What makes organic chem so hard in college?

[sakky]

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I would argue that in sakky’s example, the guy deserved the grade he got. Who cares if he scored a 80? If everyone else scored 95, then he deserved to get the grade of someone who scored 15% below the mean.

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<p>Yeah, but that just opens a giant can of worms all in itself. By that logic, you can always justify any kind of grading scheme, no matter how variable it is. For example, in a grade inflated class at a grade inflated school, getting 15% below the mean might mean just getting a B or even an A-. Getting 15% below the mean in a highly grade deflated class might mean getting an F. Why the difference? After all, they’re both getting scoring below the mean, so why does one person get a radically different grade from another person? Who’s really to say that one person really “deserves” the grade he got? </p>

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Is this supposed to be some huge relevation? The more you know, the better the grade you get (in most cases) regardless of whether the class is curved. It’s far easier to spend some time raising your own average by 15% then to try to bring down the mean of a 600-person class by 15%. Instead of worrying about how curves work, the OP and anyone else in college should worry about doing their best. Once you’re in college, it doesn’t take too long before you discover where you stand in relation to the other students

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<p>Well, yes, in fact it is a gigantic revelation because it then introduces the (unfortunate but rational) practice of cherry-picking classes. Students learn to game the system for the purpose of boosting their GPA. For example, students won’t take a particular class until it is taught by the one prof who is known for giving out high grade curves. Students start thinking of avoiding grade-deflated schools entirely like MIT and Caltech, and/or of avoiding grade-deflated majors like engineering. People start hunting down easy classes in order to rack up a long string of A’s. I know people who were completely fluent in a foreign language, but took all the intro courses in that language anyway, just to get a bunch of easy A+'s. They didn’t learn a damn thing, but they didn’t care, all they wanted were top grades to make themselves look good to the med-school adcoms. It worked too - they got in. </p>

<p>The point is that the fact that grading schemes are so highly variable simply encourages gamesmanship. Curves make the grade completely arbitrary. Some curves are set high. Others are set low. Some classes are filled with extremely hard working geniuses making it extremely difficult to beat the curve. Others are filled with lazy drunk frat boys making it extremely easy to beat the curve. There is no true standard. People, knowing that they need high grades to get into med-school, then inevitably start gaming the system. They start playing the game to find where they can get the highest possible grades with the least possible effort.</p>