Classes with Ridiculous Curves

[centersharpie]

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So I just got my genetics exam grade back, and let's say that I didn't do too well... but there was a big curve, not big, huge!!! The average was in the upper 50's. The lowest number grade you could get for the C was a 35! I was really surprised. I wanted to know if anyone else experienced ridiculous curves. Not only that, but do you think that the professor would change the way he writes his exams because of the low average/huge curve.

Any input would be great.

Thanks!

 

[Cegar]

None of my classes have ever had curves.

Except for my Bio class. But that was just a modified bell distribution. 3-4 A's out of 50 people.

 

[crazy4clana]

Consider youself lucky, that's an awesome curve.

My chem class was curved a lot, a 40 is passing and an 80< is an A. But that was because the class averaged a 20% on exams lol.

 

[Cegar]

Consider youself lucky, that's an awesome curve.

My chem class was curved a lot, a 40 is passing and an 80< is an A. But that was because the class averaged a 20% on exams lol.

Good God, what kinds of things did your professor test on?

 

[Drogba]

Consider youself lucky, that's an awesome curve.

My chem class was curved a lot, a 40 is passing and an 80< is an A. But that was because the class averaged a 20% on exams lol.

Thats BS. 20% average with the passing grade being twice the mean and an A being 4 times that? Yeah right. SDNers find the craziest ways to boast.

 

[crazy4clana]

^ That's not BS, it's the truth. A high curve is nothing to brag about dude.

Good God, what kinds of things did your professor test on?

He would dumb it down for us on lectures but then tested us on stuff we've never seen before. Needless to say, I am retaking the class as we speak. 🙁

 

[Cegar]

^ That's not BS, it's the truth. A high curve is nothing to brag about dude.



He would dumb it down for us on lectures but then tested us on stuff we've never seen before. Needless to say, I am retaking the class as we speak. 🙁

Could you give me a sample question? I'm curious as to what kind of test would merit a 20% pass.


And nehc, if you were asking if the class was all male, then no. It is not all male.

 

[GoHop]

Some of the professors here write test like that. When i got into orgo the first thing my professor said was that "this isn't high school anymore, you wont be seeing many people scoring above 80-85%". one professor explained that they write hard tests b/c they grade on a bell curve and it make the distribution really even if the average is around 60-70; whereas if the average is in the 80-90% there is more ambiguity. Another common way of grading i found interesting was designating the the top 5% of the class as A+ and the grading the rest based on the 95th percentile as the 100% score. ie if there are 100 people in the class and the person with the 5th highest score got a 80 out of 100 then everyone's grade is based off that 80

 

[BigRedPremed]

Lowest I've seen at Cornell was around a 51 mean. Typically, tests with a mean that low have a std. dev of around 20 so a 71 would get you an A-.

The means on tests are also influenced by the quality of students. A friend from UC Davis showed me one of their orgo midterms. It didn't look much different from my orgo midterms at Cornell but their mean was a 39 while our means were generally 55-65.

 

[135892]

Consider youself lucky, that's an awesome curve.

My chem class was curved a lot, a 40 is passing and an 80< is an A. But that was because the class averaged a 20% on exams lol.

Wow, how can a gen chem class be that difficult. Tests must have been really unfair

 

[scowdeva]

Most of my prereq classes (taken at both U of Michigan and Michigan State) had a class average in the 50's, so at the end they would adjust accordingly. Still kinda sucked though, because you could be right on the edge of a 4.0, but since there weren't minuses or pluses you got stuck with the 3.5. I looove schools with minuses and pluses!!

 

[nevercold]

So I just got my genetics exam grade back, and let's say that I didn't do too well... but there was a big curve, not big, huge!!! The average was in the upper 50's. The lowest number grade you could get for the C was a 35! I was really surprised. I wanted to know if anyone else experienced ridiculous curves. Not only that, but do you think that the professor would change the way he writes his exams because of the low average/huge curve.

Any input would be great.

Thanks!

Got an "A+" for a 69% average once.

 

[Drogba]

Lowest I've seen at Cornell was around a 51 mean. Typically, tests with a mean that low have a std. dev of around 20 so a 71 would get you an A-.

The means on tests are also influenced by the quality of students. A friend from UC Davis showed me one of their orgo midterms. It didn't look much different from my orgo midterms at Cornell but their mean was a 39 while our means were generally 55-65.

Thhe earlier poster claims he took tests with 20% average that needed >80 for an A. If the professor used this same grading scheme the STDEV would be 60 which I'm pretty sure isn't possible lol. Is there a way to calculate the greatest possible STDEV for a range of scores and a population of students? Where is maxprime when you need him... Who curves the mean to 20 below an F anyway? Obviously bs.

 

[crazy4clana]

Dude, WTF is your problem? Why would I be BSing this? To brag about how dumb my class was because of the 20%? My professor didn't USE standard deviation for grades, they use their own margin or error grading system. Blame them, not me. 🙄 You need to lay off that ritalin pal. And if you don't know **** then don't accuse someone of lieing especially if you're wrong.

BTW, I'm a she. Have a nice day. 🙂

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Ive had one class with a real curve. It was history, average was a 42, I got a 66 and he curved it to 100.

He was the crappiest teacher imaginable

 

[Myuu]

I was fortunate enough to avoid the physics professor whose exam average was a 12. 👍

 

[ChubbyChaser]

I was fortunate enough to avoid the physics professor whose exam average was a 12. 👍

out of 100??

funny thing is I bet most ppl got 0s and there were just a few genius' with 80s+

 

[Myuu]

out of 100??

funny thing is I bet most ppl got 0s and there were just a few genius' with 80s+

Out of 100! Multiple choice exams with only six questions.😱

I had friends in that section. They were hating life. :/

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Lowest I've seen at Cornell was around a 51 mean. Typically, tests with a mean that low have a std. dev of around 20 so a 71 would get you an A-.

The means on tests are also influenced by the quality of students. A friend from UC Davis showed me one of their orgo midterms. It didn't look much different from my orgo midterms at Cornell but their mean was a 39 while our means were generally 55-65.

so one std deviation above the mean is an A, typically?

 

[ChubbyChaser]

all guys class?

hahah I just got this

 

[Cegar]

Dude, WTF is your problem? Why would I be BSing this? To brag about how dumb my class was because of the 20%? My professor didn't USE standard deviation for grades, they use their own margin or error grading system. Blame them, not me. 🙄 You need to lay off that ritalin pal. And if you don't know **** then don't accuse someone of lieing especially if you're wrong.

BTW, I'm a she. Have a nice day. 🙂

Srsly. How nasty were those chem questions?

A different application of the concepts, or something so inane that the applicability is dubious?

Or is it somewhere in the middle?

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Out of 100! Multiple choice exams with only six questions.😱

I had friends in that section. They were hating life. :/

well did most ppl fail?? or how did he make up for it?

If that was the case I would just blindly guess and hope for a 16-32%

 

[Drogba]

Dude, WTF is your problem? Why would I be BSing this? To brag about how dumb my class was because of the 20%? My professor didn't USE standard deviation for grades, they use their own margin or error grading system. Blame them, not me. 🙄 You need to lay off that ritalin pal. And if you don't know **** then don't accuse someone of lieing especially if you're wrong.

BTW, I'm a she. Have a nice day. 🙂

I'm not sure what you are suggesting with your ritalin comment. I don't have to have direct knowledge of something to know that it is probably BS. Soon you are going to start claiming that you can fly. Should I just accept that as a fact too?

The only possible explanation that could make what your saying even moderatley believable is that you go to school with complete idiots and your professor wants them all to fail out. While I was challenging your original statement I was giving you the benefits of the doubt in assuming that you, in fact, don't go to school with complete idiots.

 

[Myuu]

well did most ppl fail?? or how did he make up for it?

If that was the case I would just blindly guess and hope for a 16-32%

I'm not sure, but supposed university SOPs were to set the average to C and distribute grades appropriately. They really made a huge deal about how the average at this particular school was always a C. 👎

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Well its crazy how it was a multiple choice test with less than a 25% average.

 

[crazy4clana]

The only possible explanation that could make what your saying even moderatley believable is that you go to school with complete idiots and your professor wants them all to fail out. While I was challenging your original statement I was giving you the benefits of the doubt in assuming that you, in fact, don't go to school with complete idiots.

Actually yes, it was a weeding out class stated specifically by my advisor. A class with approximately 250 (500 for both sections), most of which are pre-med. They even told us that they were trying to weed us out because not all of us could obviously get into med school. That's what our school tries to do apparently, way too many pre-meds so they try to fail them and get them on another track...like business. It's true for many schools, not that shocking. I don't understand why you think I'm lieing, it's a pretty retarted thing to BS about.

I don't have a copy of our tests, but examples would be really complex enthalpy questions that came out of nowhere and ridiculously intricite equilibrium problems that we were told would not be on the test. I think the reasoning behind the low averages had to do with the time limit, I'm sure everyone would probably do a lot better if we had more time for the problems, but we had a lot of hard stuff to figure out in an extremely small period of time.

 

[DaTruMD]

Although what crazy4clana said may be difficult to believe, I do not see a reason for her to be lying about such an issue. She DID say that she was re-taking the class which, in my opinion, is in no way advantageous to her (unless she is trying to provide a reason as to why she had to retake the class). But even then, she didn't have to post that she had to retake the class in the first place. 😛

BTW, does clana=Clark/Lana?

 

[crazy4clana]

BTW, does clana=Clark/Lana?

Yes it does. 😛

 

[135892]

Although what crazy4clana said may be difficult to believe, I do not see a reason for her to be lying about such an issue. She DID say that she was re-taking the class which, in my opinion, is in no way advantageous to her (unless she is trying to provide a reason as to why she had to retake the class). But even then, she didn't have to post that she had to retake the class in the first place. 😛

BTW, does clana=Clark/Lana?

🙄, this could be the excuse in her own mind

 

[Drogba]

Actually yes, it was a weeding out class stated specifically by my advisor. A class with approximately 250 (500 for both sections), most of which are pre-med. They even told us that they were trying to weed us out because not all of us could obviously get into med school. That's what our school tries to do apparently, way too many pre-meds so they try to fail them and get them on another track...like business. It's true for many schools, not that shocking. I don't understand why you think I'm lieing, it's a pretty retarted thing to BS about.

Like you said its true for many schools. All schools have too many premeds. At all schools premed attrition is high from freshman year to application time. Nowhere do they try to fail >50% of their premed students.

It is a ridiculous thing to misrepresent but people on SDN tend to find the silliest things to exaggerate so forgive me for being skeptical of your extremely unlikely claim.

 

[iA-MD2013]

well, in my school...they usually accomplish this weeding out thing very well.
gchem ~ 1500 students
ochem ~ 1000
bio ~ 600
physics ~ 600
biochem ~ 200
i dont think these ppl fail...they just realize that its either too much work or they just change their mind halfway through the process.

 

[DBR]

I think the biggest curve i had in undergrad was in gen chem when my test grade got raised to 110% after the curve.

I felt like such a pimp.

 

[crazy4clana]

🙄, this could be the excuse in her own mind

WTH? You don't know me, stop making ridiculous accusations cause you know what happens when you ASSUME.

I am retaking the class because it was my fault I didn't understand the material, did I ever say anything to that proves otherwise? NO.

It is a ridiculous thing to misrepresent but people on SDN tend to find the silliest things to exaggerate so forgive me for being skeptical of your extremely unlikely claim.

You are probably one of the most narrow-minded people I've seen on SDN. That's going to make you a TERRIBLE doctor.

Like I said, why in the world would I make-up or even exagerrate my claim? It makes no sense. The class average WAS 20% and the professor curved the tests to 50% so most people would pass. I really could care less if you believe me or not, I just can't believe you have the audacity to call me a liar just because you don't believe it. Immature much? 🙄

 

[Cegar]

WTH? You don't know me, stop making ridiculous accusations cause you know what happens when you ASSUME.

I am retaking the class because it was my fault I didn't understand the material, did I ever say anything to that proves otherwise? NO.



You are probably one of the most narrow-minded people I've seen on SDN. That's going to make you a TERRIBLE doctor.

Like I said, why in the world would I make-up or even exagerrate my claim? It makes no sense. The class average WAS 20% and the professor curved the tests to 50% so most people would pass. I really could care less if you believe me or not, I just can't believe you have the audacity to call me a liar just because you don't believe it. Immature much? 🙄

Welcome to SDN.

 

[135892]

WTH? You don't know me, stop making ridiculous accusations cause you know what happens when you ASSUME.

I am retaking the class because it was my fault I didn't understand the material, did I ever say anything to that proves otherwise? NO.

What happens?

 

[Flaxmoore]

well, in my school...they usually accomplish this weeding out thing very well.
gchem ~ 1500 students
ochem ~ 1000
bio ~ 600
physics ~ 600
biochem ~ 200
i dont think these ppl fail...they just realize that its either too much work or they just change their mind halfway through the process.

My school did some pretty hefty weeding as well for Bio and for the Honors-Bio track.

Biology track:
Bio I- 500
Bio II- 400
Genetics- 200
Cell Bio- 150
Physiology- 50
Bio Lit- 45.

About 45 of 500, or 9%.

Honors was just as bad an attrition rate-
Bio I (H)- 48
Bio II (H)- 31
Genetics (H)- 27
Cell Bio (H)- 23
Physiology (H)- 13
Bio Lit (H)- 5
Thesis- 4.


About 4 of 46, or 8.7%.

 

[Drogba]

WTH? You don't know me, stop making ridiculous accusations cause you know what happens when you ASSUME.

I am retaking the class because it was my fault I didn't understand the material, did I ever say anything to that proves otherwise? NO.



You are probably one of the most narrow-minded people I've seen on SDN. That's going to make you a TERRIBLE doctor.

Unlike you, I only evaluated your statement, not your entire person. I guess you felt sufficiently justified to not only call my worldview into question but also my future competence as a physician (in addition to suggesting I "lay off the ritalin")! And I'm the one jumping to conclusions....

Like I said, why in the world would I make-up or even exagerrate my claim? It makes no sense. The class average WAS 20% and the professor curved the tests to 50% so most people would pass. I really could care less if you believe me or not, I just can't believe you have the audacity to call me a liar just because you don't believe it. Immature much? 🙄

Ah, a vital piece of information that only makes its appearance posts later.

Consider youself lucky, that's an awesome curve.

My chem class was curved a lot, a 40 is passing and an 80< is an A. But that was because the class averaged a 20% on exams lol.

So your original statement was, in fact, an innaccurate description of the situation. Even though I questioned the fact that your professor seemed to be failing >50% of your class repeatedly it took you until now to actually qualify your original statement. You should work on writing more clearly.

So your professor first ADDED points to the exam and then set cut offs. A Slightly more reasonable, though admittedly round about, way to assign grades.

 

[crazy4clana]

Actually I didn't, obviously the class average was not 20% after the entire course was repeated, that is impossible. I was talking about after the first coulple of tests, that's why it was curved. Even a curve that huge did not save my grade, I just gave up trying.

 

[da8s0859q]

Had a class where exams averaged between 40-61. With quizzes and extra credit and such, an ~84% was an A.

 

[Tartheheel]

Ochem class last semester.

Avg. 32 (ridiculously difficult exams!! 😱) => C; so over a 60 would be an A!!

The class distribution was a perfect bell curve, and the average was pushed to a C (75).

 

[Maxprime]

DiffEq - the curve was 60 points + 2/3 of your score. It was a horribly demoralizing class, but a ton of people ended up with A's.

 

[Drogba]

DiffEq - the curve was 60 points + 2/3 of your score. It was a horribly demoralizing class, but a ton of people ended up with A's.

Ah, there you are!

Thhe earlier poster claims he took tests with 20% average that needed >80 for an A. If the professor used this same grading scheme the STDEV would be 60 which I'm pretty sure isn't possible lol. Is there a way to calculate the greatest possible STDEV for a range of scores and a population of students? Where is maxprime when you need him... Who curves the mean to 20 below an F anyway? Obviously bs.

 

[al112987]

I got a B/B+ for a 40% (8/20) on a thermodynamics quiz, but the average was a 5/20 (25%).

I've never had an actual exam with an average that low, one of the orgo teachers here gave his first exam and the average was a 38%, that was pretty bad, but I wasn't in that class. My electricity and magnetism class had a pretty rough curve, you needed 2 std dev above the mean to get an A, so hardly anyone did. It was especially frustrating because the exams were not that difficult, the averages were always around 65-70 (save for the first exam, where it was a 50). I'd rather have a class where the average is like a 40 but the teacher will give ~20% A's. But some teachers are pretty generous. Class averages in most science classes here are usually between 50-70, so in most classes high 80s is around an A-/B+, pretty standard.

 

[146233]

My biochem class has a 50% as a C. 80% and above is an A. *eyeroll*

 

[bigDee]

Wow you guys have some ridiculous classes to have an average below a 40. I have yet to come across a test so hard that the average was a 40. That's just nuts.

My gen chem had a pretty big curve though. I remember the tests being pretty hard but nothing too difficult or unfair. Maybe since it was at a community college the people just sucked there so the average for every exam was pretty low. I don't know what the average was but lets just put it this way. I usually made about a C on most exams but it got curved up to an A every time and sometimes I'd have a 110%.

 

[armybound]

keep this thread civil, please.

I never had a class that consistently had huge curves, but there were a couple of individual cases. I remember in a bioinformatics class the test average was ~60 and the professor didn't like that so he gave us all 20 points.
I went into my immunology final with a really high grade and didn't study much for it at all. I had to give a guess on probably at least 1/3 of the 140 or so questions. I felt like I'd probably end up with something around an 80 or 85.. my grade ended up being a 109. I'm not sure exactly how big that curve was, but it must have been pretty big.

 

[bigDee]

Oh yeah my ochem professor already sets up the grading bracket in the syllabus and it says that you can get a bloody 55 for a C. I've never seen such a low score for a C so I was like are you kidding me, this class will be THAT hard? It says you have to get a 90 for an A but he supposedly changes that to an 80 by the end of the semester.

 

[bigDee]

keep this thread civil, please.

I never had a class that consistently had huge curves, but there were a couple of individual cases. I remember in a bioinformatics class the test average was ~60 and the professor didn't like that so he gave us all 20 points.
I went into my immunology final with a really high grade and didn't study much for it at all. I had to give a guess on probably at least 1/3 of the 140 or so questions. I felt like I'd probably end up with something around an 80 or 85.. my grade ended up being a 109. I'm not sure exactly how big that curve was, but it must have been pretty big.

I think stuff like that is just hilarious.

 

[centersharpie]

Wow! That's crazy. I thought a 45 was low for a C (chem I class), but I see now that profs can be a lot harder.

Keep the replies coming!

 

[08675309]

I definitely remember a Physics II exam with an average of 27 and a standard deviation of like 12. So literally if you wrote your name on the exam and wrote random equations down in the blanks you could have passed. In fact, I don't recall any physics exam at all having an average over 60. I don't think that this is a good method of teaching (making the tests impossible), but for some reason it continues to be done.