sublime12089 wrote:
Btw, does the grading seem as bad as it seems? I have heard a few people, like you seem to be doing, complaining about the lack of uniformity between professors.
It's a minor complaint - a first world problem. With only one semester of grades, when one section gives out lots of 100's and 99's, and other sections have two classes top out at ~96/97 and the other at 98, it's kind of hard to compete, even if you had CALI'ed two classes also. Another semester of grades will balance that out more. Anyone for whom it really matters will do fine, anyways. (The only case where I can imagine it actually mattering is if someone wanted to transfer to Yale, and they were ~3-5 in the class instead of 1-2 because of professors). I heard that one year, someone gave out 4 100's to a 1L class, which is bonkers.
The median vs a forced curve gives professors some latitude to do stupid things. Even worse, the median is between 86.5 and 87.5 - so while most professors just grade to 87.5 like any reasonable person would, some (probably out of ignorance, not malice) grade to a lower mark. Some professors don't realize that they don't have to use the standard deviation of 5 that the registrar sets as a default. (It's my understanding that the program they use has them put in a median and a standard deviation, and puts things in order. I could be wrong.) I'd be a lot happier if they were all forced to - instead, we get people like Dinner messing stuff up.
