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Been Screwed by the University Grading System? Yeah, Me too.

Posted by AHor 02/21/2008 4:00 PM

Tags: drop or hang tough, half the class is flunking, no curves

Been Screwed by the University Grading System? Yeah, Me too.

Midterms suck. This should come as no surprise to anyone. However, certain grading systems in University of Michigan classes make the situation a hell of a lot worse. I’m writing this under the inspiration of a sociology class’ midterm score with an average of 65%. No curve, no mercy, and a straight scale (90=A- 80=B-, etc.) There were 7 scores out of 205 that exceeded 90, none over 94. This is much like a biology class last year where the first test average was a 62%. At least with biology you know they’re trying to clean out the Pre-med wannabes and have three other exams to let you catch up with, but a sociology class!?

When did “don’t worry, it’s only 25% of your grade” become a phrase of consolation? In both of these classes the teacher claimed that they take all the scores together at the end of the term and if there’s still disparity they may nudge a slight curve. Of course by that point all of the people who failed the test drop the class and the average magically rises, leaving those who stay screwed and curve-less. Graduate schools looking at your transcript can’t see that your B- was actually among the top 10% of your particular class. Is there some universal balance because there may be some classes that give A’s to 60% of students?

The current system at hand has students looking for classes with easy A’s rather than classes in which they might actually learn something. The system is flawed and needs to be changed. Until then, let me know some easy A classes for next year because I’m tired of this bullshit.

Comments

Anonymous says,

get in the b-school. electives are 80% As and Bs. Booyah! Posted 02/21/2008 4:21 PMReply

Mr. Stay Puft says,

A lot of things at this University are ****ed up...the administration blows Posted 02/21/2008 4:48 PMReply

Paul Tassi says,

yeah I could write a book about how bullshit the grading policies here are.

Chapter 1: All classes should be curved.
Chapter 2: Setting the class average at a B- is a 2.7
Chapter 3: The curve should always help you. An 94 is never a B+
Chapter 4: Adopting the B-school grade inflation curve would make all our lives better. Until then, I hate them. Posted 02/21/2008 5:53 PMReply

GSI4hire says,

Well, I can't speak for other disciplines, but I know in most Econ classes, the professors apply the curve to anyone who took the first midterm. So if you completely **** up then drop, you're still in the mandatory bottom 10% or whatever that's in the "D/E" group. Plus it's so rare for a student to get over 90% of the points, that the other issue isn't a problem, either. The idea of curve isn't as bad as you think.

But that just goes to show you there is little to no uniformity between disciplines which is a problem in it's own right. And you undergrads don't even know the half of it. There's so many subtle ways this school is screwing with your education. Posted 02/21/2008 8:21 PMReply

Anonymous says,

been there, done that. Straight scales sucks.

Sometimes curved grades works against you if you're in a class full of really really smart people. I got 75% which would have been a B or B+ in any class but I ended up getting a C+ cuz the average is insanely high. Posted 02/21/2008 9:11 PMReply

Anonymous says,

I agree 100%. When a Biochem, and Genetics exam average are 60% there's something wrong with the system. I've been putting up with this school's short comings and lack of concern for the students for far too long. This school blows, and we have been dropping in the national rankings for the past decade. **** mary sue. Posted 02/22/2008 1:11 PMReply

Anonymous says,

"Is there some universal balance because there may be some classes that give A�s to 60% of students?" A lot of honors classes are actually fairly easy to get high grades in. It's a shit ton of work but they reward you for it.... in the honors chemistry class I'm in, almost every year over half of the class gets A's. Posted 02/22/2008 1:30 PMReply

Anonymous says,

I'm a prospective student who was recently accepted in to the UM a couple months ago. Is the grading system really that bad? Posted 02/23/2008 3:13 PMReply

Anonymous says,

Yep. Read above. Beware the intro 101 classes. Easy- if you take them seriously. Good Luck freshmeat! Posted 02/23/2008 4:11 PMReply

Anonymous says,

Would you recommend going into the b-school just so you can get A's? Posted 02/23/2008 4:20 PMReply

Anonymous says,

IF you like business. Don't do it just for the possibility of As. They make BANK with their internships though... 15k+ for a summer??? You'll work ur butt off though. Posted 02/23/2008 5:20 PMReply

Anonymous says,

Freshmen... don't be afraid of what these people are talking about. College everywhere is more difficult at high school, and what do you expect from such a prestigious university. Go Blue! Posted 02/23/2008 9:39 PMReply

Anonymous says,

Only apply to the B-school if your life ambition is to be the manager of a Nordstrom's... Posted 02/23/2008 10:24 PMReply

Anonymous says,

b-school curve is great, but remember - you're applying for all of your internships, jobs against other b-school kids with inflated GPAs. So getting a 3.5 means your average, and no where near amazing. Posted 02/24/2008 3:03 PMReply

Anonymous says,

I'm by no means defending the current grading system of the University of Michigan, but I would like to point out the argument that grades in the business school are easier is asinine. Yes electives have a curve of 80% As and Bs (20% Cs or below), but the fact that we all had to have 3.7+ GPAs to get in to the business school in the first place means that instead of all of us getting As or A minuses against the rest of the LS&A student body, more than half of us are getting below that mark now that we are in the business school competing against tougher students (yes I know this argument is very arrogant). My only point is that while it might seem like an easy "A" once you are in the business school, we were getting As in all the classes that you failed to get an A in, and if you were competing only against the upper 10% of your original LS&A class, you would probably be in that 20% of Cs and below. Posted 02/28/2008 9:39 PMReply

Anonymous says,

You're assuming the entire LS&A student body wants to be in the b-school, while in fact this only applies to interested applicants from the LS&A pool, which is by no means correlative with the rest. Your statement is arrogant in the sense that you put the b-school students above everyone else, ignoring that there are many high-achieving students in LS&A who are not interested in applying to the b-school. Science majors continually take classes with a B-/C+ average throughout their entire academic career, and pre-med students are expected to score in the A range for all of these classes in order to be competitive applicants to medical school. It's a very difficult and straining process, and at least with the b-school you can put a lot of time into a course and receive a decent grade, while in a science course you might only receive a solid B at best and feel significantly worse about your situation. Basically, it's nice that you got into the b-school, but don't try to justify your acceptance by saying you're smarter or that you work harder than everyone else in LS&A.

In a nut shell, you can't compare grades across disciplines or in situations like that, because an A in one major could be a C in another. It would be too difficult to make the grading system more equally distributed across disciplines, so we might as well all agree that it sucks and leave it alone. Posted 02/29/2008 10:35 AMReply

Anonymous says,

You do have a point there, I guess I wrote that post when I was a bit too frustrated. I didn't mean to imply that b-school kids are better or smarter than everybody else (I can certainly understand the rigors of pre-med, and doubt I would be able to hack it as a doctor). What I DID mean to say, however, is that I'm pretty darn tired of hearing what a joke the b-school is or how we get spoonfed A's in joke classes. We're a top-tier b-school for a reason, and b-school in general isnt the joke that it used to be during our parents' generation. It'd be nice to get even a small amount of recognition from other students that we busted our butts off to get into the b-school in the first place like other difficult majors receive. Instead, and not just on this particular post but in conversations in general, when people complain about a hard class or bad grades other kids always seem to say "just go b-school!" as if the kids in the b-school are just skating by and only signed up for easy grades in the first place. It's a lot harder than people assume, and while it might not be the very hardest major, it is harder than the majority of majors and deserves more respect within the school than it gets (other than by b-school kids themselves or by b-school administrators).

My freshman year I literally had one of the honors advisors look at my grades and say "Hey, you're really bright! Why on earth would you do the b-school when you can succeed in honors!" Needless to say I never talked to that advisor again, but its this kind of attitude from the vast majority of LS&A kids (not just the pre-meds or the hardcore science majors, I'm talking English majors and Psych majors) that has me upset with the current perception of the b-school. Posted 03/02/2008 12:06 AMReply

Anonymous says,

word. Posted 03/03/2008 1:53 PMReply

Anonymous says,

Any other opinions? Posted 03/03/2008 3:09 PMReply

Anonymous says,

I'm 02/29/2008 10:35 AM EST. From personal experience, I think the majority of the Honors advisors do not actually provide any sound advice. They really just try to get you to conform to their ideals and expectations.

I think most of the hostility toward the b-school kids is due to the massive amount of free stuff and food that you get and the nicer facilities. Compared to the b-school, the MLB and Nat Sci are like prison. But back to the point... At least from my standpoint, I'm well aware of how difficult it is to get into the b-school and of their high standards. A great amount of my friends are in the b-school, too, and they are all incredibly motivated and bright. That being said, LSA kids are smart, too. You're going to find bad apples in both schools who talk smack, and from my experience, the ones who talk the most smack are the ones who really don't have a reason to. Anyway, U of M does a fine job of belittling us as is, so instead of everyone complaining about how easy another major is, we should just drop it because it's getting old. Posted 03/03/2008 3:56 PMReply