Lowest class average on an exam that you've ever seen?

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Physics, in the 40's to 50's regularly.
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~34% on the first Controls exam. My friend checked his grade and saw an 8 and thought it was out of 10. It was out of 100.
 
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JustAddWatah said:
I don't remember what the class average was... but I got an 18% (a SINGLE question right and a little bit of partial credit on a 10 question test) in Calc3 and it ended up being curved to an A- for our final exam.
I remember spending two weeks after taking the exam before getting the grade back wondering what would happen to my medical school dreams if I got an F and instead I ended up coming out with a B+


TLDR: <18% on a Calculus final


btw this is at a top25 school
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CalTech?
 
42% on an analytical chemistry exam

When I saw my 61% I was upset at first, and then realized that I was two standard deviations above. I was never so happy to see such a low percentage in my life.
 
We had an Ochem Midterm where the average was a 40. I got an 89 😛
 
So my final grades just came up today 😀. Our Gen Chem final consists of 2 pars, the 1st part was the ACS final exam, and I see in the grade book that I got a 55 out of 100 on that, LOL! However, the second part was written my our prof, and I got 100% on that. So I ended up with an A.

My Gen Chem class has the nicest curve that I've ever seen: averages on midterms have been around 63-70%, ans that always curved as a B. So I have an A even with an 85%!
 
45, but that was in highschool. Our AP chem professor had the "if my tests are harder than the real thing, you'll cruise through it" mentality.
At any rate, I got a 90-something on that one and hid the crap outta it until my (very) nosy classmates pried it out. Aaaannnd then I never had a free lunch period again if there was any chem due at any point in the next week.
 
I took probably the most difficult test of my entire life. This test would in all likelihood defeat the Step 1 exam.

2nd midterm, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics.
Average? 23%

What's sad is that we had 3 hours to take the exam, so I had to linger for all three hours looking at that hell-borne thing. The professor was used to teaching graduate students, and I think it was intended to be an exam for them. Needless to say, when you need to know advanced partial differential equation techniques to solve the problems, and you haven't taken PDE. You're in for a butt whoopin.
 
vonburen said:
I took probably the most difficult test of my entire life. This test would in all likelihood defeat the Step 1 exam.

2nd midterm, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics.
Average? 23%

What's sad is that we had 3 hours to take the exam, so I had to linger for all three hours looking at that hell-borne thing. The professor was used to teaching graduate students, and I think it was intended to be an exam for them. Needless to say, when you need to know advanced partial differential equation techniques to solve the problems, and you haven't taken PDE. You're in for a butt whoopin.
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Lol
 
Class average on the first test in Endocrinology was ~28-33%. It consisted of 6 questions and was given in the evening with as much time was we needed (within reason). It took me 3-4 hours...
 
I had a 37% average in physics 1. And on a quiz (not a test, admittedly, I have a friend who had a 8/40 on his biochem 2 as an average. So 20%
 
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All 3 of my roommates are engineers and see mid-30s class averages frequently.
 
18% on a computer engineer exam. Everyone submitted their tests for regrade because going up 3% was the equivalent of a letter grade.

Gen Chem I and II is typically low 40s during the non engineering semesters
 
My O Chem I class average was in the 50's-60's. Not the exam average, but the overall grades in the class. The professor was awful. And he gave no curve to anyone's grades. Those were the final grades.
 
BuddyTheElf said:
My O Chem I class average was in the 50's-60's. Not the exam average, but the overall grades in the class. The professor was awful. And he gave no curve to anyone's grades. Those were the final grades.
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I really don't see how departments can let professors get away with this. I went to a competitive undergrad, and courses were always curved if the average was dismal like this. If the average grade is an F at the end of the course, I see that as more of a reflection of the course/instructor than of the students.
 
CityLights said:
I really don't see how departments can let professors get away with this. I went to a competitive undergrad, and courses were always curved if the average was dismal like this. If the average grade is an F at the end of the course, I see that as more of a reflection of the course/instructor than of the students.
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I couldn't agree more. Had a genetics professor the same way, the next year he was let go from the University. The difference? The chem professor I had was the Chemistry Department Chair. Obviously he wasn't getting fired. Many people wrote complaints but guess who they went to... the dept chair. 🙄 Hated that man.
 
38 on an Ochem I exam (Top 15 school- WashU to be exact). SD was pretty small too, which meant an A was in the high 50s/low 60s.

Speaking of low test scores, is the 4 on the Orgo Exam from WashU still around? I remember hearing about that guy when I was a freshmen and really *not* looking forward to taking that class the following year.
 
50/100= 10/20. My introductory general chemistry class. I ended up getting a B- in that class.sigh.
 
in the 50s or so in orgo II. the professor's solution was to let us retake it (after receiving all the answers during section) and then to average the two test scores. i didn't see the point.
 
Physical chemistry, the average was 50%.

My friend was taking PChem as well at another school and their average was a 36% with the highest grade being 60% 😵
 
PChem 1 (quantum mechanics, all chem majors) had regular 20-30% averages. The prof wanted to fail nearly the whole class (only kid doing well was a physics graduate student doing it for fun), but people complained and the chairman of the department stepped in and curved heavily.

Class was so hard because he understood the material so well that he regularly skipped 'minor' steps in the logic for each topic because he thought it was obvious. It made it impossible to follow in class. The textbook was terrible and incredibly dense, difficult to read.
 
The Organic I final's average was a 32%. Practice problems prior to it: "Show how you would add a Nitro and Bromine group to toluene~!"

Problem that actually appeared on the final: "Propose a synthesis for DEET, starting with benzene."
 
Our ochem 2 final average was a 51 as well
 
Urnathok said:
The Organic I final's average was a 32%. Practice problems prior to it: "Show how you would add a Nitro and Bromine group to toluene~!"

Problem that actually appeared on the final: "Propose a synthesis for DEET, starting with benzene."
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That seems reasonable, we actually did that in my Ochem I lab.
 
55%, no curve, gen chem I. Most of the pre-reqs are not curved at my undergraduate institution, and more than half of the students who take the first chemistry class in the sequence fail it and have to repeat or change majors.
 
BuddyTheElf said:
I couldn't agree more. Had a genetics professor the same way, the next year he was let go from the University. The difference? The chem professor I had was the Chemistry Department Chair. Obviously he wasn't getting fired. Many people wrote complaints but guess who they went to... the dept chair. 🙄 Hated that man.
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I'm not sure I agree. If the point of a class is to "weed out" the better students from the worse students, I suppose a curve makes sense. But if the point of tests in a class is to assess which students have learned what the instructor/department wants the students to have learned - what they will need in the upper-division classes for which this is a pre-requisite - then a curve defeats the purpose. You shouldn't pass people who don't understand the material. A lot of the time, though, it seems like tests are curved just to keep too many people from failing - and not to correct for an exam which was too difficult or which the students were unprepared for. An instructor can teach well and write a fair test and still have a classroom full of lazy people and idiots.

I think it also really depends on the nature of the test. A heavily applied test where it is impossible to get later steps correct if the first step is done incorrectly is an awful lot different from a test that is primarily multiple choice and short answer.

I also hate curves because they foster really nasty competition, particularly among pre-meds. If there's no curve, classmates have an incentive to work together to study. If there's a curve, at least some people are going to start to want to be the curve-wrecker...
 
CityLights said:
I really don't see how departments can let professors get away with this. I went to a competitive undergrad, and courses were always curved if the average was dismal like this. If the average grade is an F at the end of the course, I see that as more of a reflection of the course/instructor than of the students.
Click to expand...

BuddyTheElf said:
I couldn't agree more. Had a genetics professor the same way, the next year he was let go from the University. The difference? The chem professor I had was the Chemistry Department Chair. Obviously he wasn't getting fired. Many people wrote complaints but guess who they went to... the dept chair. 🙄 Hated that man.
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And this is how grade inflation starts
 
MaenadsDance said:
I'm not sure I agree. If the point of a class is to "weed out" the better students from the worse students, I suppose a curve makes sense. But if the point of tests in a class is to assess which students have learned what the instructor/department wants the students to have learned - what they will need in the upper-division classes for which this is a pre-requisite - then a curve defeats the purpose. You shouldn't pass people who don't understand the material. A lot of the time, though, it seems like tests are curved just to keep too many people from failing - and not to correct for an exam which was too difficult or which the students were unprepared for. An instructor can teach well and write a fair test and still have a classroom full of lazy people and idiots.

I think it also really depends on the nature of the test. A heavily applied test where it is impossible to get later steps correct if the first step is done incorrectly is an awful lot different from a test that is primarily multiple choice and short answer.

I also hate curves because they foster really nasty competition, particularly among pre-meds. If there's no curve, classmates have an incentive to work together to study. If there's a curve, at least some people are going to start to want to be the curve-wrecker...
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As city lights pointed out, often times it is a reflection of the professor. If there are 200 students in a class and only a handful are passing, that has a lot more to do with the professor than the students IMO
 
Ochem 1 final 50% Ochem 1 2nd midterm 51%
 
44%. Metabolism midterm during our Biochemistry course. 'twas a rough one.
 
ToldYouSo said:
And this is how grade inflation starts
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If you go to a competitive school (ie, your school has a pretty smart student body), and most students are failing an intro science course... that just doesn't seem reasonable.
 
CityLights said:
If you go to a competitive school (ie, your school has a pretty smart student body), and most students are failing an intro science course... that just doesn't seem reasonable.
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I had a similar experience; in my case the averages were low because the professors only tested the really arcane topics that they didn't really explain properly in the lecture. In my first general chemistry class, all the exam problems were proofs/deriving formulas related to quantum mechanics and MO theory- virtually nobody was getting even close to what was on the answer key, and whoever set the curve was whoever regurgitated the most random formulas from lecture and consequently got the most partial credit. As long as you were 1 SD above the mean, you got an A...

Lowest average I've ever seen was in a undergrad/grad combined toxicology class. Graduate students averaged 29% on the midterm and undergraduate students averaged 31% (though we had 5 less problems). The final was even harder, so that average must have been even lower.
 
BuddyTheElf said:
I couldn't agree more. Had a genetics professor the same way, the next year he was let go from the University. The difference? The chem professor I had was the Chemistry Department Chair. Obviously he wasn't getting fired. Many people wrote complaints but guess who they went to... the dept chair. 🙄 Hated that man.
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What was the resolution? Did these people take the Fs?
 
39% -- Metabolism

And the professor told the class of 300 people that we were all stupid. :/
 
Urnathok said:
The Organic I final's average was a 32%. Practice problems prior to it: "Show how you would add a Nitro and Bromine group to toluene~!"

Problem that actually appeared on the final: "Propose a synthesis for DEET, starting with benzene."
Click to expand...

I feel like we took a similar test.

Average was 204/300. I walked out thinking I got 150/300 and now, hey, that's about one SD below the mean. 👍
 
~30% in my first semester physical chemistry class with a standard deviation pretty close to that 30%.

I blame the students though since the exam was extremely similar to our quiz and practice problems and the professor gave a very accurate study guide. That exam should have had an average >80% given all the help we had to prepare.
 
MaenadsDance said:
I'm not sure I agree. If the point of a class is to "weed out" the better students from the worse students, I suppose a curve makes sense. But if the point of tests in a class is to assess which students have learned what the instructor/department wants the students to have learned - what they will need in the upper-division classes for which this is a pre-requisite - then a curve defeats the purpose. You shouldn't pass people who don't understand the material. A lot of the time, though, it seems like tests are curved just to keep too many people from failing - and not to correct for an exam which was too difficult or which the students were unprepared for. An instructor can teach well and write a fair test and still have a classroom full of lazy people and idiots.

I think it also really depends on the nature of the test. A heavily applied test where it is impossible to get later steps correct if the first step is done incorrectly is an awful lot different from a test that is primarily multiple choice and short answer.

I also hate curves because they foster really nasty competition, particularly among pre-meds. If there's no curve, classmates have an incentive to work together to study. If there's a curve, at least some people are going to start to want to be the curve-wrecker...
Click to expand...

I don't know about "no curve." I think the professor should look at the class as a whole and see where the performance is at (and where it should have been). Having one ore two people get a high grade while the rest of the class does poorly should not suggest that no curve should be given (this removes the "curve-wrecker" while still giving him/her incentive to do well). There are also students who do poorly on the exam and lose the motivation to work harder because there is no chance for an "A." Yeah, that's their fault, but as an educator, if doing something insignificant (which is what it is in the grand scheme of things) like curving makes a student more motivated to learn/study, then by all means, do it!

I think curves foster complacency. Because of that, a majority of classes/tests should not have a curve. It needs to be done a case-by-case basis. Professors that make their exams so hard that they need a curve are idiots. The only difference between wanting to be the "curve-wrecker" and wanting to ace an exam is motivation. Maybe curves bring out the "bad" in people, but I think most people try to do as well as possible on a test (irregardless of a curve).

Ramble, ramble, ramble...


Edit: Can't really remember all the average for test grades/classes... I think I've seen a ~35 (in cell physiology). But I do remember that PChem was a bitch.
 
organic 3: beta dicarbonyl, amides, and alkyl amine compounds if I remember correctly

:naughty:
 

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Ochem at my university usually had an average anywhere from 30-50
 
DrEnderW said:
Both semesters of organic the averages were around 62-68... No curve was given. Class average was D+/C- without a curve at the end. Good times...
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That is pretty terrible not to have a curve with the average so low. I'd take those classes anywhere other then your school, even at a cc.
 
MDwannabe09 said:
39% -- Metabolism

And the professor told the class of 300 people that we were all stupid. :/
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Surprised the professor didn't have a chair or two thrown his/her way lol. There are some professors that just don't care about students. Sad
 
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