<p>engineering grading without curve only happens in comm college or in germany.</p>
<p>I have learned that failing in engineering courses means something entirely different than it would be in a normal class....here people in the bottom 50% can get Bs....curve saves all</p>
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Mr. Payne - What is the professor's name? I find it extremely hard to believe that one professor can consistently dish out a median grade of "F" and the university just sits back and says "we'd like to weed out 50-66% of our engineering class." I'd elaborate (on the many reasons why a school wouldn't do that and on the many alternatives) but I simply don't believe you...
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Locascio. Any CE, ME, or Aero graduate coming out of Poly in the last ten years would have heard of this guy. His reputation is unrivaled.</p>
<p>Some student evaluations. Hilarious.</p>
<p>The point of teaching is to teach.</p>
<p>Zorz, like I said, the line really isn't that fine between being tough and being stupid. </p>
<p>Maybe your school then needs to have a little more faith in its admissions process and less in the professors ability to not only teach and to create fair tests, homeworks, etc. If they felt like they were screening applicants reasonably well (the entire point of any admissions process), then they wouldn't feel the need to be so strict, realizing that not only do various subject matters vary hugely in their difficult level but so do levels of teaching proficiency. If they had ANY faith at all in their admissions process (and thus the classes of students in their engineering program), they'd realize that when an entire class failed it was almost certainly the professor's fault. The probability of an entire intro engineering class "slacking off" is more or less 0. </p>
<p>Being "tough" is forcing kids to do a lot of work and learn a lot of material in one way or another. In a tough class, the problem sets might drive a few kids crazy, but at the end of the day the professor is willing to sit down with them and go over whatever it is they don't understand. The professor might throw tests at a class where the median ends up being a 60, but it's graded on a bell curve, so only those truly below the rest of the pack will fail. THAT is weeding kids out that aren't cut out for engineering. Something is seriously wrong with the admissions process (to either the school or the engineering program) at ANY school where entire classes (or 50+%) fail. If that many people truly aren't cut out for engineering, then they need to work harder to determine that before they let them in and flunk them out.</p>
<p>Not to mention, strict policies like that basically tell professors that the school doesn't trust them and more-or-less wants to hold their hands throughout their tenure (in terms of undergraduate teaching, anyhow). I mean, a professor is going to basically have to dumb down the material so that people really can get 90+ scores on exams and in the class if he/she doesn't want to fail half the class while dishing out exactly no As and few Bs. </p>
<p>I'm really not sure what to believe in all of this. So you are saying you guys (whereever it is you go to school) work your ass off for a C average while its not uncommon for someone to have an F or two on their transcript? Are you worried at all about job opportunities post-graduation? You are going to work your ass off for a 2.0, having some F's on your transcript, and while maybe the difference between a 3.0 and 3.6 isn't that significant, there's quite a different between 2.0 and 3.0+...there's someone else on here that claims to work 13-15 hours a day for a C average too and I really have a hard time believing anyone in this world sees value in that.</p>
<p>While in undergrad, you don't have to be an expert. That's what a graduate program and a career are all about.</p>
<p>live-, well said.</p>
<p>i do it, and almost everybody i know in my major does the same.</p>
<p>live-, are you engineering?</p>
<p>Yeah Mr. Payne. And that professor sounds ridiculous - my point exactly would be that people say they learn so much from him but will then go on to encourage other students to avoid him (and get a more reasonable professor for that class). It's a waste of a good teacher if that's the case.</p>
<p>I think this is a big difference between publics and privates. Public engineering programs just have no compulsion to keep people in the program. Probably one big reason that publics compare better to privates in engineering than in other fields. They just continually weed people out.</p>
<p>I was a straight A student in high school. Now in college, I've failed so many tests, it's not even funny, but I've never made a C in a course, yet. That most likely will change this semester. Oh, sorrow! :(</p>
<p>I got a 72 and then a 44 on a multivar calc test and still got a C+ in the course...I think 67-70 is a C+. My physics class had two tests, both averages being 54 and 42, respectively. The teacher gives A,A-s, B+, and B to only 15% of the class, then B-, C+, C, C- to 70% of the class, then 15% fail. I got a B, thank god. Boo. I guess it proves Mr.Payne's point: i'm at a public engineering school, and ~35% are planning to drop out. Maybe more, maybe less, but its pretty consistent that 1/3, give or take a few, drop the first year. Of what's left, 1/4 drop out over the next 3 years. Lovely, long live engineers.</p>
<p>15% getting top grades is quite generos, some of my professors give at most 3 A's and B's per class. Some dont give any at all, again we dont have curves, if ya get a 48 Average you will fail.</p>
<p>Zorz, where do you go to school?</p>
<p>My physics teacher in the fall had 70 students to begin with. By the end of the class only 10-15 remained, and I was not one of them. Although the class was at a CC, her test were unreasonable. I retook the class and had no problem with a better professor where about 30% of the class dropped.</p>
<p>How do some of you guys suck so much?</p>
<p>I failed a calc final, but still pulled an A:)</p>
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I was a straight A student in high school. Now in college, I've failed so many tests, it's not even funny, but I've never made a C in a course, yet. That most likely will change this semester. Oh, sorrow!
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</p>
<p>Its crazy how much of a joke high school was compared to engineering. i got a 52 and a 55 respectively on my first 'chem E thermo' and 'mass and maerial balance' tests respectively. I have recovered though. I just got sexually molested on my organic chem 2 final 2 hours ago but i'm hoping everyone did as awful as i did.</p>
<p>i’m a senior in electrical engineering. this is my last semester here. i’ve never failed a class, engineering or otherwise, lowest grade i ever got was a C. but, unfortunately senioritis has set in badly and at a bad time, too! coz i just got accepted into a graduate school. i’m in danger of failing one of my required classes for graduation, but i’m working really hard to pass it somehow. </p>
<p>i want to go talk to my professor, he’s not a bad guy, the class is just hard, its electromechanical motion. but the guy is very curt and formal. i have a feeling that he will just tell me to brace for an F and take the class next semester. has anyone ever heard of professors saying things like that?</p>