Getting A's at Tech?

[KamelAkbar]

<p>How hard is it to get an A at Tech in a typical science/engineering class?</p>

<p>If you got a B in a class, was how much extra work do you feel it would have taken to make that an A? Do you feel like no amount of extra work would have made that happen for you, or did you slack a little bit?</p>

<p>How are the tests? Do they put questions on them that are simply too hard for even over achievers to get?</p>

<p>I'm hearing horror stories about how hard the grading is. The only way I can imagine they can make it so difficult to get an A is to test you over things you haven't been exposed to - but how would they justify doing that? What specifically makes it so hard to get an A?</p>

[graduatettpe]

<p>My opinion as an AE sophmore (to give a reference point, I got a 3.36 so combination of A's and B's):</p>

<p>It is not impossible to make A's - far from it. In every class I have made a B in, it would have been possible for me to make an A with some extra work. It would not have been an astronmocial amount of work, either. Fact is I just got lazy sometimes. The people I know who made B's were in the same boat as me -- crammed the night before the test. The people I know who got A's actually kept up with the work load and studied throughout the semester. </p>

<p>There are a few classes (Bellisard comes to mind for Calc 2, but I heard I had him his last year he taught Calc 2) that you pretty much are going to not break an 80 on a test unless you are in the top 5% of the class. It is just the way the professor makes the test. However, there is always a curve that balances out this issue if it exists. For me, Bellisard gave aaround a 20 point curve to the final grade. It is not that it is material you have not seen, it is just done in a way which, if you do not fully understand it, can cause you to miss some major points. Like I said though, the curve balances it out. </p>

<p>Finally in my long, rambling speech, what makes it so hard to make an A is, in my opinion, the calbier of the student who comes here. Most, if not all, were int he top 5 or 10% of their high school class, figure they can get by with the same level of studying they did in high school (sometimes none at all), and find out the hard way it does not work like that here. That was my main issue, and still is: I just need to get a better work ethic honestly. It is coming though.</p>

<p>Anyways, do not be worried about the grade issue here. If you apply yourself, you will be able to pull a good GPA.</p>

[BanjoHitter]

<p>
[quote]
How hard is it to get an A at Tech in a typical science/engineering class?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The average engineering class is 45.1% A, 34.2% B, 14.8% C, 4.0% D, 1.9% F
The average science class is 37.6% A, 34.1% B, 18.2% C, 6.3% D, 3.8% F</p>

<p>So percentage-wise, it's not that difficult. What makes it seem so difficult is what graduatettpe said: people who go to Tech were typically used to straight-A's in high school with little to no work, even in AP courses. In the past, they've been much more intelligent than the other students in classes and could get by on pure intelligence. When they get to Tech, everyone is that intelligent, so they go from the very top to average. If they don't learn to study and put effort towards their classes (i.e. if they keep doing what they did in high school and assume it will work at Tech), they quickly fall from average to below average and it can seem impossible to catch up. On the other hand, if they put in effort and learn how to study, they quickly jump to above average.</p>

[KamelAkbar]

<p>
[quote]
The average engineering class is 45.1% A, 34.2% B, 14.8% C, 4.0% D, 1.9% F
The average science class is 37.6% A, 34.1% B, 18.2% C, 6.3% D, 3.8% F

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Awesome, thank you! I didn't realize schools publish statistics like that.</p>

<p>That's definitely not as intimidating as people make it sound.</p>

[3coolcats]

<p>It really isn't as intimidating as people make it seem. I came here this year expecting extreme amounts of homework/no social life etc. but I was actually able to get by without an excessive amount of work. Granted, I did procrastinate, and there were numerous nights where I stayed up until 4am cramming for a test, but I ended up with four A's and one B; and the class I got a B in (chemistry) would have been an A had I actually studied for my tests, and not depended solely on final grade replacement to save my grade. The people I know who didn't make A's/B's didn't make good grades because they didn't bother studying at all. While I might not have studied as much as I should have between tests, I would always cram a couple days before the test so that I still knew all the information (except in chemistry... hence the B).</p>

[BanjoHitter]

<p>I think that's a good assessment. Doing well at Tech doesn't mean that you'll have to give up every weekend, but it does mean that you'll have to give up maybe 2 or 3 weekends a semester. Some people aren't willing to do that and want to party every weekend. While you can do that and get by with a 3.0 at most schools, you won't at GT.</p>

[Chardo]

<p>
[quote]
The average engineering class is 45.1% A, 34.2% B, 14.8% C, 4.0% D, 1.9% F
The average science class is 37.6% A, 34.1% B, 18.2% C, 6.3% D, 3.8% F

[/quote]
</p>

<p>So nearly half the students in engineering classes get A's? Seems pretty reasonable to me.</p>

[bernie12]

<p>Keep in mind that it's much lower at the entry level courses. Those percentages of "As" are kind of high because of the upperlevels which usually have less students and in many cases are less exam based (projects and writing assignments tend to yield higher grades than exams due to greater subjectivity). Until you get past the "groundwork", you'll have to work quite hard for that A, especially if you get a tough professor for such a course. This is what I'm guessing at least. My friend in the 3-2 program (he is now at GT doing ME) suggests this. The only class he got a B in seemed to be his entry levels (one being material science). Same as when he was at Emory I guess (actually, he's getting mostly As now and got Bs in sciences here because for some reason he took the professors that wouldn't curve. Guess he likes Tech better, naturally. Dude was made to be an engineer).</p>