you just don't make the cut off, your grade/GPA only decreases by 0.33 for that class.

Anyways, I came to this thread to rant about our grades and have basically been met with 0 people agreeing with me or really any support and ive had a ****ty enough day that im just going to drop this.

Sure, but being on the edge sucks no matter what grading system is being used. 89%s burn no matter what.

As for the 80 vs 89%, I honestly don't think that's a world ending difference in the grand scheme of things. I dunno. Grades are stupid

 

[jaboo]

I was a solid B student this past year and was fine with it. I became less fine with it when I realized I might want to specialize

 

[britzen]

I have classmates who are straight A students who I wouldn't leave alone with a dead starfish.

This made me snort-laugh in public, so thank you.

 

[MixedAnimals77]

We got the survey to match for our littles. I still got lots of summer yet but I'm excited for the new vetties [emoji4]

 

[ziggyandjazzy]

I'm finally done!! 1/4 a veterinarian!
I actually like a lot of things about the quarter system: starting further into September (weather is usually consistently better here in September than June), less material covered on finals, spring break doesn't cut a course in the middle, if you don't like a course it's over sooner, etc. Obviously has sucked seeing everyone else out before me 😛 and having my birthday during finals week but I'm dooooooone (for now) woohoo!!!!

 

[nyanko]

I was a solid B student this past year and was fine with it. I became less fine with it when I realized I might want to specialize

I was very low middle of my class in vet school and it was a tougher path for me to specialize for sure but it can be done. Make connections, do externships, learn all you can about what you want to specialize in but don't neglect basic clinical knowledge/skills either. Excel in other ways. Same deal as getting into vet school - easier in some ways, harder in others.

 

[jaboo]

I'M COMIN HOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!

Officially accepted as a transfer student to Cornell! Sad to be leaving my class here at UW but SO PUMPED to be back with my boyfriend, to have cheaper tuition, and to be closer to home!

 

[MOOSEygoosey]

I'M COMIN HOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!

Officially accepted as a transfer student to Cornell! Sad to be leaving my class here at UW but SO PUMPED to be back with my boyfriend, to have cheaper tuition, and to be closer to home!

GAHHHH!!! You joining 2022???

 

[jaboo]

GAHHHH!!! You joining 2022???

Yepper! You're going to have to introduce me to everyone

 

[MOOSEygoosey]

Yepper! You're going to have to introduce me to everyone

ABSOLUTELY!!! So psyched!!!!!!! 😍 when are you coming back to ithaca?

 

[jaboo]

ABSOLUTELY!!! So psyched!!!!!!! 😍 when are you coming back to ithaca?

Great question. Tackling things one at a time right now!

 

[MOOSEygoosey]

Great question. Tackling things one at a time right now!

Sounds good 🙂 let me know when you're back!!

 

[SkiOtter]

I'M COMIN HOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!

Officially accepted as a transfer student to Cornell! Sad to be leaving my class here at UW but SO PUMPED to be back with my boyfriend, to have cheaper tuition, and to be closer to home!

YAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!! Happy for you, jaboo!!!

 

[deleted867257]

I'M COMIN HOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!

Officially accepted as a transfer student to Cornell! Sad to be leaving my class here at UW but SO PUMPED to be back with my boyfriend, to have cheaper tuition, and to be closer to home!

CONGRATS!!!

 

[BigRedEquine]

I'M COMIN HOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!

Officially accepted as a transfer student to Cornell! Sad to be leaving my class here at UW but SO PUMPED to be back with my boyfriend, to have cheaper tuition, and to be closer to home!

Congrats and welcome!! 🙂

 

[WildZoo]

I have many classmates who are straight C students who I would gladly trust with the care of all of my animals (and maybe sometimes myself lol) and I have classmates who are straight A students who I wouldn't leave alone with a dead starfish.

Re-****ing-tweet lol

 

[Nalra095]

Is it weird that I kind of want to start year 2 already? Excited to learn more medicine and get one step closer to graduating hahaha

 

[SkiOtter]

Is it weird that I kind of want to start year 2 already?

Yes.

 

[JustPaws]

Is it weird that I kind of want to start year 2 already?

No!

 

[PetVet7]

Is it weird that I kind of want to start year 2 already? Excited to learn more medicine and get one step closer to graduating hahaha

I have a love/hate relationship with year 2 curriculum. I feel less like a science student and more like a vet student, but the classes keep getting harder 😕

 

[Lupin21]

Is it weird that I kind of want to start year 2 already? Excited to learn more medicine and get one step closer to graduating hahaha

Wanting to get done with school is definitely not weird. Especially when you have any sort of summer activity that reignites the passion for vet med that took you down this route in the first place. 🙂

 

[deleted867257]

Is it weird that I kind of want to start year 2 already? Excited to learn more medicine and get one step closer to graduating hahaha

I have a countdown on my phone because I’m ready to go back to school (a big reason is not wanting to work anymore).

 

[MixedAnimals77]

I'm not digging my summer job, but it pays bills. Also not thrilled with wedding planning, but I don't dislike anything enough this summer to wish to go back to school. Yeah I wanna be done, but I've never been one that enjoys school. Though I'm not excited to go back, I looked at our schedule and I ain't even mad. The exam schedule is way better than the hell they put us through last semester.

 

[deleted867257]

I'm not digging my summer job, but it pays bills. Also not thrilled with wedding planning, but I don't dislike anything enough this summer to wish to go back to school. Yeah I wanna be done, but I've never been one that enjoys school. Though I'm not excited to go back, I looked at our schedule and I ain't even mad. The exam schedule is way better than the hell they put us through last semester.

We don’t get our schedules until probably the week before school, so a bit jealous there. I’m sure if I saw the schedule I’d be less excited to go back. I’m mainly excited to start doing some spays!!

 

[ziggyandjazzy]

Wanting to get done with school is definitely not weird. Especially when you have any sort of summer activity that reignites the passion for vet med that took you down this route in the first place. 🙂

It's so so so nice to be doing something this summer that is reigniting my passion for vet med. I feel like I wasn't at the greatest place when classes ended and it's nice to have a reminder of why I went to vet school in the first place.

I'm not digging my summer job, but it pays bills. Also not thrilled with wedding planning, but I don't dislike anything enough this summer to wish to go back to school. Yeah I wanna be done, but I've never been one that enjoys school. Though I'm not excited to go back, I looked at our schedule and I ain't even mad. The exam schedule is way better than the hell they put us through last semester.

I saw our class schedule and was literally overjoyed. We end at 2 PM several days a week and have way less time actually spent in class (though this this will still be filled with studying). I'm happy I won't be spending 8 hours in class every day next quarter.
I'm not necessarily excited for next quarter, but I know when I get home from Costa Rica I will get bored quite quickly lol. I'm thinking of trying to get a job in the small animal hospital but they don't really have any that I feel would help me learn new things, if that makes sense. I don't wanna take a job just to take a job but if the right one comes along I'm going to jump at the opportunity.

 

[TheGirlWithTheFernTattoo]

Volunteered at a high volume spay-neuter event on a local first nations reserve this weekend. Really loving the remote/rural wellness work (this is the second clinic of this type that I've done). 14 hour days go so quickly when you are going through that many patients. Got to intubate for the first time, and was able to refresh my prep/monitoring skills.

Hadn't seen a spay in about 1.5-2 years, so it was nice to go over that again. It's completely different seeing the same surgery even after just 1 year of school. 🙂

 

[TheGirlWithTheFernTattoo]

I don't mind research but I'm missing clinical work. Luckily the teaching hospital staff have been wonderful and I've been going in and "shadowing" (aka volunteering because they let me do lots of things) after work on the evenings on the emerg service/ICU.

 

[jaboo]

I'm transferring for the fall semester which means I have less than a month to pack up all my stuff and move 13 hours away again 😕

Also my schedule is super duper weird and is like a combo of 2nd year classes with a little bit of 1st year classes sprinkled in.

This feeling is super weird. Like restarting vet school all over and getting nervous and excited all over again.

 

[johnsmith123]

So uhhh... Any tips to use an ophthalmoscope? I've been looking at fundus' in my summer job but am still having difficulties seeing the whole thing at once. I wear glasses so maybe that makes it harder? It's just hard for me to get a full picture of it and I usually only see a portion of the fundus...

 

[WildZoo]

So uhhh... Any tips to use an ophthalmoscope? I've been looking at fundus' in my summer job but am still having difficulties seeing the whole thing at once. I wear glasses so maybe that makes it harder? It's just hard for me to get a full picture of it and I usually only see a portion of the fundus...

If you're using a direct ophthalmoscope, you're not going to be able to see the whole fundus at once, it magnifies it too much so your field of view is limited. If you want to see more of it in one "image" then you have to do an indirect exam - holding a light at the level of your eye and shining it into the patient's eye through a handheld lens... Unless you have the fancy headpiece that the ophthalmologists use

 

[jaboo]

omg guys, SAVMA symposium is at Cornell this year. EVERYONE COME PLS I WANT TO MEET YOU ALL