Scaling grades et al

thedoverdemon
Sat, 07 Apr 2007 02:42:12 +0000

I’m not talking about the psychology department specifically, but it seems to be the case for many classes throughout the school. Many math/science classes have vicious grading curves, but even without a formal curve in arts, there’s a huge tendency to force an average at the B- level. This is what I’ve heard personally from profs and TAs themselves who are made to do so by department administrators. If a class average is higher than it should be, then the profs get reviewed, and the TAs have to regrade every single paper. Essentially, they’re threatened to give out low grades because that way, the profs won’t get reviewed and the TAs don’t have to regrade, since TAs, in particular, already have enough work on their hands as grad students with their own coursework and exams.