<p>How difficult are the classes at Harvard? I imagine they are rigorous, but how are they graded? Is it a scale where say the top 5 scorers get As, the next 10 get Bs and so on?</p>
<p>It depends on the department, the class, the professor…so it depends.</p>
<p>All of the math/science classes I’ve been in grade according to a curve, which is not always a good thing because more often than not your classmates will be very bright.</p>
<p>The rest of my classes, history and the like, seem to give out B+s and A-s often, Bs fairly often, B- and A uncommon. It is very difficult to get a C+ or below in a history class, which undoubtedly contributes to the (misguided) perception that humanities and social sciences classes are “easier” than hard science classes. I don’t find this to be true, because sometimes it’s damn near impossible to get an A in humanities/social science classes. It is true, however, that if you’re going to be awful in a class, it’s better to be awful in a non-hard science class. But that doesn’t mean it’s easier, it just means the floor doesn’t go very low. I wish uppity freshmen in Annenberg would understand this difference more often.</p>
<p>Awsome thank you very much.</p>
<p>I can’t say much about the difficulty of the classes since that can be very subjective, but in terms of the grading, the math/science courses I’m taking are definitely graded on a curve. For my math class, the original class average is pretty low but it is expected that the final grade will be curved up depending on how many people currently have a B, a C, etc. </p>
<p>For my science class, the exams are in essay format and each individual question is graded on a curve. In other words, the graders would look at a series of student answers and decide, based on the average quality of the answers given, what kind of response deserves full points and which ones deserve partial credit.</p>