Econ Major Question (paranoid :( )

WhalePicnic
Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:06:41 +0000

The curve usually helps you more than it hurts you in pretty much every econ class I’ve taken. I don’t remember specifics from Econ 1 (Olney) but midterm averages were in the high 60’s/low 70’s which is usually curved to a B/B- in lower division weeders, meaning the curve is a good 10% or so.

That being said, even though the curve will basically always help raise your percentage in absolute terms, relatively if everyone else is smart in your section/gsi it will still be tough to get a good grade. Though if I remember correctly, we were curved by GSI, not by Section so since every GSI taught like 3 sections, you were curved relative to around 90 people. Delong gives about 11% A’s and above (https://schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu/explore/course/330) so you have to be about the top 10 students per GSI. 90 students is enough to give enough variation for you to distinguish yourself if you really deserve that grade, especially since a good portion of the class aren’t econ/ugba majors.