<p>About a month ago, I posted on this forum that my grades have mysteriously dropped. Everyone was telling me that I’m simply whining and not studying hard enough. After researching my university website, I have discovered that minimum admission averages have gone up by one grade level and average admission averages have gone up by what I suspect is more than one grade level since my first degree. I suggest that next time, when someone has a problem, that the people involved are more tactful and think critically about what the problem might be, hopefully giving some helpful advice. I feel that the way people acted on here towards me was wrong. Next time, show some respect to others…</p>
<p>You are one weird dude.
Represent.</p>
<p>I was initially unfamiliar with your first thread, but after the cryptographic rant I couldn’t resist looking back. Here are my 2 cents.</p>
<p>
Are you wondering if your new grades might be lower than your old ones because your university has become more selective in the meantime? </p>
<p>That is a possibility, but “real selectivity” might not be as easy to compare as it may seem. For example, there’s been much fuss about grade inflation at the high school level and admission rates are getting lower across the board because high school students are applying to more colleges. It also seems unlikely that the minimum admission standard getting raised should translate into the average grade rising by the same amount.</p>
<p>I can’t help but mention an infamous study which is all too frequently cited on CC. It came to the conclusion that college students today are spending significantly less time on academics than their counterparts in the not-too-distant past. Statistically speaking, good study habits alone should give you a significant advantage over your classmates.</p>
<p>That aside, selectivity would not explain why you are acing some of your classes and not others. The divide between subjects makes me think that something else is going on. (For instance, in my time as an undergraduate math major I have seen plenty of students who aced calculus, did fine in linear algebra and then hit a brick wall. I for myself graduated with a 3.9 GPA but took all of my humanities classes pass/fail because I couldn’t get above a 3.0 regardless of how much effort I put in.) Maybe you are discovering weak spots that you avoided in your first college career?</p>
<p>What you’re missing is that I have something like 50 courses under my belt before this happened (many in math which I did poorly in later (I have a math minor in my first degree)) and over 12 in philosophy (which I’m now struggling with), including first year, second year, and third year courses in the subject. I cannot come to any rational explanation as to why this is happening, other than more capable students now entering the university. Do you have any other idea as to what might be going on other than a divide in courses?</p>
<p>I really don’t understand why you don’t know why you got the grades you did. Do you not get your homework or tests or essays or whatever you’re evaluated on back? Like, I know exactly why I got the grades I did in every class I’ve taken because I get these things back and they say why I got points off or why I got the grade I did. I even know how I’m doing in all my classes now because I get my homework back and it tells me my grade and why I got points off, or my tests back or my essays back. It literally makes no sense to me how you can have no idea about your grades.</p>
<p>I don’t really understand how minimum admission averages affect the grades you are receiving in your classes now… Would you mind explaining?</p>
<p>I’m not trying to be rude. I just don’t understand the correlation…</p>
<p>Maybe you’re just not as smart as you’d like to think you are.</p>