Are classes curved?

stylar · 10-15-2009, 12:27 AM

Which ones?

Are BUAD-304 or WRIT-140?

jbusc · 10-15-2009, 01:13 AM

writ-140 is not curved in either sense. dunno about buad.

cc411 · 10-15-2009, 01:47 AM

Business classes no longer have a mandatory curve.
**No More Curve At USC Marshall**

akalboy · 10-15-2009, 02:51 AM

Writ-140 is not curved. Though there is no MANDATORY curve in Marshall, many of the professors still follow it and will tell you so at the beginning of the semester.

josebiwasabi · 10-15-2009, 03:23 AM

writ140 is not officially curved but in general out of a class of ~15 students probably only 3 or 4 students will end up with an A. that being said the worst grade you'll probably get will be a B, assuming you put some effort into your essays.

stylar · 10-16-2009, 05:57 PM

Does the participation/effort/small assignments count a decent amount in bumping up the grade then?

I've gotten a B and B+ on my last two essays, and it seems like most others are doing significantly worse. With B's on essays, could other factors bring my grade up?

jbusc · 10-16-2009, 06:19 PM

it does, and you want to keep your participation up to keep those points, but that's not what you should be thinking about.

people don't realize how much the last two essays in 140 are worth - you have the 4th essay, the 5th essay, and your rewrite (people usually rewrite the 4th essay)

so if you do well on the last two essays you probably will do well in the class. So really focus on that 4th essay and do everything you can (talk to teacher, go to writing center, have your friends read it, etc) to make it good because then you'll get good points for both the 4th essay and the rewrite of the 4th essay, which is almost 50% of the points for the class.

stylar · 10-16-2009, 08:06 PM

Thanks soo much. So...
1) How good is the writing center? I've only used my teacher for advice/conferencing so far.

2) Can you tell me about the final? What does it involve? How hard is it? How much is it worth?

3) Does actively speaking/participating in the class equal points? Or is it just showing up?

4) What grades did you get on your essays and then in the class?

josebiwasabi · 10-17-2009, 06:13 AM

the final is a just a "portfolio" which is where you take your 2 best papers and resubmit them after some minor revisions. these will most likely be A- or A papers. please note that if you got an A on them, i would highly recommend that you leave them mostly alone. you originally got an A on it for a reason.