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/second, came here to say this too. The top schools give their students much more, harder problem sets, exams, etc. than others. Some grade on a curve too, me
by SkyMarshal 10y ago
/second, came here to say this too. The top schools give their students much more, harder problem sets, exams, etc. than others. Some grade on a curve too, meaning that if everyone scores between 90-100, they don't all get A's, rather the bottom third gets C's, the mid 90s get B's, and the top third get A's. Creates an extremely competitive environment that pushes folks with raw talent to really work hard to hone it. Finally, most of the work is focused on learning problem solving methodologies, rather than learning the syntax and grammar of particular languages.
- intrasight 10y agoYes. Competition is a powerful motivator. I recall at CMU one day when they gathered all us ECE students together in an auditorium and said "There are an order of magnitude (base 2) too many of you here - we will have to fail half of you out. Look to your left. Look to your right. Those two students may soon be gone." Swear to God a true story. Any fellow classmates ('88) can vouch for the meeting. Meant that a "C" was a great grade since you got to stay. Was terrible for one's GPA however.
- compsciphd 10y agoits a common engineering thing. In my Dad's EE class in the mid 60s they did the same thing.
- nunez 10y agorutgers did the same thing iirc
- jghn 10y agoWhat modern top level colleges scale grades downward?