Grades, Tests, and Curves - Page 2

Hidden_MotiveS

Canada2562 Posts

February 21 2012 04:10 GMT

#21

67 was the average at my Uni first year. I know what it's like to pass with no knowledge hovering at 50% way too well. I think employers know how to use grades, they think that they don't really show understanding of a course but rather that a student is hard worker and can study, and go to lectures to get good grades.

Endymion

United States3701 Posts

February 21 2012 04:13 GMT

#22

I once had a professor who averaged his final around a 35% , which ended up being a C.. most stressful thing ever, the exam was like 250 multiple choice questions for 2 hours on macroeconomics, the class was a bit more than pissed..

in regards to prereqs, most of my classes require (pass class X with at least an 87% then come to class Z)

babylon

8765 Posts

February 21 2012 05:04 GMT

#23

On February 21 2012 13:13 Endymion wrote:
I once had a professor who averaged his final around a 35% , which ended up being a C.. most stressful thing ever, the exam was like 250 multiple choice questions for 2 hours on macroeconomics, the class was a bit more than pissed.

My stat professor gave a horrendously easy midterm. Everyone did well, so he was all like, "Final's going to be more difficult."

Final comes around. I figure, hey, it can't be all that difficult. It's fucking statistics. How difficult can statistics be?

Famous last words. Class average on the final exam was a 33%.

starplayer35

United States40 Posts

February 21 2012 06:21 GMT

#24

this is so weird

Itsmedudeman

United States19229 Posts

February 21 2012 06:29 GMT

#25

Not necessarily true. If you get 50% on a test, that doesn't necessarily mean you know half the course requirements. Sometimes tests are made more difficult than other course material, and sometimes knowing just enough is good enough for the next course you'll be taking. You don't need to know everything down to the exact definition for prerequisites, that's just silly. A lot of things just straight up never show up ever again, and from my experience it's just a few theories here and there in which they'll go over anyway.

OpticalShot

Canada6330 Posts

February 21 2012 14:39 GMT

#26

Curving can be done per-lecture/tutorial-group basis, as well. Sometimes a TA marks too harshly compared to the rest of the TA's for the same course, so a certain group of students suffer. To amend for this, each lecture/tutorial group is curved to a similar average (usually about 65-75). I agree with this system - it's not perfect, but it's probably a quick and easy way to deal with it. It's entirely possible to end up in a tutorial group with a bunch of geniuses and never get curved up, but... well, life isn't fair and then you die.

I don't mind 60% as a passing grade (70% in grad schools, by the way). It's not indicative of how much course material you understood. I passed quantum mechanics with a 70%+ and I don't know/remember a thing about that subject now (well I probably understood a thing or two when I took the course, but much much less than 70%). On the other hand, I thought I knew everything about the first-year linear algebra course but I didn't get 100% as the final score. Again, this system is not perfect but it's good enough. Besides the score, students can get a good idea of which subjects they understand the best and probably direct future studies + career accordingly.

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