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Ok, one more hack from college although it probably won't work these days. All of the professors in the science department at my university would tape lists of

Ok, one more hack from college although it probably won't work these days. All of the professors in the science department at my university would tape lists of their student's IDs and their test grades outside their office through out the semester including finals. When looking for classes for the following semester, I just had to look at which professors gave better grades on average and sign up for their classes. The difference was quites staggering. Some professors consistently failed roughly half of their students while others would have over 3/4 the class with A's consistently. Granted, there were some variable to consider like which course was being taught and the fact that some groups of students are sometimes simply better performers than others. But there was no way I was going to see that kind of data displayed publicly and not take advantage of it.

TheSOB88 16y ago
So you actually took the 75% A classes? Did you learn a lot from those profs, or were they just giving the As away? I would figure that, knowing nothing else about the prof, the one with grades in the middle would be the most effective teacher.
- araneae 16y ago
  In my experience, the median grades are higher for smaller classes, and those smaller classes are often more advanced and populated by graduate students. It's not that the professor is easier, it's that everyone works really hard and learns a lot, because they're motivated by the work itself. This does not hold true for large classes where the median grade is an A, however; those are usually genuinely easier.
- garrettgillas 16y ago
  Heck yes did I take them. At the time I had little interest in biology and I felt that it was interfering with my real education, which it was. Nothing against biology, but most of the things that I learned in college that I would call "valuable" (professionally and otherwise) I did not learn in class.
araneae 16y ago
>it probably won't work these days. Oh, it absolutely works these days; it's even easier. My undergraduate institution publishes median grades for each course. There's a bit of an uproar though because they're going to start printing the median grades on students' transcripts...

TheSOB88 16y ago

So you actually took the 75% A classes? Did you learn a lot from those profs, or were they just giving the As away? I would figure that, knowing nothing else about the prof, the one with grades in the middle would be the most effective teacher.

araneae 16y ago
In my experience, the median grades are higher for smaller classes, and those smaller classes are often more advanced and populated by graduate students. It's not that the professor is easier, it's that everyone works really hard and learns a lot, because they're motivated by the work itself. This does not hold true for large classes where the median grade is an A, however; those are usually genuinely easier.
garrettgillas 16y ago
Heck yes did I take them. At the time I had little interest in biology and I felt that it was interfering with my real education, which it was. Nothing against biology, but most of the things that I learned in college that I would call "valuable" (professionally and otherwise) I did not learn in class.

araneae 16y ago

>it probably won't work these days. Oh, it absolutely works these days; it's even easier. My undergraduate institution publishes median grades for each course. There's a bit of an uproar though because they're going to start printing the median grades on students' transcripts...