<p>Do all math/science professors scale grades at Tufts?</p>
<p>If you mean grade on a curve, yes, at least that has been my son’s experience at Tufts for all of his math and science exams.</p>
<p>Hmmm…funny, because the Political Science professors scale down :(</p>
<p>scale down? how is that possible?!?!?!!!</p>
<p>Pardon my ignorance, but can someone explain?</p>
<p>Professors “scale” in that they grade on a curve. Some professors want the median to be at an 80, so they adjust the grades accordingly. If the median is a 57, they’ll adjust the middle up about 23 points so that it’s an 80; the highest grades might be adjusted up about 10 points, and the lowest grades, about 30 points. Depends. Some professors have a scale where 85+ = A, 80-85 = B+, 75-80 = B, etc.</p>
<p>So, if the median is above what the professor wants it to be, will the professor lower students’ grades?</p>
<p>Is scaling down only done in humanities classes? Does it occur in math/science?</p>
<p>None of my son’s professors scaled down, only up, and that included his humanities classes. Even with scaling up, most of the kids in his math/science classes got B’s and C’s, which might be a real eye-opener to Tufts freshmen who were tops in their high school classes and found A’s much easier to come by. Could be that the urban legend is true, that the math/science classes are meant to “weed-out” those kids who won’t be able to handle the rigor of Tufts’ premed track.</p>
<p>Out of curiousity, what is the average MCAT score at Tufts?</p>