<p>Well, at least a 75 in college is a C and not a D like in high school (our h.s. anyhow). She’ll get the hang of it and be fine. Don’t make a big deal of it.</p>
<p>S2 took two psyc. classes last sem. as electives (had also taken AP psyc. in h.s.) He made C’s on the first test in both classes. I remember S2 saying for at least of one the tests that the prof. worded the questions oddly which confused him. Said he would do better on the next one after he figured the profs format out.
He did fine on the tests from then on and got B’s in both classes.</p>
<p>“DD is just worried because she needs a 3.0 to keep her scholarship. I told her not to worry, she’ll be fine. But her first grade, and it’s a B, and it freaked her out.”</p>
<p>abmnji: My DS on the other hand, does not care about grades as long as he passes. He just started high school and something tells me it is going to be a long 4 years. I hope I am wrong. </p>
<p>Yes, it will be a long 4 years, I can vouch for that! My DS was exactly the same way, always did just enough to get by. Somehow he ended up with a 3.5 GPA and is now in his freshman year at a nice state school.</p>
<p>Crizello: Thanks for the encouragement. Glad to hear your son did so well. Maybe there is still some hope for mine.</p>
<p>leftylou: We are in the same boat. My daughter also needs to maintain a 3.0 to keep her scholarship. I think she was counting on a good grade in Psych to help raise her index in case she has a hard time with bio or chem.</p>
<p>Thoughts from someone in a psych PhD program (I never actually took intro–AP’d out of it–though I did TA it):</p>
<p>-Intro psych classes are very, very broad–psych is a MUCH broader field than most people think (encompassing everything from MRI studies of neurological features to linguistics to development to mental illness to psychotherapy to advertising to political opinions to test development to sensation and perception to reading acquisition to brain injury to animal training and so on and so forth). As a result, the information in intro psych classes can seem (and be) very, very scattered. There many be five different, seemingly unrelated areas to study for a test, and not all professors test every area equally. So, you could know areas A, B, C very well, but if the professor did his dissertation in area D, 50%+ of the questions could well come from that area because that’s what the professor best knows.</p>
<p>-Intro classes are often front-loaded with what is usually considered the most “boring,” difficult stuff (brain structure, etc), so that could have been an issue.</p>
What is meant by “a 4 kids got 64/65”? Was your D’s 75 a percentage, being compared against 64/65 (98%)? That is, 48/65 = 75%? A test of 65 total points would be odd. Or that four kids had 64 or 65 out of 100 (that doesn’t make sense - it would be an odd factoid to cite; i.e., “the bottom kids did OK”?).</p>
<p>
At some point, it’s not enough to be really bright; you also need to put in the work. Everybody hits their wall. But for many of those truly bright kids, the wall won’t be found in the undergrad years. And for a very few in certain fields, maybe no walls ever. It can be a joy to watch those kinds of people, but it does teach the rest of us an important life lesson.</p>
<p>Perhaps at your school, but not unusual at all. The course grade is typically the sum of all points earned over a semester/quarter. The top xx% earn A’s…</p>
<p>Thus, it doesn’t matter if a Prof gives 4 tests @ 100 points each or four tests @ 65 points each. The top xx still earn A’s. Or perhaps the tests are 65 points each and the final is 130 points (2 times a midterm). Still it does not matter. What matters to the OP is the mean and SD. If the mean is a 75, the result is likely a ~B (or B+ depending on the Prof’s final curve). OTOH, if the mean is a 50, and the SD is 20, then a 75 is an A, since it would be in the top ~16% of all grades. Note, that four students scoring 64 also does not matter since the vast majority of the class did much worse.</p>
I’m just asking for help to interpret the two statements: “She had her 1st test this week in psych and got a 75.” and “Unfortunately when the professor sent out the grades, he also said that a 4 kids got 64/65.” The two different uses of descriptive language leave me in doubt as to whether I understand the situation. “My school” was many decades ago, and (I think) we tended to have multiples of 100 for tests. </p>
<p>
No, that actually does matter; it makes a quite strong statement. If four students were able to score 64 of 65 total, that means perfection in this test is quite possible, and 75 really could be a mediocre grade. That’s hugely different than a situation where, for example, nobody in the class of 200 scored more than 20% (I’ve been in a few such classes).</p>
<p>And it could not be. Perhaps the four high scores were senior Psych majors taking a blow-off class for them. But again, that is just (my) speculation. Without the mean & SD, we can only guesstimate/speculate how the rest of the class fared.</p>
<p>Yes, I think we agree, except for that one statement: “Note, that four students scoring 64 also does not matter since the vast majority of the class did much worse.” I guess you agree that was a misstatement?</p>
<p>Clearly, the fact that some students did score at near perfection matters a lot. It rules out those (many) tests where 75% might be an A, and completely rules out those where it would be a strong A, or even a shockingly amazing inhuman A. And as we know, there are many college tests where 75% would be super-human performance! We’ve all been there, many times.</p>
<p>I’ll try to clarify it as best I can. There were 65 questions on the test. my D scored 49/65 which is a 75. The professor said that 4 kids scored 64/65 which is a 98. I do not know what the average or median grade was. I get the feeling from my D that many kids did well but I don’t know for sure.</p>
<p>You’re getting lots of good advice. Speaking as a professor and a mom, I do recommend visiting the professor for office hours. Before doing that, your daughter should go over every question she missed and see if she understands on her own what she did wrong. This is called “doing your homework” before office hours. She will want to be able to recall and articulate for her professor her thinking so that the professor can help her determine where that thinking went wrong. Your daughter also may want to consider joining a study group. That class already may have study groups and your daughter just hasn’t noticed. These are usually self-forming among the students. Study groups enable students to process their learning and see if, in talking with their classmates, they really do have understanding. Second, your daughter should see if a Learning Center or Academic Advising Center (these places go by different names at colleges) offers study skills sessions for students. Many universities do. These meet once or twice a week for an hour. The staff who lead these sessions help students acclimate to college-level expectations. Many bright students don’t really have to work very hard in high school and they are thrown for a loop by college because they haven’t developed solid study habits. These sessions draw on research in learning theory to guide students in developing their study skills. If your daughter’s school doesn’t offer something like this she and/or you could try a book such as “6 Days To Better Grades: Powerful Study Advice For All College Students.” If you type this into Amazon, you will see that under the “people who liked this book also looked at…” there are 6-10 books in this general genre - short, sassy guides to jumpstarting college-level skills. Finally, the call home in tears about the awful first test is standard-issue, freshman, first semester experience. My daughter did the same thing her freshman year. The key is to think through this, as you are doing, with your daughter and help her use this as the learning experience that it is.</p>
<p>This also happened to my DD and in freshman psych as well. She had not taken it in HS at all and was taking it only for gen ed.</p>
<p>She did not do so well on the first test and freaked out. She then found out that her teacher put the grades of the entire class up on the class website, anonymously, but you could see where you stood. She was actually in the top quarter, which surprised her. She did some extra credit, volunteered and answered questions in class. It was a class of about 70 students, with only about 10% A’s at the end of the semester, My D said that most of these went to either kids who’d taken AP Psych and were retaking the course for credit and/or were plannng to be psych majors.</p>
<p>My D was thrilled that she wound up with a B+, of which there were about 10. The majority of grades were in the C to B range.</p>
<p>At most colleges, Intro to Psych is a pre-req for every other psych class. At these programs (which is every one I’ve ever seen, FWIW), there is no way that a senior psych major could take Intro to Psych, even if they AP’ed out of it (because they would have had to officially accept the substitution to sign up for other psych classes).</p>
<p>Yeah…but I haven’t used that expression with son. Not sure if that will help. He knows it’s one of, or the “hardest class”, but not that it’s designed to get rid of the weak students. How do most students respond to that idea?</p>
<p>He knows I got a D, and still made it through medical school.</p>
<p>A kid was in the 10% of his or her high school class. The kid considers himself/herself to be very bright.</p>
<p>But now the kid goes off to college, and everyone who was admitted to that college has almost the same exact gpa’s and SAT scores.</p>
<p>Now, the kid is no longer in the top 10%, but simply one of thousands of roughly equal ability. </p>
<p>In such a case, her usual “A” grades will be harder to come by.</p>
<p>Further, it could well be that the particular high school a kid went to might not really have been that great, so the kid who was getting “A” grades in high school might well get a rude awakening when competing with “real” “A” students. I am not saying that is your daughter’s situation (I obviously have no idea), but for some at least, it will be.</p>
<p>In any case, it is only one test. College is a marathon, not a sprint. I got into graduate programs at Michigan and Georgetown, and believe me, I received a lot of “C” grades while in college.</p>
<p>You gave her the best advice, she needs to talk to her prof (she should bring her exam with him if she can) and ask if the prof can offer any tips as to how she can do better next time. Most professors are willing to help students, especially first years. She might also consider making a habit of going to office hours to talk over that week’s materials or other assignments, so she can make sure she’s on track. </p>
<p>The first test is the hardest, and this is very common, especially for students who were in the top of their classes in high school. Now that she’s been through one, she’ll have a better idea of how her prof operates, and she’ll probably do better next time. Just remind her that college is four years, with lots of tests in it. The first one isn’t going to make or break her, it’s just giving her an opportunity to do better.</p>