Serious doubts about the integrity of my degree.

[apple_pathways]

I got this email from the professor for my Complex Organizations class today:

Note on Exam I: Most of you did just fine on the exam, but for those who struggled and hope to do better on future exams, I have decided to establish a MINIMUM GRADE for the exam of 70%. So, if after adding the 3point curve, your score was stil below 70%, you can now record your Exam I grade as 70%. I must caution that this is a one time adjustment, and I will not be doing this on subsequent exams.

What? WHAT? I repeat: WHAT?!?

This was one of the easiest exams I've ever taken in my life! It's not enough that his lectures move at a snail's pace with a patronizing level of dumbing-down of the material; that his lectures are more or less a summary of the readings (WHY DO I HAVE TO READ THEM IF YOU'RE JUST GOING TO REPEAT ALL THE SAME INFORMATION IN CLASS??); or that he gave everyone an extra 3 percentage points for the hell of it.

HE IS JUST HANDING EVERYONE WHO FAILED THE EXAM A C-???

Fuck you, dickhead.

Now, someone tell me I'm way too worked-up over this, that I need to take a deep breath and calm down because this has nothing to do with me.

Because I want to punch this guy in the face.

Comments

[sabriel75.livejournal.com]

Because it demeans the grade you got.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

I know! I'm really, really mad. Should I complain to the University? Should I write a (polite) email to him explaining why this is not OK?

[wldcatsprstr-14.livejournal.com]

I hate when professors use a grading curve. I don't even understand why it's necessary. If people failed, it's because they weren't good enough and didn't know the material well enough to pass. That just means that they should work harder. Skewing the grading so that people will get higher grades than they earned is counterproductive to learning. One time, a friend told me that on test people in her class did so poorly that the teacher made something like a 64% an A grade. I was seething and it wasn't even my class! And she seemed fine with it happening!

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

I can understand when teachers throw a couple extra points the students' way to compensate for the possibility of testing error, but this? I don't even know what he was thinking.

I've lodged a complaint. We'll see what happens.

[creativeaminot.livejournal.com]

Umm, isn't that somewhat seen as tampering with grades/performance? That's not a curve in my eyes. It's like when teachers help/change standardized test scores. You are not too worked up over it at all, this prof. is cray-cray.

I'd report it.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

It isn't a curve! Not least because it ONLY affects those people who scored lowest on the exam. If I had studied by butt off to score an actual 70% on this exam, I would be especially pissed! (Though I still bet I'm going to be the only one who complains. Typical of my life.)

[ladylovelace.livejournal.com]

Seriously, you are not over-worked-up about this. It's one of the reasons I told my university exactly where they could stick it, because hello, I worked hard for this crap.

If you think it's not something admin would agree with/encourage, report the bastard. That certainly should come under academic misconduct, and most tertiary institutions have policies on that.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

I'm not even interested in him being disciplined; I don't even care if his decision stands and he DOES raise all the failing grads to a C-. It's just the principle of the thing. I can't believe he thought this was appropriate for even ONE SECOND. Gah!

Well, I've sent the email and lodged the protest. Now I'm going to be waiting on pins and needles for a reply.

[stick-poker.livejournal.com]

It does have something to do with you, but don't get mad, get writing. Write to the professor, CCed to the tutor in overall charge of the course if there is one, and whatever department of academic supervision is relevant, and explain how you feel - that doing this cheapens the efforts of those who have put the work in, that do understand it, and that you're concerned about the maintenance of academic standards and want your degree to mean something. Maybe this is different standards on diferent sides of the pond, but I think it's a perfectly reasonable complaint to make.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

I would not say his grading policy is typical of American standards. I don't know if this practice is common at other Universities, but it is the first time I have ever heard of it happening. I had a few teachers in high school who would throw out a few extra points if everyone in the class did poorly on a test, but I have never even seen the concept of a "Minimum Grade" before this email.

Though I'm starting to get nervous about it, I will write to my professor and CC his department. I've been mentally composing my email all night and all morning (rather than focusing on review for my Social Research Methods exam, but oh well: I think it went fine).

I just don't know what this man is thinking! He even sits on the faculty board for the school.

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

This...doesn't make sense to me?? Why would you artificially raise everyone's grade?

I hear a lot about grading curves in the US and it confuses me...

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

My professor uses the term "curve" incorrectly here; what he's actually doing by raising everyone's grade by three percentage points (not points, as he also incorrectly states) is called a skew.

When a class is graded on a curve, individuals are assigned grades relative to their performance compared with their peers, rather than a set standard. The "curve" part of it refers to the Bell Curve, the illustration of normal distribution. It refers to how, when setting a curve, there will be a certain number of slots reserved for each grade. (I.e. there can be 10 As, 15 Bs, 30 Cs, 15 Ds and 10 Fs, etc.)

A common way to curve grades is to assign the student's score to a percentile rank and then assign a grade based on the percentile. So, if you got 75% of the questions correct on a test (a C according to a fixed grading scale), but the majority of the class scored higher than you did, you would fail the test.

There are different ways to curve scores, but overall they make the grading for a class more difficult rather than easier; it also encourages competition and discourages study groups, as the more people who do well on a test, the worse your score will be.

Grading curves tend to happen in law school, Engineering courses, some science and math classes, etc. I've never been in a class with a grading curve. (THANK GOD.)

/math nerd

What this professor did? Is a joke. It's not even a "skew" anymore; he's just handing out a passing grade to people who didn't earn it.