O-Chem Professors fail on purpose

[donnap86]

Im taking O-Chem one and we recently took an exam. The first 2 exams the class average was about 70% so on the third exam our prof made the exam really hard because our avg. was "unacceptable high" so now everyone failed and the avg. was 45%.

Does this happen at every school or is my prof just an a$?

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[drslc134]

are u guys on a curve? that should help

 

[donnap86]

We're not sure but we still would rather earn our grades than past on a curve

 

[skp]

nothing like rewarding you for doing good on your first two exams...

 

[Sundarban1]

Im taking O-Chem one and we recently took an exam. The first 2 exams the class average was about 70% so on the third exam our prof made the exam really hard because our avg. was "unacceptable high" so now everyone failed and the avg. was 45%.

Does this happen at every school or is my prof just an a$?

 

[skp]

hey, how did your ochem prof. find these boards??

 

[g3pro]

Indeed.

 

[sdnstud]

When I was a freshmen at UC Berkeley, I took math 1b with a notoriously harsh professor. The class average for the first midterm was 7/50 and 9/50 for the second midterm. At the end, 45% of the class failed (that's after more than half the class dropping before finals), and around 5 students got A- or better (out of a class of 250+).

Turns out, this professor flunked 90% of the class the previous semester and was placed on probation because of that. After teaching my semester, he was suspended from teaching undergrads and moved to the graduate school.

Im taking O-Chem one and we recently took an exam. The first 2 exams the class average was about 70% so on the third exam our prof made the exam really hard because our avg. was "unacceptable high" so now everyone failed and the avg. was 45%.

Does this happen at every school or is my prof just an a$?

 

[Scrub MD]

I hate that when teachers do that on purpose. Do you feel like you are learning things still or does he suck in lecture also? You could report him to some higher authority. Maybe get some fellow students for backing.

 

[Belfagor]

The second ochem2 midterm at the state school I attended, the scores were so bad that a 15% was a C. And that included the 25% of the class that were chemistry grad students.

 

[burlypie]

My brother was a TA in ochem classed at UCSD while getting his PhD there. We discussed this once, and he said that teachers will do it to be able to see which students really shine. Of course they would curve the grades b/c they can't fail everyone (they're obviously not teaching well if everyone fails, as chown by the Berkeley prof mentioned previously). THat way they just set the B- at 50%, everyone's "happy" and the profs know who to recruit for their labs.

 

[chaeymaey]

Yes, O Chem teachers generally suck. I'm getting my degree at a private U and my O Chem professor was a huge a-hole. He even told me he would drop one my tests and didn't, but he dropped 2 tests for this other girl who cried to him. He always slammed the door in my face during office hours and would say that he was too busy to help me. I got a C the first semester and dropped in the middle of the second after failing the first 3 tests (w/ 50s). I then went and took O Chem 2 at a local state school and made an A with a really awesome professor. If your prof sucks, I suggest shopping around and getting your education elsewhere with a professor who can actually teach the material and is willing to help you.

 

[rdmoore2]

I am currently an Instructor for a lower level engineering course at a state research university . Engineering, espically at the graduate level, is notorius for having massive curves just to allow people to pass a course. When I first started I was told that one of the main reasons for doing this was to "humble" incoming students. For many incomming engineering students they had 4.0+ gpas in High School and already think that they are some of the smartest people walking the Earth. Within their first week of my course they will have already failed their first college level quiz (100% failed this semester).

While I have a very clear agenda in my class, I have a feeling that quite a few professors make test unnecassiraly diffecult to prove they are smarter than their students. Many professors also care more about their research than they ever will their students.

With that being said, I have never given a student lower than a B if they showed dedication toward their choosen major, and made it past the first weeks quiz .

 

[OSUdoc08]

Im taking O-Chem one and we recently took an exam. The first 2 exams the class average was about 70% so on the third exam our prof made the exam really hard because our avg. was "unacceptable high" so now everyone failed and the avg. was 45%.

Does this happen at every school or is my prof just an a$?

No, I got an A in O-Chem, and our class averages were always C's or B's.

 

[mollybo]

While I have a very clear agenda in my class, I have a feeling that quite a few professors make test unnecassiraly diffecult to prove they are smarter than their students. Many professors also care more about their research than they ever will their students.

I cannot agree more. I am in danger of a C in one of my biology courses, and it's all so unnecessary. On the last test, a passing grade was somewhere south of a 40. In my opinion it's a sympom of piss-poor test design. In effect our grades are determined by how many of our blind guesses we get right compared to everyone else.

If you can tell what the professor's area of interest is from the test questions, it's a crappy test. There is NO REASON in the world to create tests with 30-point curves in an introductory biology course.

 

[Doc.Holliday]

my class avg has been steady at 40%. thats not uncommon, and as someone said above, it lets the truly intelligent people show their stuff. in that sense i think its a good thing, but it does put an extreme amount of stress on everyone, and most are science majors or at least premed and have enough stress in their/our lives as it is.

 

[clc8503]

I had a teacher like that once. He just went over power point after power point, displaying the bold faced words enclosed in the chapters on the projector. He then read straight from the screen. $HIT, anyone can teach like that. Then he would throw a crazy A$$ exam our way that was nothing like his lecture. No study guide, no review session, and no hints about the exam. Keep in mind my school is on the quarter system, therefore we cover about 4 sometimes 5 chapters a week. Sometimes, his exams would have a total of six chapters that we had 1 and a half weeks “tops” to learn before taking his exams. It was too much information in to short of a period of time, with absolutely no help from the professor. It was like we didn’t know where to begin. As a result of this, half the class failed. Luckily, I struggled though and got my first “C”. I retook the course the following semester, under a different professor, and got an “A”. He did not negotiate grades. He told us the first day that if we got a 69% we were getting a "D" and if we got a 79% we were getting a "C". All the students hated him. He's not teaching here anymore for some reason. I wonder why?

I have enclosed a website that will prevent this from happening to you. It contains every school in the nation and about 90% of the professors. In this site the students from your school have posted their comments toward the professors they have taken. I use it every time I register for classes so that I don’t get stuck with another suck A$$ professor.

Here it is. I hope it’s helpful.
http://www.ratemyprofessor.com/index.jsp

Yours,
Caraway

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Glad I don't go to a school where the teachers do that kind of stuff...

 

[Will Ferrell]

a 45% isn't toooo bad. I heard of means in the 20s.

 

[riceman04]

Im taking O-Chem one and we recently took an exam. The first 2 exams the class average was about 70% so on the third exam our prof made the exam really hard because our avg. was "unacceptable high" so now everyone failed and the avg. was 45%.

Does this happen at every school or is my prof just an a$?

yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuupppppppppppp! The average in orgo at Rice is normally around 45%. But they curve it so that the mean in a C.

Sometimes the test averages are higher (but the mean is always set around a C.

 

[45408]

When I was a freshmen at UC Berkeley, I took math 1b with a notoriously harsh professor. The class average for the first midterm was 7/50 and 9/50 for the second midterm. At the end, 45% of the class failed (that's after more than half the class dropping before finals), and around 5 students got A- or better (out of a class of 250+).

Turns out, this professor flunked 90% of the class the previous semester and was placed on probation because of that. After teaching my semester, he was suspended from teaching undergrads and moved to the graduate school.

guys like that need late night rendezvous in the parking lot with a group of angry students

 

[Pose]

I had a teacher like that once. He just went over power point after power point, displaying the bold faced words enclosed in the chapters on the projector. He then read straight from the screen. $HIT, anyone can teach like that. Then he would throw a crazy A$$ exam our way that was nothing like his lecture. No study guide, no review session, and no hints about the exam.

So, what was his score on that website?

 

[Thundrstorm]

I think it's common for the test averages in Organic to be around 50%, but I think most profs curve. In 2nd semester of orgo at my college, the avg. was 55-65% on each exam. Half the class technically should have failed, but we benefited from the curve. My 71% was a B-. If you're staying above the class average, don't worry too much. Of course, my organic 2 prof happened to suck at lecturing as well (he was a visiting prof from another school) and was rude to students, so he was reported to the dept. chair and was not invited back to teach after that semester.

 

[clc8503]

So, what was his score on that website?

He had a score of 2.0 out of a possible 5.0.

Here are his stats.
http://www.ratemyprofessor.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=277613

 

[DrBowtie]

I would also suggest www.pickaprof.com
It used to be free but is now $5 a semester.
They have data from every teacher that is provided by the school. The data has the percentage that gets A,B,C,D,F for the teacher and by class. I think it is a good resource especially in science courses for confidence because even if the average is a 30, you know it is going to be curved and you know the percentage that will get A's and B's. Also has reviews by students that talk about test types and grading scales.

If you feel like forking out 5 bucks/semester then I think this is the way to go.

 

[45408]

He had a score of 2.0 out of a possible 5.0.

Here are his stats.
http://www.ratemyprofessor.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=277613

"he's fat and he plays with mushrooms all day!"

 

[clc8503]

I would also suggest www.pickaprof.com
It used to be free but is now $5 a semester.
They have data from every teacher that is provided by the school. The data has the percentage that gets A,B,C,D,F for the teacher and by class. I think it is a good resource especially in science courses for confidence because even if the average is a 30, you know it is going to be curved and you know the percentage that will get A's and B's. Also has reviews by students that talk about test types and grading scales.

If you feel like forking out 5 bucks/semester then I think this is the way to go.

http://www.ratemyprofessor.com/index.jsp is just as good and it's free!

 

[Ross434]

http://www.ratemyprofessor.com/index.jsp is just as good and it's free!

I think these rating places are bunk. I've used a couple of them, and usually try to take the profs that people like the least. There is where i have most success. A lot of these votes are cast by people who didnt do the work, or by people who didnt want to do the work. Almost everyone on there has some sort of grudge or else had a class where they got off scot free and want to tell others about it. Most of the teachers I like, I like them because they are so hard. Who knows though- your mileage may vary.

 

[LT2]

i understand the pain of everyone going through the "45% is passing" ochem classes. unfortunately, at my school, the ochem professor doesn't even TEACH THE CLASS?!?!? he calls books "bound optimally organized knowledge" and class consists of him showing up and the students studying out of the book. if that isn't quality education, i don't know what is. the other problem is that he is apparently within the boundaries of his contract to do this...

 

[drguy22]

at rutgers, the avg is usually aroung 58/60ish and the curve it pretty much preset....81=A, 70=B+, 60=B, C+=55,C=48ish, and so forth...

 

[nemzy]

why do they say ochem in west usa and orgo in east usa

 

[riceman04]

why do they say ochem in west usa and orgo in east usa

Good question!! I went to school in the south, but we say orgo down there and bioc