<p>What does the Chem 1A grade curve look like at the end of the semester? Does anyone know? On the website it says that: "Course grading is on a straight scale. The range for each grade is given here. The +/- cutoffs are not published or released to students (not even at the end of the semester). Grade cutoffs may be lowered in extreme circumstances, but they will NOT be raised. If you get more than 900 points in this class, you are guaranteed to fall in the 'A' range."
How extreme are these circumstances?</p>
<p>If the grading distribution is such that far less than 15% of the students receive A on the non-curved scale, which never happens. If anything, far more than 15% of people get A's so be glad that you have an absolute curve for Chem 1a.</p>
<p>For Fall '05 (same professor), the cutoff for an A- was roughly 85.2%. We figured it out ourselves by asking around, since the profs wouldn't release that info. I hate it when profs keep the information private, by the way. What is there to hide? Seriously.</p>
<p>Then again, this semester's weighting is a bit different, so I don't know. The Fall '05 one was 15% each midterm, 30% final, 20% labs, and 5% homework. The final yielded a median in the high 60's or low 70's, which brought the whole scale down. Otherwise, an A would definitely be in the 90's.</p>
<p>A sample grade distribution from Fall 2002 by Prof. Saykally (whom Kubinec has collaborated with many semesters in the past, including in Fall '05) is as follows:
A+ : 0.59%
A : 16.70%
A- : 2.95%
B+ : 5.50%
B : 23.38%
B- : 4.13%
C+ : 2.55%
C : 25.15%
C- : 3.34%
D : 10.41%
F : 5.30%
So it's roughly 20-35-30-10-5, with roughly the top sixth earning 4.0s. Not very generous in my opinion. You just have to beat the competition, either through intense study or prior knowledge, e.g. from AP courses, community college classes, etc.</p>
<p>Now that you've said that, you better get all A's throughout your college career. I haven't yet had a professor who didn't award "A" grades to at least 20% of his/her class.</p>
<p>Trust me -- it's not easy. I took Advanced Placement Chemistry at a fairly competitive high school and scored a 5 on the exam. I barely pulled off a 90% in the class even with my prior experience. There is a lot of new material, and a lot of unbelievably hard workers here at Cal.</p>
<p>A+ grades are assigned four grade points when computing the UC GPA. Certain professional schools, particularly law schools, may choose to recompute it at their own discretion for admissions purposes, but here at UCB, A+'s are treated no differently in terms of grade calculation. In my humble opinion, having one A+ per 200 students is very, very lacking in generosity.</p>
<p>You have got to be kidding me. Most technical classes at Cal allot around 25% A's each (including A-'s). Remember that we're competing against some of the brightest students in the state. Seriously, unless you're an engineering student with honors standing on your transcript, I don't think you should be saying that.</p>
<p>I took AP Chem and I'm taking Chem 1A now and I find it to be extremely easy. I got a perfect score on the first midterm and 117/120 on the second one. </p>
<p>I don't see why 20% getting A's is not generous at all. Maybe it's only for lower division science courses?</p>
<p>
[quote]
You have got to be kidding me. Most technical classes at Cal allot around 25% A's each (including A-'s). Remember that we're competing against some of the brightest students in the state. Seriously, unless you're an engineering student with honors standing on your transcript, I don't think you should be saying that.
[/quote]
I was just going by anecdotes from friends. After hearing some of their horror stories 25% getting A's surely sounds generous in reference to Cal.</p>
<p>When people talk about it being tough to get an A they are referring to the 15-20 percent. What do you think wouldn't be generous BlueElmo, 5 percent? That would be insane. 10 percent?</p>
<p>30 percent is nice, but some classes give out 40 percent.</p>