O Chem Prof. Awards only 1 A in the entire course??

[circulus vitios]

---

Members do not see this ad.

To be honest, I always end up working much harder in straight-scale courses. There's no curve to bail you out.

My general chemistry class is uncurved. The professor is so misleading I want to punch him in the face. I do all of the recommended homework and take good notes. Then exam day comes and there's 5-10 questions on the exam that we've never seen or discussed in class before. 30% of the class has failed each exam for the past 2 exams now, and he refuses to curve them.

 

[JJMrK]

My general chemistry class is uncurved. The professor is so misleading I want to punch him in the face. I do all of the recommended homework and take good notes. Then exam day comes and there's 5-10 questions on the exam that we've never seen or discussed in class before. 30% of the class has failed each exam for the past 2 exams now, and he refuses to curve them.

At the risk of sounding annoying:
Sounds pretty standard to me.

Also, chemistry is all about problem solving. You should be able to think through how to do a problem you've never seen before if you know the general concepts and have done practice problems.

 

[circulus vitios]

At the risk of sounding annoying:
Sounds pretty standard to me.

Also, chemistry is all about problem solving. You should be able to think through how to do a problem you've never seen before if you know the general concepts and have done practice problems.

I go to third tier liberal arts school with a joke of a chemistry department, so it's kind of lame.

And I have no trouble with solving problems. He always asks for definitions of topics we never covered in class.

 

[JJMrK]

I go to third tier liberal arts school with a joke of a chemistry department, so it's kind of lame.

And I have no trouble with solving problems. He always asks for definitions of topics we never covered in class.

Ah, that's not so cool then.

 

[Danae00]

.

 

[ArkansasRanger]

Heard this story from a friend who was ranked #2 in the entire class, but received a final grade of B+. The Prof. apparently awarded an "A" to only the top grade. Initially I thought that this person was lying, but has anyone else had this experience? Heard of anyone experiencing this?

What a douche bag.

 

[circulus vitios]

I hate to say it, but I have to agree. In my experience what the prof talks about in lecture maybe touches on 60-80% of the material on the exams. The other 20-40% you are supposed to have learned when you read the text book and other supplementary material. It is just assumed that if any material listed on the syllabus it is fair game to be tested on, regardless of whether it was discussed in lecture. And you have to know how to apply all that knowledge in novel ways as well.

And in a first or second year science course a 30% failure rate seems pretty normal to me too. Typically when you get to third for fourth year most of the "weaker" science students have been weeded out.

Sorry, but that's bull****. Exams cover a couple hundred pages of information. Test me on concepts and problem solving, not obscure terminology mentioned once in the 200 pages of information I read over.

 

[Danae00]

.

 

[Premeddie]

I feel your pain. I have a philosophy professor who has NEVER GIVEN AN A... ever! She said so in class, the day after the add/drop deadline 🙁 The class doesn't even have a respectable course name because it's just an intro. Her policy is "To get an A, you need to write as well as me"...nice grammar professor crazy

 

[MedicineNutt]

similar experience here

class of 100+ people and only 1 A was rewarded.

70% of the class got D's or F's

that means 30% passed. This professor is still teaching at my university today after ruining so many dreams...sad

Luckily, I passed with a C. However, I repeated the course at another university and earned an A (which was hard bc this teacher had a totally different approach to ochem).

 

[avo]

That sounds like grade inflation at its finest.

For the biochem, inorganic, and organic classes, I'd say it's not really inflation. Each class gave As to no more than 15% of the class. It's on the higher end of the scale, I suppose, but not ridiculous.

Our university posts grade distribution charts from past semesters. It seems physical chemistry gives out about 50% As (iirc, not completely sure). THAT seems ridiculous to me, but again...it's not a true 'curve,' it's a straight scale, and with graduate students in there as well, it seems semi-reasonable.

 

[JJMrK]

For the biochem, inorganic, and organic classes, I'd say it's not really inflation. Each class gave As to no more than 15% of the class. It's on the higher end of the scale, I suppose, but not ridiculous.

Our university posts grade distribution charts from past semesters. It seems physical chemistry gives out about 50% As (iirc, not completely sure). THAT seems ridiculous to me, but again...it's not a true 'curve,' it's a straight scale, and with graduate students in there as well, it seems semi-reasonable.

80-100 = A is inflation no matter how you look at it.

Bull**** or not, I'm just reporting my own experiences. For most of my science classes if you just went on what was taught in lecture you typically would end up with a B (= "has good understanding of the material"). To get an A you had to go above and beyond. And yes, that meant learning obscure definitions mentioned once in the text.

I much prefer your way -- as does my GPA! But I know I learn far more when I am forced to pour over the entire text book as opposed to just reading my notes.

And maybe its just my maturity (re: my age) kicking in, but I'd rather come out of the class knowing the material inside out and end up with a B+ than come away with an A having learnt only a fraction of the material.

Of course, I'm also not pre-med (I'm postbach pre-PT) so a B+ here or there won't kill me. And being the anal studier that I am, I almost always still manage to pull off the As anyways 😛

I actually haven't really had this experience. I've been tested on things not covered in lecture, but generally they were problems, and the theory had been covered. Testing on random definitions not covered is pretty lame, IMO.

 

[mrivera]

run .

lol!

 

[Premeddie]

Haha I think I'd actually have to blow something up to get anywhere. It's hard to argue with a Philosophy professor, at least in an indoor voice kind of way. If I mentioned the grade...wow. She'd probably yawn, spin her head around 360 degrees, rip out my heart, then reinvent justice on the spot and make my colon invert and head explode. I know Adcoms wouldn't like the mess (badum chuh), so there's not much I can do. At least she's pretty good looking.

sorry to ignore the OP. OP - explain it on your App?