3 ms·

If everyone is receiving an A, that indicates that everyone receives As regardless of merit.

by failrate 8y ago

adamnemecek 8y ago
Or it means that everyone works their ass off. Or that they went to high schools that prepared them well.
- kasey_junk 8y ago
  Wait is non calibrated scoring the norm now? When I was in school (a terribly long time ago) classes were judged by the people that took the classes. That is the % were based in the people that took the tests.
  - adamnemecek 8y ago
    You mean curved? It depends on the class I think? And what if like, you end up with a difference between A and B being 2%.
    - kasey_junk 8y ago
      Then you had a bad time & you commiserate over drinks? Basically every class I had in college was graded amongst your cohort. Is that odd?
      - adamnemecek 8y ago
        > Then you had a bad time & you commiserate over drinks? The dynamics are a lot more complicated than you make it seem. > Basically every class I had in college was graded amongst your cohort. Is that odd? I've also had classes that were graded on a curve. But that doesn't fully capture the dynamics.
- mrep 8y ago
  Depends on how they grade. I went to Purdue and pretty much every math and CS class was bell curved around a C and D's aren't passing grades which was pretty brutal and a very effective form of weeding out people since a portion of each class is forced to retake it. Hence why Purdue frequently rates as one of the hardest grading colleges. Much easier to get into then the ivy leagues though.
  - adamnemecek 8y ago
    > a very effective form of weeding out people since a portion of each class is forced to retake it This seems really pointless.
    - mrep 8y ago
      I don't know. Purdue is much easier to get into then IVY league schools and yet ranks better in CS than 3/8 of the IVY league, tied with one, and really isn't far below than the other 4 according to US News [0]. Based on my assumption that Purdue is highly rated because people who graduate were the top X% of students and others were weeded out or re-took classes to learn the material better, would you rather have the filtering/weeding_out for "better" students be done at the high_school->college choice level like the IVY leagues which are highly selective but grade inflate or the people who graduate from college learning the material you probably require for the job where grading is tough? [0]: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-sch...
      - adamnemecek 8y ago
        I wouldn't look at the school? A 10-minute convo tells you more than an average that you have no context for.
        mrep 8y ago
        I'm not a recruiter so take this with a grain of salt, but I believe school/GPA is highly used for screening resumes for new grads. AFAIK, top companies get a ridiculous amount of resumes and they need some way to prioritize them without spending 10 minute conversations with each and every person that applies. Can any recruiter comment here on school/GPA importance on resumes for newly grads?
guga42k 8y ago
it might indicate that the course is not designed well and fails to provide gradient among students.
- bobthepanda 8y ago
  If this is the case across the school, then perhaps the entire school curricula is not designed well.
candybar 8y ago
If the median is A-, that means more than half the students are not getting an A. If we accept that Harvard does have some of the best students, well at least best at getting good grades, since that is at least partially how they get in, why shouldn't they have better grades on average? To do otherwise would seem unfair to the students, since people are often judged on grades by people who don't have any perspective as to what a given grade means at a given institution. It would not be surprising if getting an A at Harvard is still substantially harder on an absolute basis than getting an A at a much lesser school that has a much lower average.

If everyone is receiving an A, that indicates that everyone receives As regardless of merit.

adamnemecek 8y ago

Or it means that everyone works their ass off. Or that they went to high schools that prepared them well.

kasey_junk 8y ago
Wait is non calibrated scoring the norm now? When I was in school (a terribly long time ago) classes were judged by the people that took the classes. That is the % were based in the people that took the tests.
- adamnemecek 8y ago
  You mean curved? It depends on the class I think? And what if like, you end up with a difference between A and B being 2%.
  - kasey_junk 8y ago
    Then you had a bad time & you commiserate over drinks? Basically every class I had in college was graded amongst your cohort. Is that odd?
    - adamnemecek 8y ago
      > Then you had a bad time & you commiserate over drinks? The dynamics are a lot more complicated than you make it seem. > Basically every class I had in college was graded amongst your cohort. Is that odd? I've also had classes that were graded on a curve. But that doesn't fully capture the dynamics.
mrep 8y ago
Depends on how they grade. I went to Purdue and pretty much every math and CS class was bell curved around a C and D's aren't passing grades which was pretty brutal and a very effective form of weeding out people since a portion of each class is forced to retake it. Hence why Purdue frequently rates as one of the hardest grading colleges. Much easier to get into then the ivy leagues though.
- adamnemecek 8y ago
  > a very effective form of weeding out people since a portion of each class is forced to retake it This seems really pointless.
  - mrep 8y ago
    I don't know. Purdue is much easier to get into then IVY league schools and yet ranks better in CS than 3/8 of the IVY league, tied with one, and really isn't far below than the other 4 according to US News [0]. Based on my assumption that Purdue is highly rated because people who graduate were the top X% of students and others were weeded out or re-took classes to learn the material better, would you rather have the filtering/weeding_out for "better" students be done at the high_school->college choice level like the IVY leagues which are highly selective but grade inflate or the people who graduate from college learning the material you probably require for the job where grading is tough? [0]: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-sch...
    - adamnemecek 8y ago
      I wouldn't look at the school? A 10-minute convo tells you more than an average that you have no context for.
      - mrep 8y ago
        I'm not a recruiter so take this with a grain of salt, but I believe school/GPA is highly used for screening resumes for new grads. AFAIK, top companies get a ridiculous amount of resumes and they need some way to prioritize them without spending 10 minute conversations with each and every person that applies. Can any recruiter comment here on school/GPA importance on resumes for newly grads?

guga42k 8y ago

it might indicate that the course is not designed well and fails to provide gradient among students.

bobthepanda 8y ago
If this is the case across the school, then perhaps the entire school curricula is not designed well.

candybar 8y ago

If the median is A-, that means more than half the students are not getting an A. If we accept that Harvard does have some of the best students, well at least best at getting good grades, since that is at least partially how they get in, why shouldn't they have better grades on average? To do otherwise would seem unfair to the students, since people are often judged on grades by people who don't have any perspective as to what a given grade means at a given institution. It would not be surprising if getting an A at Harvard is still substantially harder on an absolute basis than getting an A at a much lesser school that has a much lower average.