<p>Is it true that most of Berkeley's courses use a class curve to distribute grades?
Like, the top 20% get an A, top 30% B, etc.?</p>
<p>anyone?.....</p>
<p>I believe it varies from class to class.</p>
<p>By the way, it had been barely 15 minutes that you created this thread and you already bumped it? I'm guessing you're not familiar with general message board etiquette, but you traditionally wait at least one day to bump your thread.</p>
<p>yea, it depends on the class. Physics classes (7a 7b 7c) are curved in such a way that 65% get A's and B's, where the remaining 35% get C's D's and F's.</p>
<p>and yes, don't be a bump freak.</p>
<p>anyone know whether math16b is curved?</p>
<p>Check here: <a href="http://math.berkeley.edu/%7Esarason/Class_Webpages/Spring_2006/Math16B_S1.html%5B/url%5D">http://math.berkeley.edu/~sarason/Class_Webpages/Spring_2006/Math16B_S1.html</a></p>
<p>[I found that Googling "Berkeley Math 16B"]</p>
<p>Azure, thanks for the link. </p>
<p>I guess I am just worried about going to a university where my grade is going to depend on how the other students in my class do. I have never had a class like this, and I guess I, like many other students, have a bit of apprehension about the class curve.</p>
<p>socalgal20. in some classes your grade WILL depend on how other people do and it's unfortunate. For example, econ 1 was curved in section making it so people wouldn't ask questions in section so other people would still be confused. If you dont like that, don't major in business or econ. I was the same as you last year before I took my classes at cal and still am the same, but once you get in the groove with classes that all goes away. I suggest going to pickaprof.com to see the grade distributions</p>
<p>***? that never happened in my econ class. Besides, Olney kept saying if everybody did A level work, everybody would get an A. Anyways, pretty much all engineering classes are curved but it's not like people want to prevent other people from doing well. Our floor always studied together and helped each other out. Personally I love curves. It offers leniency, so you can miss a lot and still get an A. My rule of thumb is to always aim to be at least 1-1.5 standard deviations above the mean and that'll often result in an A.</p>
<p>I don't know about Olney.. I had Train</p>
<p>
[quote]
I guess I am just worried about going to a university where my grade is going to depend on how the other students in my class do. I have never had a class like this, and I guess I, like many other students, have a bit of apprehension about the class curve.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Most of the time the curve helps you, i.e. if there were no curve you would end up with a lower grade. With a few rare exceptions the curves are fair and you want them. This is because in many science classes (where curves are more highlighted) the material can be so rushed and difficult such that it's highly unlikely for you to get a 90% or even 80% on a test. Thus, how much you understood the course is only graded in comparison to how much your peers understood the courses. Since these are students with similar capabilities this makes things more fair because if the material is hard, then everyone does poorly, and if you put in more work than your classmates, you'll be rewarded by the curve.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My rule of thumb is to always aim to be at least 1-1.5 standard deviations above the mean and that'll often result in an A.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>From the way I understand, every standard deviation is a letter grade with the mean centered at a B-/C+. (this is only for certain classes, tending to be in sciences/engineering)</p>
<p>An example midterm: mean 65%, standard deviation 13</p>
<p>Grading scale:
79+ = A
65-78 = B
52-65 = C
39-52 = D
38- = F</p>
<p>I'm not sure if this is exactly how it works but this is what I hear from some people and it makes sense to me.</p>
<p>Nah standard deviation is related to the normal distribution. We'll take physics for example. If I remember correctly, the grade distribution is 25% As, 40% Bs, and the other 35% are Cs.</p>
<p>Roughly speaking, if you score one standard deviation above, you're in the top 16%. If you're two standard deviations, you're in the top 2.3%. If you scored the average, you're 0 standard deviations and you're exactly 50%. So according to the grade distribution above, the required grades are (assuming mean 65% and SD 13%):</p>
<p>A: .67 SD or .67x13+65=74 or higher
B: -.39 SD or -.39x13+65=59.93 to 74
C: 0 to 59.93</p>
<p>Now note that this is according to a normal distribution, whereas class distributions are normally skewed a little, but keeping at 1 standard deviation above should always give you an A or at least an A- (unless you were in Rezakhanlou's Math 53 which gave only 15% A(-)s grrr).</p>
<p>what about chem 1a?</p>
<p>None of this really matters.</p>
<p>Just go to <a href="http://cal.pickaprof.com%5B/url%5D">http://cal.pickaprof.com</a> to see exact grading distributions for every class since Fall 2006.</p>
<p>By the way, it's quite foolish to think of curves as "competition." Because curving is always done by class rank and not raw percentage points, the effect any one person can have on your grade is pretty much negligible, especially in a large class of 100+ students. If curving were done by raw points, that would be a matter of concern, but in my three years here I haven't seen a single professor who grades like that. Regardless, you can just check Pick-A-Prof.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Nah standard deviation is related to the normal distribution. We'll take physics for example. If I remember correctly, the grade distribution is 25% As, 40% Bs, and the other 35% are Cs.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yeah yeah, it varies, but many science classes make the median a B-/C+ range. Sengupta explained this in E77. Obviously the Physics 7-series has a little more lenient curve.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Now note that this is according to a normal distribution, whereas class distributions are normally skewed a little, but keeping at 1 standard deviation above should always give you an A or at least an A- (unless you were in Rezakhanlou's Math 53 which gave only 15% A(-)s grrr).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That was what I wrote. Above 1 SD usually means A or A-. Coincidentally, the O Chem classes also has a curve where only 15% get A's.</p>