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Hello,

I am a 1L and as exams have begun, I have just started to wonder how the curve will play out and how its impact will be on such a small class. My school had a total incoming class of 75 students, which then they broke down into 5 smaller sections of 15 students each, I honestly do not understand why they did this, I guess just teacher plans, etc. Anyways, how does the curve rank with such small sections? We are on a B+, and I know how the curve works with say a 50-60 person class, but I have 3 classes with just my section of 15 students. A lot of teachers have said that they usually are allowed more discretion and do not necessarily have to follow the curve to a T, or can bump you up a half grade if you showed great participation, etc, with such small numbers, is that true? You may not be able to help or provide much advice, just something I did not know anything about. Thanks

I think you answered your own question. If your teachers say they have discretion, then they do. Nothing you can do about it. But even if the class was a curved, I don't see how the distribution would differ meaningfully from the larger section.

Yeah, I guess that's really the only way to look at it. My main point was just with a bigger class you have so many As, A-s, B+s, etc. But with a larger class you naturally have that curve, what if with a smaller class you had students that had same quality work, would you necessarily have to give one of them a C? I think that is a question I should ask my professors, one of those how many licks to the center of a tootsie pop, lol. Thank you though.

at my school, professors with a heart split the grades into half b+ and half a-. That fits in perfectly with our seminar curve. Yeah, for the most part, if the professor wants to give someone an A, someone will have to take that B. Or, I guess, since I dont know the exact breakdown, he could just give something like 6 B+ 4A- and 1 A, I guess. But you get the idea. At my school, seminar professors have discretion to curve anywhere from B to 3.5. Dont want to know what a 3.0 curve would look like at a B+ school.