preMEDguy312

So the college recommends that people who don't plan on taking any higher math courses take Math 115 instead of Math 114. But can graduate schools really tell the difference between these two?

And on Penn Course Review, Math 115's course difficulty rating is substantially lower than that of Math 114. Is this just because the students in Math 115 are simply better at math?

And who determines the difficulty rating of each class? Is it an average of student surveys? Or does some committee discuss this somehow?

preMEDguy312

And if one course (different sections) is taught by two different professors, are the same exact tests used? I'm assuming different sections have separate curves. So do the curves used in each class generally have the same ratios of A's, B's, etc?

tenebrousfire

math 114 covers more advanced calc stuff that math 115 doesn't, since 115 covers probability stuff too (which is easier)

difficulty ratings come from the student surveys distributed at the end of each semester in each class, which is why you see a response rate listed (x/y)

depending on the class / cooperation between professors, who would usually use the same textbook, the curves may be done together if common exams are given (and therefore the grade ratios may vary between sections)

crashingwaves

In most of the intro math classes, the curve is determined across all sections by the common final as the only measure. If thirteen students in section A score a B on the final, then the instructor is allowed to give out the same number of Bs to his students in his section.

PhatAlbert

How many times has this been asked now?

Pommy

114 and 115 cover different topics.