College grading scales - what are you seeing

[Miss Marple]

I'm just curious about the grading scales your students are seeing? Apparently the majority of classes that my son is taking use the class average to be a grade of "B".

 

Back in my college days the class average gave us a "C".

 

Some of his professors claim to not give a final curve and use the usual 90-100 A, 80-89 B, etc., but they curve each individual test in order to achieve the bell curve. As an example, his last physics test had a 40% curve!:confused: so the bell curve is maintained around the 75-80% mark.

 

Things just seem different from the "olden days" when I was in college. What are you all experiencing?

[Ravin]

I just graduated in 2006. ASU was transitioning to a +/- grading system. Every other professor seemed to have their own curve. Often they put whether to use the +/- grades to a class vote.

[JFSinIL]

When i went to NU most kids got A's. (Grad. school) BUT - I would expect, given the type of kid at NU, that A's would be the norm for that population! Bell curves might be good in a regular public school or State U - but in more selective private and U of State systems which accept the best high school kids the bell curve is silly, in my opinion. The population is already "the best of the best" and if a student does A work she/he should get a A.

[Gwen in VA]

I totally agree that kids are receiving a lot more "A's" than in my day. My kids know more than a few public school kids who have straight A averages!!!!! In contrast, the valedictorian in my high school graduating class had a 3.4 -- and several kids (obviously with lower GPA's) from the high school went to Ivies and MIT!

 

The ONLY exception to the generous grading scale that my kids have bumped into in college is organic chemistry. In dd's class, EACH SEMESTER 10% of the organic class FAILS!!!!! And the class was really graded on a bell-shaped curve, with the average grade being a C+. The class scores were put on a curve, so even if you had all low-90's, if enough kids had grades higher than yours, you could end up with a B !!!!! This college sends LOTS of kids to med school, and dd was one of two kids (out of 40+) in the organic class not intending to go to med school. The prof said the strict grading scale helped kids figure out if they would make it in med school.

 

I have heard that at Harvard more than half of students are graduating with some kind of honors!

 

If everybody gets A's, how do you figure out who should receive certain scholarships and awards? (Random question)

[Susan in IL]

Most of ds's classes are based strictly on points. At the beginning of the semester, they are given how many points are for what - like 4 exams of 200 points each, 10 quizzes for 10 points each, paper 200 points, etc. There is also a scale of how many points is an A, B, C, etc. No curve, you get what you get in points, period. Maybe they know from years of experience how to make the points a bell curve.