Curve?

[DreamBig]

Are most of you guys science classes curved? I go to a state school and had an exam with a class average of 52. I figure this will be curved, but I'm curious about other experiences.

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[stealthopts17]

Are most of you guys science classes curved? I go to a state school and had an exam with a class average of 52. I figure this will be curved, but I'm curious about other experiences.

most of the time, yes.

 

[Xypathos]

Are most of you guys science classes curved? I go to a state school and had an exam with a class average of 52. I figure this will be curved, but I'm curious about other experiences.

I advise you not to use the word "curve" when you're with your professor. I've had more than one give me a lashing for it, b/c it means will the professor raise grades for a students inability to meet class expectations. They've said it's insulting to your intelligence. Instead, ask if the professor will accomodate questions where it appears that a large percentage of the class was unable to grasp the material of a particular question or topic.

 

[somemaybedoc]

Now that I'm done with undergrad, I want to see a prof who gives the class back their 50 percent exams and then tells them he will decide how much he will curve it at the end of the semester, oh wait that was my intro bio class. They hated us so much, but we worked cause we had no idea.

 

[baylormed]

Never ask for a "curve"....ask instead for a "grade adjustment."

Heard from my genetics professor. She didn't curve.

 

[Skaterbabe74]

Nope - medium state school (~7200) = very few true curves. Our largest classes are around 180 but most hover around 50 people. We have +/- grades too so an A in a biology course is almost always a 94. The one conscession to this is that our chem dept uses a modified grading scale for most of their classes where an 85 or 87 will be an A- instead of a 90 (and a 60 will be a C). Every once in awhile a prof will curve an exam (like adding 10 extra points back into our Physics I final because so many people bombed the MC section or lowering the C cutoff to a 55 for a summer ochem II section) but it's a rare occurrence. Our profs are generally pretty liberal with the partial credit tho (very few science courses have full MC exams) so I guess it tends to even out for the most part. There's a few profs that just suck tho and their exam averages show it - ie. P.Chem is supposed to be almost impossible to get an A in even with the modified scale, and Upper-div E&M (taken mostly by physics major jr/sr and grad students) routinely has half the class fail.