<p>I'm currently having one (who I won't name) in an advanced CS class. Most people have a C- (just passing) in the class, high average is around a C+/B- (kind of where I fall), only two more assignments then the final. Still, my professor is like (and I quote): "No curves! You earn your A's by working hard, not because the average student is an idiot!". I'm not outspoken, and I guess to some degree he's right, but inside I'm yelling "Come on! This is CS, not Basketweaving or Underwater Hockey!" and "There are students who are working their butts off every day to earn a C- and simply pass your stupid, un-curved class, and you think you can call such students idiots!". It just hurts when there's a general consensus your professor doesn't teach well, shows up 30 minutes late to office hours, seems uninterested in his students, and yet demands us to know all the material, without the help of a curve of course. Guess I should've expected that at a university, sigh.
Alright, complaining is over. Any one of you have/had a similar experience?</p>
<p>I had a class taught by a graduate student. He was against curving for the same reason your prof was. I kind of agreed. However, the class was something like 10% quizzes, 5% homework, 40% midterm and 45% final. Everyone failed the midterm. He still didn’t want to curve, but if he didn’t the entire class was going to fail (I think we could have still withdrawn at that point, not sure). So, he threw out the midterm. We thought he would retest us, or add in more quizzes or homework or a second midterm. Nope.</p>
<p>We had an 80% final. </p>
<p>Is curving exclusive to STEM majors? My Environmental Science class curves to a B (regardless of the numerical average - it is always turned into a B. Our second midterm had a class average of 54 and a 54 became a B - anything higher than a 70 became an A) - but my other classes do not curve regardless of how poor the class average is. </p>
<p>@preamble1776 I guess my CS teacher must not consider CS a STEM major then lol.</p>
<p>LOL, I didn’t mean that all STEM classes curve - I meant that curves only happen in STEM classes. But your CS professor sounds like a butt and I’m sorry. :(</p>
<p>@preamble1776 </p>
<p>Is that true? Only STEM classes curve? I always hear about curved classes from non-STEM majors, so I assumed that any class could be curved, if the teacher allowed it. </p>
<p>@collegeamateur </p>
<p>Same experience here with my Physics class. As if it wasn’t enough that it was a major weeding class (size of class has dropped by almost half from ~130), the professor told us the day of our midterm that no curving occurred in that class. A real shame, that is.</p>
<p>@NotYetEngineer - Oh, I don’t actually know that for a fact. I was posing that as a question for OP - since he asked if we have professors who don’t curve, and I didn’t know if curving was STEM-exclusive, since only my STEM class curves. </p>
<p>@preamble1776 </p>
<p>Ah, my mistake then.</p>
<p>No, curving is not exclusive to STEM majors; I studied and TAed in a psychology department that also applied curves.</p>
<p>I disagree with the curve for the opposite reason - in that I think it sometimes holds students who could’ve gotten a higher grade back. If only a certain percentage of your class can get an A, you can get a B even if you do really excellent work that would otherwise be A-worthy. I believe that all of the students in a given class should have an equal chance of earning an A, provided that they are willing to do the work.</p>
<p>With that said, though, I think that as a professor if everyone in your class has a C- or lower you, the professor, need to do some soul-searching and figure out what’s going on. I hate when professors assume that everyone in their class is a moron rather than thinking that perhaps they aren’t conveying the material effectively.</p>
<p>Grading policy is at the discretion of the professor. I have personally never had a single professor that -has- curved grades. I have gotten the grade that I personally have earned in every single one of my classes, without any comparison to standing within the class as a whole. </p>
<p>The quality of the instructor is a separate issue from the use of curves.</p>
<p>A curve is not appropriate in a class where students are expected to master a specific set of concepts and the test evaluates that mastery. If you need to know X, Y, and Z before moving on to the next level, going to grad school, or getting a job in the field, then that’s all that matters. E.g., if you need to understand closures, it doesn’t matter if the instructor sucks: your grade needs to reflect your understanding of closures.</p>
<p>A curve might be appropriate if you need to know X and only some of Y and it would be really awesome if you knew Z but you don’t really need it.</p>
<p>@julliet You do have a point.
@WasatchWriter Yeah thanks for the overly stoic response. We all feel so much better. You sound just like my terrible CS professor.
And thanks for making the Harvard logo your profile picture. We all know about the grade inflation that’s going on there, so just stop.</p>
<p>^^ I think that reply was a bit unwarranted, @collegeamateur, and really quite rude. </p>
<p>Wasatch makes a very valid point. I’m opposed to curving in most respects for this very reason. As a physics/math double major, I realize how important it is to actually understand the concepts before moving on. It’s not like a history class where a lack of understanding of one chapter is going to drastically inhibit ones ability in future history courses. One can understand the history of World War II without having a solid understanding of the history of Ancient Greece, despite the fact that they are both parts of Western Civilization. A physics major trying to move on without having a solid understanding of using force vectors? Not so much. That stuff is never going to go away. </p>
<p>@comfortablycurt this was supposed to be a forum where people were supposed to share their experiences with professors not curving tests, not try to justify the non-curves in certain class. You can start your own forum about justifying not curving certain classes, but this forum is kind of like a dish-out forum. You know, where people go to vent out their anger for the day.</p>
<p>If the thread is about sharing experiences regarding professors who don’t curve, it inherently begs the question as to whether or not a professor should curve in the first place - so I don’t think discussion about the merit or justification of curving vs not curving is irrelevant. </p>
<p>The title of your thread is “College Professors That Don’t Curve Tests/Grades?”</p>
<p>It seemed rather natural to talk about…well…professors not curving grades and some of the potential reasons for not curving grades. </p>
<p>You said "“No curves! You earn your A’s by working hard, not because the average student is an idiot!”. I’m not outspoken, and I guess to some degree he’s right, but inside I’m yelling “Come on! This is CS, not Basketweaving or Underwater Hockey!”</p>
<p>So it seemed quite natural to share the fact that many other professors, and many students as well are of the opinion that you -should- earn A’s by working hard…and not just hitting the curve. </p>
<p>"Any one of you have/had a similar experience? "</p>
<p>Yes. As we’ve been discussing. </p>
<p>This is a public forum. Not every comment is going to be candy coated and filled with sugar. People are going to disagree with you sometimes, and people are going to discuss things that may not be 100% directly related to the question that you intended to focus on. </p>
<p>“Grading on a curve” can be effective for large classes where the overall distribution of the strength of students is unlikely to vary much from year to year (though it may change over several years as accumulated changes in how selective the college is show their effects). Grading on non-curve basis means that the instructors need to carefully design new tests of similar difficulty to past ones (or to the stated grading standards) every semester. This may be considered a more difficult task by many.</p>
<p>LOL I guess I’m going off a little bit too much about my professor now. Sorry guys. But you have to admit it kind of stinks not to get your grades curved if you’re in the high average.
Anyways, this forum actually did make me feel a lot better. But keep on sharing experiences. And the floor is open to personal opinion.</p>
<p>The class average of my introductory Computer Science course at UCSB was 73%. I received a 98%. It was so easy. I did not even have much computer science experience before I took the class. I only self-studied a little during the summer before college. I’m not even that smart compared to the other students. I was rejected/waitlisted by UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCI, and CPSLO, so my high school stats were probably in the bottom 25 percentile.</p>
<p>High school was harder. One of my finals was a practice IB exam. I would have gotten a “7” if it was an actual IB exam, but the teacher did not curve it, so I received a “C” on the test. In the end, he decided to allow us to drop the final.</p>
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<p>Trust me, it’s worse when the professor curves in a class where the average is high. That’s when you get situations where instead of needing a 90 to get an A-, you suddenly need a 94 to get an A-.</p>