Vet School Grading

[alabastertree]

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Hello- This is just a general query- how do your vet schools calculate grades for students? Do you receive a grade based on percentage (ie, 85% is an B, and that's it), or is it curved based on everyone's performance (top 5 grades are A's, next 10 B's, everyone else C-D)? Does your school use another method? My school is contemplating changing grading systems, and I'm wondering what other schools do.... Thanks!

 

[Armymutt25A]

NCSU is on a 9 point system. No curve that I can detect - what you get is what you get. Sucks that an 83% is a C+ though. No grade inflation here.

 

[variegata]

I'm pretty sure all my classes have been based on percents with no curve. One of my classes this semester is being taught by a new professor who said he doesn't plan to curve, but if our scores reflect that he expected too much of us/wrote too hard an exam, he'd shift the percentages down a little. But in general, this is the rough breakdown for all the classes:
A = 93-100; AB = 89-92.9; B = 82-88.9; BC = 78-81.9; etc.

 

[jmo1012]

SGU is based on percentages with no curve. our break down is 90-100 = A, 85-89 = B+, 80-85 = B, 75-79 = C+, 70-74 = C, below 70 is failing (F). no D grades here

 

[libster06]

SGU is based on percentages with no curve. our break down is 90-100 = A, 85-89 = B+, 80-85 = B, 75-79 = C+, 70-74 = C, below 70 is failing (F). no D grades here

Deeeamn :/

Ours is A= 92-100, B=91- 83, C= 82- 74, 73-65= D and Below= F

 

[shortnsweet]

Glasgow goes by the UK system....and let me tell you seeing your first 50 is terrifying, until you realize it is a pass.

A(A1 is the highest, A5 is the lowest)= 70 + (But it is extremely hard to get above 80, ever)
B(B1-B3)=60-70
C(C1-C3)=55-60
D(D1-D3)=50-55

Anything below 50 is a fail. Anything below 40....ie F1 and under is super fail.

 

[elefante7]

I'm pretty sure all my classes have been based on percents with no curve. One of my classes this semester is being taught by a new professor who said he doesn't plan to curve, but if our scores reflect that he expected too much of us/wrote too hard an exam, he'd shift the percentages down a little. But in general, this is the rough breakdown for all the classes:
A = 93-100; AB = 89-92.9; B = 82-88.9; BC = 78-81.9; etc.

I'll second what variegata said for Wisconsin and say that occasionally classes have curves but generally they are in place if the class "needs" them (if the average is too low). I'm pretty sure that hasn't happened to our class yet...

 

[dvmsara]

SGU is based on percentages with no curve. our break down is 90-100 = A, 85-89 = B+, 80-85 = B, 75-79 = C+, 70-74 = C, below 70 is failing (F). no D grades here

Love the lack of minuses!

Iowa State is generally
97-100 =A+ (obviously pretty much no one ever gets this)
93-96.9 = A
90-92.9 = A-
and likewise for the other letters. It's not standard, though, so I think in some classes you need a 94 for an A and others go on the straight 10-point system with no pluses or minuses. Curves are used, when necessary, but none of the teachers ever curves down (i.e. if everyone got an A on a test, they would get to keep it). Usually it's the individual tests that are curved, but some teachers wait till all the grades are in, then curve. If you have a GPA below a 2.0 (C) in any semester, you are put on academic probation and must improve your grades the next semester. If you get an F in any class, you are kicked out entirely (though you can appeal the F and you may be able to write a term paper or take another test to prevent yourself failing out).

EDIT: Also, on rotations, if you get a D, you have to repeat it. If you get an F, you're out (again, you can appeal it). We did have one student fail out in 4th year, who is now trying to get back in--I can't imagine how much that would suck.

 

[jmo1012]

Love the lack of minuses!

Me too! I also didnt realize how generous the + grades are until i looked it up last night. A lot of people are really stressed about the lack of Ds though. Especially because most of exams are only 20 or 30 questions so you really can't afford to miss more than a few.

 

[alabastertree]

Thanks everyone. It sounds like the grading scales vary, which I was expecting. So nobody's grades are scaled based on how the rest of the class performs? I've managed to get into a class of overachievers, which means that if 10 people make above a 90, the 'B' grade starts at whatever the 6th lowest grade was... not exactly sure how fair this is, because we end up completing against each other for grades.

 

[Braki]

That's pretty rough that they make you compete against each other. Here, it's all percentage, with no curve. No letter grades, just a straight-up % mark on your transcript. Sometimes, if they make an exam too hard or too long and a lot of people don't finish, they will adjust the grades up. Typically they aim for a 70% average.

 

[Minnerbelle]

So nobody's grades are scaled based on how the rest of the class performs?

At CSU, that's pretty much the ONLY way you get evaluated on your official record, since there is one number on your transcript... and that is your class rank.

Passing is 70%, and 65-70% is unsatisfactory (technically a fail but you can remediate upto 10 credits of it). Anything below, you get the boot.

So as long as you pass all your classes, you're in good academic standing. You get no grades. Instead, you are a given your class rank so basically... how you perform compared to your class. If you're someone who doesn't care about grades, then it's fabulous. All you have to do is pass. If you're someone who cares (or believes you need to care for residencies/internships), it would suck balls.

 

[katryn]

At CSU, that's pretty much the ONLY way you get evaluated on your official record, since there is one number on your transcript... and that is your class rank.

Passing is 70%, and 65-70% is unsatisfactory (technically a fail but you can remediate upto 10 credits of it). Anything below, you get the boot.

So as long as you pass all your classes, you're in good academic standing. You get no grades. Instead, you are a given your class rank so basically... how you perform compared to your class. If you're someone who doesn't care about grades, then it's fabulous. All you have to do is pass. If you're someone who cares (or believes you need to care for residencies/internships), it would suck balls.

So jealous. At this stage in my life I'm really over the letter grade system...but, I'm uptight enough that I feel as though I didn't do well if I don't get an A. I have to keep reminding myself that anything involving a C or better will earn me a diploma. It almost makes me wish I could request that my professors just tell me if I passed or failed, so I can stop stressing over it.

UT does a standard grading system (10 points for each letter grade) with curves being left up to the individual professors. Although if I'm not mistaken it's somewhere in the UT policy that the grade average for any given class must be 80%. At some point the college got tired of old fart undergrad professors taking out frustrations by failing the majority of a class.

 

[laurafinn]

Massey is sort of similar to the UK. Anything below 50% = fail (D or F, which meant basically the same thing). Anything above 50% is curved: they never made it known exactly how, but my impression was that the members of the class who passed were roughly divided in thirds, with the top third A's, middle third B's, lower third C's. Or maybe it was middle 50% got B's, and the tail ends of the bell curve got A's and C's. There were A+'s, A-'s, B+'s, etc, so there was a spectrum.

It sounds cushy, except that the grading is different from the US. You basically start with 0 points and earn every single point. Mostly essay exams. Earning over 85% was pretty extraordinary.

A fair number of people failed courses. You then get a chance to study all summer and take a remedial exam at the end. If you pass, you can continue on to the next year. There was some arcane rule about how many D's vs F's you could get and still be eligible to take the remedial exams; otherwise, you would have to repeat an entire year. One or two people each year drop back, a ton take remedial exams (they administered 75 remedial exams -- for the 400 people at my school -- the last year I was there) .

 

[Minnerbelle]

It almost makes me wish I could request that my professors just tell me if I passed or failed, so I can stop stressing over it.

Wait, do you guys actually get a report card that you have to look at?

(We actually got graded exams back, and saw the overall percentage we got in the class at the end. It just didn't get converted to a letter grade or permanently recorded).

 

[katryn]

Wait, do you guys actually get a report card that you have to look at?

(We actually got graded exams back, and saw the overall percentage we got in the class at the end. It just didn't get converted to a letter grade or permanently recorded).

Technically, we don't have to look at it, but yes, when they post final grades for the semester they are posted by letter grade, which is based on your percentage grade in the class. The vet school transcripts are just like you get in undergrad-letter grade, credit hours for the course, GPA. I think you have to got to the admin office and request to see your class rank if you want to know what it is, they don't just tell you automatically.

 

[dyachei]

Technically, we don't have to look at it, but yes, when they post final grades for the semester they are posted by letter grade, which is based on your percentage grade in the class. The vet school transcripts are just like you get in undergrad-letter grade, credit hours for the course, GPA. I think you have to got to the admin office and request to see your class rank if you want to know what it is, they don't just tell you automatically.

And for clinics, you have to look at your grade per rotation for whatever reason

 

[katryn]

And for clinics, you have to look at your grade per rotation for whatever reason

Oh, fun to look forward to.... I really would love a pass/fail system. Grades just make me cry.

 

[dyachei]

Oh, fun to look forward to.... I really would love a pass/fail system. Grades just make me cry.

Yeah - I agree. Much better to just do pass/fail. Especially for rotations.

 

[anjabryn]

At Ross USVM anything below a 70% is failing. There is no curving either.
If you get below a 70% on one test then you must repeat the whole semester or just that class but cannot move forward until you have retaken the
class with a Passing grade.
If you fail more than 3 classes you get kicked out.

 

[deleted387118]

At KSU it changes year to year. First year was on the 10's, this year 74+ is a C, 83 + is a B, 90+ is an A. From my understanding, it goes back to on the 10's next year.

And our first year had curves, typically curved test by test but they were not very large. Often it had more to do with if everyone missed a certain question rather than just everyone did poorly.

 

[RadRadTerp]

And our first year had curves, typically curved test by test but they were not very large. Often it had more to do with if everyone missed a certain question rather than just everyone did poorly.

This makes sense. Curving shouldn't be necessary if a test is well-written and you have a good bell-shaped distribution of scores. If too many people are doing poorly, you either have a uniformly "dumb" class or the course/testing is not evaluating the class correctly.

Conversely, too many people doing well means the exam was too easy or you admitted a large percentage of geniuses. I prefer to believe in the latter when that happens 😀.

 

[katryn]

And our first year had curves, typically curved test by test but they were not very large. Often it had more to do with if everyone missed a certain question rather than just everyone did poorly.

I don't think I mentioned it earlier, but this is also the case at UT for the most part. The only major exception to be noted is Bacteriology during first year, in which my mid-70's grade equaled an 89.5 final grade..... But the professor who teaches it is an absolute genius, and I don't think he can help writing questions that only he understands.

 

[Pelagia]

So jealous. At this stage in my life I'm really over the letter grade system...but, I'm uptight enough that I feel as though I didn't do well if I don't get an A. I have to keep reminding myself that anything involving a C or better will earn me a diploma. It almost makes me wish I could request that my professors just tell me if I passed or failed, so I can stop stressing over it.

I seriously feel you on this one. I try really hard to base how I feel about a class on how well I feel I understand the material and the overall big concepts, but it still sucks when you feel like your grade, if it's not an A, doesn't reflect how well you feel you understand the material, especially since at this pre-clinical stage, we have nothing else to "show" for ourselves or our understandings. Grades, classmates worrying about grades, me wishing I didn't have to think about grades...that's what's been the biggest stressor for me so far in vet school.

 

[GellaBella]

Here we have no '+' or '-' to our grades.

so 90.0-100 = A
80.0-89.9 = B
70.0-79.9 = C

anything below a 70 is an F

no curves EXCEPT in anatomy there was a 3 point curve. Otherwise, the grade you get is the grade you receive. No rounding up either. It really stings to get an 89.8 as your final grade in a course and end up with a B.

 

[TrocarKarin]

We don't do +/- here, and most of our classes are either on the "normal" 10 point system (90=A, 80=B etc.) or credit/no credit.

The one exception is our 16 credit hour basic sciences course. In it, 70-74.9=C, 75-79.9 = 8 credits of C, and 8 of B, 80-84.9 = B, 85-89.9 = 8 credits of B and 8 of A, and anything over 100 = A.

 

[Coquette22]

We're on straight percentage grades at AVC. No curves, and as Braki says, they say the averages are usually around 70%-75%.

We have to get a 50% to pass any one course, with an overall weighted average of 65% to stay off academic probation. If you fall below 65%, you get up to two semesters to get a 65% and if you don't, it's grounds for dismissal.

 

[RadRadTerp]

The only time I've been happy about a "+" is when I've ended with an 89 and got 3.3 pts instead of just the 3.0 weight to my GPA, but it sucks when an A- doesn't start until 91.0 and you got a 90.5 in a class. Having to get >94 for the "real" A kind of blows.