<p>while looking into washu i heard repeatedly that the freshman level chem class routinely fails half of the studnets in it. is this true and if so, is it because the class is just so difficult or because there is no curve and whatever you get is what you get or does it vary from teacher to teacher.</p>
<p>Failing is a relative term when you're talking about freshman chem. The year I took it, the mean on the first exam was a 40... technically failing. But everything's curved, so being above the mean is still a good thing, even if the mean is that low. In the end, I wouldn't say half the class fails... most of the class is in the A-C range. Can't remember how spread out the stats were though, for each particular grade. (And the curving is across all sections/professors. Some people prefer one prof over another, but I think the material is well taught buy all of them, and they try hard to keep everything even between sections.)</p>