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What you need is not generalizations about a lot of freshman at schools all across the country. What you need is specific information about how students in this particular class did. </p>
<p>If you’ve made some friends in the class, find out how they did. Some profs, especially new ones like you say this one is, write tests that are too difficult for students to answer because they have a PhD in the subject and students are learning it for the first time. Or if you’re not comfortable asking others how they did, go to the prof and ask about the grade distribution. You’re not asking about how any particular student did, just how many got 10% right, 20% right, etc.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you failed but already know most people did not, then obviously this is telling you something.</p>