grading in college

[stupibname]

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I know grading systems vary from college to college but what I have been hearing on this forum is a little disconcerning. In my high school grading worked based on a grading scale fom 94-100 being an A so that if you got 95% of the questions right you got an A. This would mean that if everyone scored 94% or more on a test then everyone got A's. Now the way you all are making it out it seems that in college the grade based solely on a cruve so that if a significant amount of people did better than you on the test they get A's while u get a B or C regardless if you score a 92% and the college -has a 90-100 A scale. This seems rather absurd to me. If you score high enough on a test to warrent a A based on the college's grading scale then souldn't you get the A regardless of how well your peers do? I have been hearing a good deal of nonsense from people saying that its harder for them to get A's because their class is more competitive? Now how does this work.... are grades based on a numeric grading scale or solely on your position within the class? If it is the latter I am truely suprised no one has complainedabout this yet......... perhaps someone could elucidate?????

 

[bbas]

I know grading systems vary from college to college but what I have been hearing on this forum is a little disconcerning. In my high school grading worked based on a grading scale fom 94-100 being an A so that if you got 95% of the questions right you got an A. This would mean that if everyone scored 94% or more on a test then everyone got A's. Now the way you all are making it out it seems that in college the grade based solely on a cruve so that if a significant amount of people did better than you on the test they get A's while u get a B or C regardless if you score a 92% and the college -has a 90-100 A scale. This seems rather absurd to me. If you score high enough on a test to warrent a A based on the college's grading scale then souldn't you get the A regardless of how well your peers do? I have been hearing a good deal of nonsense from people saying that its harder for them to get A's because their class is more competitive? Now how does this work.... are grades based on a numeric grading scale or solely on your position within the class? If it is the latter I am truely suprised no one has complainedabout this yet......... perhaps someone could elucidate?????

At my school, there are no curves. An A is a 93-100, A- 90-92 etc. Everyone in the class gets the grade that they deserve, regardless of how other people in the class do. I never did understand why there has to be a curve at certain schools, but I'm glad that I go to a place that doesn't have it.

 

[Law2Doc]

I know grading systems vary from college to college but what I have been hearing on this forum is a little disconcerning. In my high school grading worked based on a grading scale fom 94-100 being an A so that if you got 95% of the questions right you got an A. This would mean that if everyone scored 94% or more on a test then everyone got A's. Now the way you all are making it out it seems that in college the grade based solely on a cruve so that if a significant amount of people did better than you on the test they get A's while u get a B or C regardless if you score a 92% and the college -has a 90-100 A scale. This seems rather absurd to me. If you score high enough on a test to warrent a A based on the college's grading scale then souldn't you get the A regardless of how well your peers do? I have been hearing a good deal of nonsense from people saying that its harder for them to get A's because their class is more competitive? Now how does this work.... are grades based on a numeric grading scale or solely on your position within the class? If it is the latter I am truely suprised no one has complainedabout this yet......... perhaps someone could elucidate?????

Grading varies from school to school, and even varies amongst courses within the same school -- there is no consistant standard. Some courses have flat grades and no curve, as you suggest. Most use a bell curve, (or some modified version of the bell) which predetermines what grade will be granted to the average scorer and places everyone else on the curve based on how they compare to that average -- meaning that if the average test score is a 65%, then that may be made into the "C", and thus someone 20% or more above the mean could have an A (notwithstanding having a grade less than 90%). However if the average score is an 85%, then that could be the C, and thus someone could fail with a 70%, or still get a B with a 90%. So it cuts either way depending on how hard the test is. Some schools peg the average grade higher (eg. a B or B+ -- and this tends to be a big component of grade inflation issues).
Other courses may use scaling (another form of grade inflation), which means that if the highest test score is a 90%, then 10% is added to everyone's score, and the grade breakdown is made according to the numbers you suggested in your original post. Finally some places have a more subtle (grade inflation) strategy, where they give extra tests and allow students to drop their lowest one. The grades are then usually given based on numerical percentages, although curving is also possible (and eliminates the inflation) under this methodology. So no -- there's no consensus and lots of chances for abuse and inconsistency. Welcome to the jungle. 🙂

 

[gerido]

I know grading systems vary from college to college but what I have been hearing on this forum is a little disconcerning. In my high school grading worked based on a grading scale fom 94-100 being an A so that if you got 95% of the questions right you got an A. This would mean that if everyone scored 94% or more on a test then everyone got A's. Now the way you all are making it out it seems that in college the grade based solely on a cruve so that if a significant amount of people did better than you on the test they get A's while u get a B or C regardless if you score a 92% and the college -has a 90-100 A scale. This seems rather absurd to me. If you score high enough on a test to warrent a A based on the college's grading scale then souldn't you get the A regardless of how well your peers do? I have been hearing a good deal of nonsense from people saying that its harder for them to get A's because their class is more competitive? Now how does this work.... are grades based on a numeric grading scale or solely on your position within the class? If it is the latter I am truely suprised no one has complainedabout this yet......... perhaps someone could elucidate?????

Each school has a different system, and small class size will generally use the absolute grade system.. % correlates with a certain grade. The reason why the curve is good is because, sometime, without it, no one would get an A. sometimes, the top score in a class is a 70%. I had a class with the top score bing 50% before. Without the curve, everyone would be F-ed with an F. Some professor will also use an alternate method by using average of the top 5-10% of the score set as the point for an A, and then does a linear correlation from that point.

Personally, I like the curve because once you're above the hump (84th percentile), it is very easy to get a better grade with a few more points... assuming that the curve is fairly bell-shapped 🙂

 

[fullefect1]

At my school I haven't experienced a bell curve but for an example in my organic chem class right now he gives us tests that total to 110. However the grading scheme is based on 100. So it works out like a 10 point scale. But for many of my other classes it was you get the grade out of 100 points and thats it. Basically... pick your professors well and you can earn a better grade with putting in the same effort.

 

[stupibname]

So I guess this means that if I end up in a class with 4 or 5 genius caliber students I am screwed no matter how hard I work..... thats sooo sad. Guess I can kiss that 4.0 good bye...... wow the jungle really hurts....

 

[Law2Doc]

So I guess this means that if I end up in a class with 4 or 5 genius caliber students I am screwed no matter how hard I work..... thats sooo sad. Guess I can kiss that 4.0 good bye...... wow the jungle really hurts....

Find out what classes the jocks and cheerleaders are taking -- it does wonders for your GPA, if not your social life. 😀

 

[gerido]

So I guess this means that if I end up in a class with 4 or 5 genius caliber students I am screwed no matter how hard I work..... thats sooo sad. Guess I can kiss that 4.0 good bye...... wow the jungle really hurts....

Don't worry too much, if other people can do it, so can you. Just remember when you get that A to take pride in the fact that, not only did you did well... but take comfort in the fact that you doing well contributed to someone else's failure. 😀

 

[stupibname]

umm.... do jocks and cheerleaders take engineering? I guess I could take out the competition.... I hear its done at MIT.... of course this is merely hearsay.... you know I have to say this discovery of the reality of college grading makes me profoundly sorry for the poor souls who go to prestigous/high ranked schools.... it would really be scary competing for the A in a class of people with an average HS GPA of 4.2 and SAT over 1450..... scary......

 

[Law2Doc]

it would really be scary competing for the A in a class of people with an average HS GPA of 4.2 and SAT over 1450..... scary......

College is a new ballgame. Lots of people are discovering the wonders of alcohol and freedom for the first time, while others have trouble adapting to the fact that you actually need to study harder in college to get good grades. So pretty much everyone starts out relatively equal at the more prestigious colleges.
[Besides, if you are going to do the premed path, you will have to go head to head with the high number crowd someplace in your career (on the MCAT and in med school, if not before).]

 

[it.]

I know grading systems vary from college to college but what I have been hearing on this forum is a little disconcerning. In my high school grading worked based on a grading scale fom 94-100 being an A so that if you got 95% of the questions right you got an A. This would mean that if everyone scored 94% or more on a test then everyone got A's. Now the way you all are making it out it seems that in college the grade based solely on a cruve so that if a significant amount of people did better than you on the test they get A's while u get a B or C regardless if you score a 92% and the college -has a 90-100 A scale. This seems rather absurd to me. If you score high enough on a test to warrent a A based on the college's grading scale then souldn't you get the A regardless of how well your peers do? I have been hearing a good deal of nonsense from people saying that its harder for them to get A's because their class is more competitive? Now how does this work.... are grades based on a numeric grading scale or solely on your position within the class? If it is the latter I am truely suprised no one has complainedabout this yet......... perhaps someone could elucidate?????

nice sig

 

[unfrozencaveman]

umm.... do jocks and cheerleaders take engineering? I guess I could take out the competition.... I hear its done at MIT.... of course this is merely hearsay.... you know I have to say this discovery of the reality of college grading makes me profoundly sorry for the poor souls who go to prestigous/high ranked schools.... it would really be scary competing for the A in a class of people with an average HS GPA of 4.2 and SAT over 1450..... scary......

Don't spaz so much about the curve- grading on curves and grading on an absolute scale are oftentimes the exact same thing- it's a math trick. Seasoned professors know how to make up a test in which 15% of the class will get a 94 and above (an A, as you say), 20% will get 85-95, and so on. Unless the hs classes you have taken to date are ones in which everyone has gotten an A on every test, then you've already been subject to a curve of sorts.
The difference is mental- on an absolute scale everyone has the possibility of getting an A (but no one ever does, because teachers/profs know how to gear the exam to distribute the class accordingly- similarly- have you ever been in a class where no one got an A? probably not).

The "curve" is everywhere- and people misunderstanding of it breeds a lot of fear.
Come on, you're MIT bound and quoting Feynman and afraid of math? Statistics rule 70% of the world. 85% of people know that.

And by the way, at MIT, you can ease into it- fresh year is all pass fail. Pass/fail on a curve though. Aaaaaah!!!

 

[Anon]

Mostly the curve works in your favor. For example, when class average is 50, 65 would be an A. Pretty flippin' sweet.

 

[unfrozencaveman]

Mostly the curve works in your favor. For example, when class average is 50, 65 would be an A. Pretty flippin' sweet.

Yeah- but it still serves as a device to rank you and your classmates- no matter what the A cutoff is, you still have to outdo 87% (on the standard curve) of your classmates to get it, if it's a 60 or a 90.

But, nothing beats the feeling of thinking you bombed a test, then knowing you actually DID bomb the test, and still managing an A because you bombed less than everyone else.

 

[Will Hunting]

Mostly the curve works in your favor. For example, when class average is 50, 65 would be an A. Pretty flippin' sweet.

As long as you're reasonably intelligent and you study hard the curve will be in your favor. Don't be the idiot who trys to cram 5 weeks of information in 2 days. Yes some can do this, but you'll put a lot less pressure on yourself and your retention will be greater if you study everyday. Good luck.

 

[Sunflower189]

umm.... do jocks and cheerleaders take engineering? I guess I could take out the competition.... I hear its done at MIT....

Heh. Yes, they do. http://web.mit.edu/cheer/ if you don't believe me.

Then again, at MIT, they like to make the tests more fun. Most premed classes with a flat scale have 80% as the A cutoff. And even that tends to work out the same as bell-curve style. Most big classes will have some sort of soft curve - maybe 20% A - 40% B - 30% C - 10% D/F. (nicer in bio, and in small advanced courses)

BTW, while there are geniuses, there typically aren't enough of them to hog all the A's in big prereq courses. Some math/CS courses, this becomes a problem (here, for number theory or algorithms, A is pretty much a lost cause unless you could teach the subject anywhere else). But +1 SD of a 300-person orgo class is about 50 people...there were international chem olympiaders, and the freaks who can design 20-step syntheses of LSD from any molecule ever made, but there weren't enough to get between me and my A-. Sweet, sweet A-. 5.0 😀

And only first semester is pass/no record. Abuse it while you can.

- MIT Class of 200X, bio/eecs

 

[MahlerROCKS]

I know grading systems vary from college to college but what I have been hearing on this forum is a little disconcerning. In my high school grading worked based on a grading scale fom 94-100 being an A so that if you got 95% of the questions right you got an A. This would mean that if everyone scored 94% or more on a test then everyone got A's. Now the way you all are making it out it seems that in college the grade based solely on a cruve so that if a significant amount of people did better than you on the test they get A's while u get a B or C regardless if you score a 92% and the college -has a 90-100 A scale. This seems rather absurd to me. If you score high enough on a test to warrent a A based on the college's grading scale then souldn't you get the A regardless of how well your peers do? I have been hearing a good deal of nonsense from people saying that its harder for them to get A's because their class is more competitive? Now how does this work.... are grades based on a numeric grading scale or solely on your position within the class? If it is the latter I am truely suprised no one has complainedabout this yet......... perhaps someone could elucidate?????

I guess this is directed at my post, so I'll try to explain myself and situation as clearly as possible. I'm concerned about my GPA because my school does not curve: there are classes where B's or B-'s are the highest grades anyone in the class receives.

Moving to the issue of attending a competitive school, because I attend a small LAC with a highly intelligent student body, the profs assign harder problem sets or have higher grading expectations than they would at a larger state school. To clarify, at the state school, even if its Michigan or Berkley, the prof has to teach to the middle of the class, while a prof at a top LAC has a class filled exclusively with intelligent and motivated students.

 

[unfrozencaveman]

I guess this is directed at my post, so I'll try to explain myself and situation as clearly as possible. I'm concerned about my GPA because my school does not curve: there are classes where B's or B-'s are the highest grades anyone in the class receives.

Moving to the issue of attending a competitive school, because I attend a small LAC with a highly intelligent student body, the profs assign harder problem sets or have higher grading expectations than they would at a larger state school. To clarify, at the state school, even if its Michigan or Berkley, the prof has to teach to the middle of the class, while a prof at a top LAC has a class filled exclusively with intelligent and motivated students.

Wow. I am truly stumped by this. Grades anywhere and everywhere usually work out to be a ranking system. Sucks to be you.

 

[MahlerROCKS]

Wow. I am truly stumped by this. Grades anywhere and everywhere usually work out to be a ranking system. Sucks to be you.

Yeah it does; but on the plus side grade inflation doesn't really occur

 

[unfrozencaveman]

Yeah it does; but on the plus side grade inflation doesn't really occur

Hah. Well, yeah with no one getting A's I guess not. But if your classmates are all intellegent and motivated, why is no one deserving of an A? Where is this anyway? I'm totally perplexed... Are your professors just vindictive??

And, to the original poster- you won't see this anywhere, except, I guess here.

 

[MahlerROCKS]

Hah. Well, yeah with no one getting A's I guess not. But if your classmates are all intellegent and motivated, why is no one deserving of an A? Where is this anyway? I'm totally perplexed... Are your professors just vindictive??

And, to the original poster- you won't see this anywhere, except, I guess here.

Profs have high, unrealistic expectations. For instance, my Latin class was 5 days a week, occasionally 6, and the prof gave us 20-25 vocab words everyday, lots of grammar and about 1.5-2 hours of translations per night. I got a B the first semester and a C the second semester, and although I got a C, I can translate Catullus, most Virgil, Cicero, Livy and others near flawlessly. It just sucks that I put in about 3 hours a day, 6-7 days a week all I was able to get was a C, but then again the highest grade in the class was a B+.

 

[DrBowtie]

Find out what classes the jocks and cheerleaders are taking -- it does wonders for your GPA, if not your social life. 😀

They take psych.

 

[Manjot]

I'm taking psych. over the summer right now.......well, what if its your major? 😕 Should I switch to neurobiology?

 

[45408]

I'm taking psych. over the summer right now.......well, what if its your major? 😕 Should I switch to neurobiology?

it means you'll have a good GPA, don't sweat it. 😛

 

[stupibname]

thanks for all the sage wisdom everyone.... Its comforting to know that college grading is at least marginally fair.... also perhaps I was unclear in my post... I am not attending MIT (I wish)..... the reason I brought MIT up was I heard that at MIT they spike each others labs with chemicals to ruin each other so they can get the handful of A's alloted. This is probably a lie or at least an exageration but still I figure with so many smart people competing in a class things might be at least a little cut throat... once again thanks for input and good luck with everyones med school admissions. Hope u guys get in! 🙂.... that is of course as long as your compitent to opertate on me

 

[DrBowtie]

Don't sweat it. There are plenty of people who are dumber than you in each of your classes.

 

[hnbui]

thanks for all the sage wisdom everyone.... Its comforting to know that college grading is at least marginally fair.... also perhaps I was unclear in my post... I am not attending MIT (I wish)..... the reason I brought MIT up was I heard that at MIT they spike each others labs with chemicals to ruin each other so they can get the handful of A's alloted. This is probably a lie or at least an exageration but still I figure with so many smart people competing in a class things might be at least a little cut throat... once again thanks for input and good luck with everyones med school admissions. Hope u guys get in! 🙂.... that is of course as long as your compitent to opertate on me

just curious, but where will you be attending undergrad?

 

[CD]

Don't spaz so much about the curve- grading on curves and grading on an absolute scale are oftentimes the exact same thing- it's a math trick. Seasoned professors know how to make up a test in which 15% of the class will get a 94 and above (an A, as you say), 20% will get 85-95, and so on. Unless the hs classes you have taken to date are ones in which everyone has gotten an A on every test, then you've already been subject to a curve of sorts.
The difference is mental- on an absolute scale everyone has the possibility of getting an A (but no one ever does, because teachers/profs know how to gear the exam to distribute the class accordingly- similarly- have you ever been in a class where no one got an A? probably not).

The "curve" is everywhere- and people misunderstanding of it breeds a lot of fear.
Come on, you're MIT bound and quoting Feynman and afraid of math? Statistics rule 70% of the world. 85% of people know that.

And by the way, at MIT, you can ease into it- fresh year is all pass fail. Pass/fail on a curve though. Aaaaaah!!!

You are absolutely correct! I happen to TEACH general science and Engineering Chemistry at our local college. Each professor has their own way of doing things. Some make their tests impossible, while their homework/etc are "easy points." They DESIGN their test to be impossible so that there is a distribution of grades. I, on the other hand, think difficult tests only breed discouragement. So....my homework etc. is graded much harder but the tests are designed to have a top grade of about 96%...sometimes I succeed in that and some times I don't....but I usually come pretty close. The one time I really screwed up a test, I allowed the students to retake it open note/open book.

The point is, that most of the time it really doesn't matter what the policy is. Classes are designed to "even out" in the end. Some plan for the tests to be the "evener" and some design labs/etc to be the "grade making" portion. Until I taught, I didn't realized just how much control professors really have over it all.

It boils down to differences in teaching styles. My recommendation would be to find out which professors have a teaching style that compliments your learning style!

CD