<p>An upper-level sociology class.</p>
<p>Essay exam #1: wrote only 1 of 2 essays
Essay exam #2: missed the topic
Research paper: submitted 7 pages instead of 10-15
Weekly response papers: “check” average on a check, check-plus, check-minus scale
Participation: none</p>
<p>Final grade: B.</p>
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I mean, I actually study the material for the classes I take for a few hours each daily and do my work, so I don’t need the ridiculous curve. It’s just ridiculous that university professors would do something like make the final project a group project for everyone in the class, or weight tests/exams so heavily that one or two can raise a student’s grade from an F to an A.</p>
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In the classes I’m talking about, everyone does; your “actually studying” quip is a bit crap seeing as how I don’t know anyone at my school in these classes who don’t (wooo engineering…). In one of mine this semester, where I had a 60, the high was a 70 (this is after all of those group projects). So yeah, even that guy with a 70 needs a giant curve.</p>
<p>But I think we’re talking about two completely different curving phenomena, so /topic.<br>
I totally get what you mean though. I worked my butt off in one class and got an A, but so did 75% of the class because of the project that was worth 40% of the grade (the lowest grade given on the project was an A-, because the prof didn’t really have a grading standard for that). A bit frustrating. But I got my A so no real complaining.</p>
<p>Mine was a mandatory 3rd year clinical rotation in medical school in a major teaching hospital in Philadelphia in Obstetrics and Gynocology (OB-GYN). I had received my BS in Astrophysics before going to medical school while nearly all my classmates had majored in Biology. OB-GYN had been by far my weakest area in my first two years of basic science in medical school and I dreaded the humiliating and abusive treatment I was going to recieve from the attending physicians and senior residents in OB-GYN as well as failing the rotation and having to repeat it. In addition, the head of the Department who often went on rounds with the medical students and residents was an older doctor who had been there for years and was known for being particularly harsh on medical students and residents who did not know their stuff.</p>
<p>Sure enough, on the first day of the rotation he went on rounds with us and asked a lot of questions. But instead of asking questions about OB-GYN, about which I knew nothing, he asked “how does a laser work”?, " “What is the Schrodinger equation in quantum physics?” and “What is a pulsar?”. None of the other medical students or residents had any idea how to answer them but due to my undergraduate major I was able to answer them all without much difficulty. This went on all during the rotation and the Head of the department made it clear he was very pleased with me and that I was under his protection from abuse by other attending physicians and residents. I received a grade of “Honors” in OB-GYN without knowing a thing about it. I ran into one of the OB-GYN residents about a year later and she told me that Dr._____ still talks about you saying " He was the only medical student who ever knew anything".</p>