Is this how labs are at your college or is it just my university? Basically,

[alexfoleyc]

Labs in university are killer courses! They try every method to minimize the amount of good grades. From my experience with bio labs, only one or two out of 20 students get something higher than a B+, even though the bio lab grading scale is 90-100=A, etc..But the chem lab grading scale is insane; 95-100 is an A, 94.99-90.00 is a B..They grade everything out of very few points. for example, chem lab grade is based out of 150 points..and is graded by TAs. It appears to me that mos tof the TAs were premeds and never made it to postmed, so it's their way of firing back. Not all TAs, though. Just the ones at my university. Supposedly, our university has a "good" science program, thus half of the students are premeds. Are labs at you university liek this? I do not think that by making already difficult concepts more difficult does not make it a "good" program.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[vickpick]

ummm... yea they are the same way here at my U... though, at the end, when they give ur grade to the registrar, the TA's give u a curve where, most B's become A's.

 

[Ponger]

I think the bitter TA thing is common in bio labs. I had a few in intro bio lab. My experience was dependent on the TA. First semester, my TA was really chill and easy and I got an 'A'. The next semester I got a really demanding TA and got a 'B-'.

That chem grading scale just sucks.

 

[Lukkie]

alexfoleyc is my favorite SDNer

 

[witness23]

wow i was the cool TA that gave everyone A's


unfortunately when you curve it in the end....

 

[vickpick]

and yes, for chem, the grading scale is ridiculous.. especially o-chem lab, where we actually do productive stuff..lol

 

[vickpick]

wow i was the cool TA that gave everyone A's


unfortunately when you curve it in the end....

lol. a negative curve... hmmph.. i wonder if this is done anywhere..

 

[witness23]

lol. a negative curve... hmmph.. i wonder if this is done anywhere..

well yeah... when you put all grades together in the end and do z-scores, some classes def do curve that way no matter what

 

[Legacy87]

If you get a bad or PMS TA, stay under the radar. Do your work and go to their office hours to see what they want in the lab report. Don't piss the TA off because your grade is at stake. Also, if your just naturally gifted in the subject, don't let your other classmates know because (1) they will try to take advantage of you and (2) they will hate you. Just be humble.

 

[witness23]

damn UC Irvine is hostile

 

[Eklipse113]

I kind of think he goes to Loyola Chicago just because we have a good science program (my biochem major was no walk in the park i'll tell ya that much) and pretty much half the school starts as pre-meds... (but by senior year i don't really know many anymore heh.)

 

[Tots]

damn UC Irvine is hostile

I have never had a problem in labs at UC Irvine maybe I just never get the haters in my class

 

[Spiker]

I think they make the lab really hard in my school to differentiate between good and bad without ruining anyone's grade since it is only 1 hour.

 

[Arzt67]

Here the core science labs aren't too bad except for physics, where they expect you to race through everything just to finish. It would be really frustrating if the curve wasn't quite generous. Biology lab was full of disgruntled TAs, but overall wasn't that bad. Analytical chem lab was pretty terrible though and my major decided it wasn't required anymore the semester after i took it.

biology lab also did downward curving at the end of the semester too (that silly z-score thing 😡)

 

[anbuitachi]

labs are intended to be major pre med weeders here. though gen chem lab is part of my gen chem class.. so its not graded separately. orgo lab is tough though