What's ur class average...

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Bernoull

Bernoull

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I had my 1st biochem exam and the class avg was 92% 😱😱😱😱!!! Absolutely insane!!

i guess from here on out, average can never have pejorative connotations :laugh:..

Also for those further long (M2s n up), it 92% representative of the general class avg across the different class, roughly speaking (i know it's gonna vary..)
 
I was going to start a thread about this. We've had two exams so far and both averages were pretty low, I think. One was a 70% even and another was a 67%. Passing is 70% so when the average is that low, it scares me. I got a 71% on the first one and a 69% on the second. Ick.

I wish our average was in the 90's. I may sometimes score below the average, but at least I wouldn't worry about failing (if I keep up with the material and prepare to the best of my ability) with an average that high.
 
they will vary depending on subject and the teacher who is writing the test. 92% average means it was an easy test. Our were between 72-92, with most falling right in between
 
Yeah I would say that 92 indicates an easy exam. For most of first year, our average ranged anywhere from low to mid 80s, with a couple in the high 80s. There may have been one or two particularly easy exams that were over 90, but not most.

We just got back our first two exams of second year, and the average was an 89 for Cardio and an 87 for Heme/Onc. But like everyone said, there is variation.
 
I agree that the test was easy and I'm relieved that the normal avgs are generally in the 80s range, that's more realistic..

I gotta say though, med school's quite humbling and recalibration of expectations is generally in order...👍
 
Bernoull said:
I gotta say though, med school's quite humbling and recalibration of expectations is generally in order...👍
Click to expand...
Another way of looking at it is that it's kind of cool to be surrounded by so many other people on your same intellectual level in class for probably the first time ever 🙂
 
Averages at my school are normally in the mid to low 80's. You must get 70 or above to pass.
 
These averages really depress me. My school's averages hover at the failing level so far.
 
Most of our profs try to keep it in the 82-85 average range with the vast majority being around that average and only the superb or unfortunate falling out of it. When it gets in the 78%ish range, they show some worry and may look at questions to see if some were consistently missed. Once in a while they may give us a few fluff questions on the next exam to make up for it. We had one prof that consistently put the same question on the exam until everybody got it right. It was surprising that it took 3 exams (3 months) to learn the concept.
 
Bernoull said:
I had my 1st biochem exam and the class avg was 92% 😱😱😱😱!!! Absolutely insane!!

i guess from here on out, average can never have pejorative connotations :laugh:..

Also for those further long (M2s n up), it 92% representative of the general class avg across the different class, roughly speaking (i know it's gonna vary..)
Click to expand...

1st year exams (always completely integrated) usually ranged from mid 70's to low 80's.

2nd year Path was low 70's to low 80's. Pharm and Micro usually mid 80's to low 90's. Pathophys low to high 70's

At my school the in-class exams are difficult and the shelf exams usually raise grades

No curve and questions were only thrown out if there was a clear mistake with proof.
 
Since the class average on the first test was so high, be really careful on the second test. Your professor will likely make it a very hard test in order to even out the averages... I heard about this happening to a friend recently.
 
Whoa, I didn't know med-schools used the "normal/highschool" grading schemes.

After 4 years of engineering where a 45% could be an F or an A+ depending on how the class did as a whole it will be weird to know that I need to make a 85 or whatever.
 
Totally depends on the class for us.

For the biochem block, passing was a 75 and averages were in the mid-upper 80s.
For anatomy, passing was a 65 and averages were in the 70s for most exams with a couple in the 60s.
For micro, passing was a 75 and averages were in the upper 80s-lower 90s.

Now for my path class, I hear averages tend to be in the upper 80s again, but I have the first exam in 36 hours or so and it's hard to believe that I could learn even 50% of this information. Sigh.
 
Ours are usually low to mid 80's- the grading scheme is the same in every block. I think the lowest average I can remember was around a 79 and highest an 89 (not counting clinical course exams).

70-75 marginal pass
75-87 pass
87-91 high pass
91+ honors
 
92 is insane, our psychiatry tests were up near there, and that's it. Biochem was our weed-out class and we had a class average of 68% on one of them, with the highest grade being a 90. So yes, that was an easy test. For your standard ABCDF medical school, I'd say that the average should be 86-88, to give that 30-60-10 distribution that seems to be pretty typical.
 
the first test of ms2, our average was an 87. i thought that was pretty high, and i didnt find the test particularly easy. bleh!
 
Our first quiz was 82.5 average. Maybe 83.

Our first exam, average was about a 79, I think. They ended up throwing out like 6 questions, so that raised it a little, but there was still a sizable portion of the class that failed.
 
So far for Biochemistry our first test average was an 86. Our second test avg. was an 83. Nothing out of the ordinary
 
Our first anatomy exam had an 81 average.
 
LRAccord624 said:
Since the class average on the first test was so high, be really careful on the second test. Your professor will likely make it a very hard test in order to even out the averages... I heard about this happening to a friend recently.
Click to expand...

i think our school does this too.
 
My school is pass/fail with passing being 60%.

Our first anatomy test average was a 73.27, the median was 75.10, and the range was 33.98-94.27. The administration said that's about normal for an anatomy test.

It was great though. They brought in a lady the morning after the test to teach us "cognitive restructuring." As an example of a negative event, she said "imagine you get your anatomy test back and it's a 65%; how do you feel?" The whole class stared blankly at her and then looked around yelling "Yay! I passed! I'm going to be a doctor!" She got flustered and said "Well, what if you then found out the average was 75%?" We all paused and then started yelling "Yay! I'll see them in the hospital cafeteria with my white coat on in 4 years!"
 
Does anyone else feel like there is a much steeper study curve between B and A than between C and B?

I mean, I can get a B if I either half-ass it or hard core study. But to get an A requires some kind of super human feat that just escapes me.

If only I could get that radioactive spider to bite me...
 
Most tests run in the low 80's, although some have been as low as 70-71. Passing is 70.
 
Our MS1's average an 83.. MS2 averages 83-85.
 
seelee said:
Does anyone else feel like there is a much steeper study curve between B and A than between C and B?

I mean, I can get a B if I either half-ass it or hard core study. But to get an A requires some kind of super human feat that just escapes me.

If only I could get that radioactive spider to bite me...
Click to expand...

Yeah, that seems pretty accurate. B's seem possible if you get a good grasp of the material. A's seem pretty difficult to get to, though a few people in our class still seem to be managing them just fine. I realized after the first quiz that I was perfectly happy being a B student if it meant that I could understand the material and still have a life outside of school.
 
OP, I think a 92 is definitely high. I mean for the most part, I think schools try and make the exams hard enough that they can get a good spread throughout the class -- which helps them when it comes time to rank people.

UAB doesn't do P/HP/Honors or whatever -- just P/F and then class rank. That said, the average on our first exam was a 71.9, and passing is a 70 -- they "soft failed" (between 64-70) 36 students and "hard failed" 20 out of a class of 175, which was impressive. That said, they've been changing the tests around this year (our questions are meant to mimic board-style questions), so my guess is that they'll end up curving things -- I don't *think* they'll let 1/3 of the class fail.

Next test is tomorrow (aka I should be studying), so maybe that one will be different. It's definitely kicking my arse, ha!
 
Thanks all for the responses...

First anatomy exam and the mean, 85%, was more in line with most of the above posts..

The 92% for biochem was definitely a one-off, i'm sure future tests will be much less generous, one of the professors (who'll be lecturing very soon) has a well-earned reputation for being hellish...😱😡
 
sanityonleave said:
OP, I think a 92 is definitely high. I mean for the most part, I think schools try and make the exams hard enough that they can get a good spread throughout the class -- which helps them when it comes time to rank people.

UAB doesn't do P/HP/Honors or whatever -- just P/F and then class rank. That said, the average on our first exam was a 71.9, and passing is a 70 -- they "soft failed" (between 64-70) 36 students and "hard failed" 20 out of a class of 175, which was impressive. That said, they've been changing the tests around this year (our questions are meant to mimic board-style questions), so my guess is that they'll end up curving things -- I don't *think* they'll let 1/3 of the class fail.

Next test is tomorrow (aka I should be studying), so maybe that one will be different. It's definitely kicking my arse, ha!
Click to expand...

That's the same at my school too. They do board-style questions and a lot of people fail. The mean on the last exam was 71% with 70% being passing. Average was 70% even. They have to curve because they don't want to fail close to half the class.

Curve or not, that sucks for me because when an exam is that hard, I really blow it. I'm passing with a curve, but I'm only getting C's. We only had one "easy" exam since I've been here (I'm a second year) and I aced that one, scoring 10 points above the average. But when there's difficulty, I'm always, always below average.
 
Parietal Lobe said:
That's the same at my school too. They do board-style questions and a lot of people fail. The mean on the last exam was 71% with 70% being passing. Average was 70% even. They have to curve because they don't want to fail close to half the class.

Curve or not, that sucks for me because when an exam is that hard, I really blow it. I'm passing with a curve, but I'm only getting C's. We only had one "easy" exam since I've been here (I'm a second year) and I aced that one, scoring 10 points above the average. But when there's difficulty, I'm always, always below average.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my school's second year is known to be killer, but I didn't know how bad it would be until our first path exam. The average on the exam was 70%, and an outstanding (honors) grade could be obtained at 79%. At the original pass rate (73%), 57% of the class would have failed, and even when they brought the pass rate down 2 points, 48% of the class (including myself) still failed.

We only have one final exam left in general path, and you would think they wouldn't want to fail half the class, but who knows. Fortunately, path is paired with Microbio, which is my forte, so it's unlikely I'll fail outright, but it's still kinda sad.

I'm finding grading in med school, and the way some exams are written, to be goofy to say the least. I'm the kind of person who really focuses on learning stuff for my own sake to perform as a physician, and secondarily to study for the boards. Studying for exams is way down on my list, as long as I still pass.
 
I like the way my school does things, where passing and honors are determined by the performance of the class.

Honors is greater than 1 standard deviation above the mean.

Failing is less than 2 standard deviations below the mean or <70%, whichever is lower.

So far, averages have been around 80% with SD around 10%, so honors has been 90% and failing 60%
 
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