<p>Nope. My boyfriend did, however, as did several of my pre-med friends. I know that it is an immensely difficult class.</p>
<p>My daughter also had issues with this course. From her experience (no AP Chem) and from reading this thread I’ve concluded that OSU isn’t advertising this course honestly. To make an A or B you really need to have taken AP Chem in high school and have done fairly well. Yet, this course is advertised as not assuming any prior chem knowledge. Seems like this is a bit deceiving.</p>
<p>ProudBuckDad- </p>
<p>If a kid had AP Chem in high school and did fairly well, I would assume he would have a passing AP score (3 or above) and would not be in Chem 121 at all. He would be placed in the next class, Chem 122, or above. </p>
<p>I don’t think the class is presented deceptively. It is not the intro chem class for non-science majors. It is the intro chem class for science and engineering majors. It does not require prior chem knowledge, but without it, I would think a kid would need to combine hard work with a great science aptitude to get an A.</p>
<p>The problem is that that is a bell curve. If there are 300 students like 10 only get As and 10 have to get Fs. So no matter how hard you work if you are not in the top 10 you can’t get an A. Maybe the ones in my d’s class didn’t get a 3 on the AP test-but they had definetly taken AP and it was a review for them. The teacher skipped over a bunch of stuff saying she knew they learned it-but my d hadn’t seen it before. She had 32ACT, top of her class, and couldn’t get above a C-.</p>
<p>I think in a tough class without a curve, everyone would fail rather than the other way around. Generally, instructors use a curve so that they can give out higher grades across the board.</p>
<p>Sadly for gen chem you have to do well to get an A or B. Granted I did not take 121 or 122 but I did take 123 and an A was a 92% or above. Is was hard but you have to put the effort to do well. My understanding from my 123 professor is that if you make a certain percentage you are guaranteed an A (grades are done by a department member and not individual professors). Its not easy, but if I did it Im sure anyone can with enough effort.</p>
<p>the ‘bell curve’ or normal distribution has its peak at C to C+ . The chemistry administrator told this to my mother. So the bulk of students earn C-,C, C+ or B-</p>
<p>Its a relative scale.</p>
<p>If everybody earned 80-90 percent of the points in the class, the bulk would still earn these grades. The normal distribution would be force fit to the absolute points earned.</p>
<p>Really President Gee should stop this relative grading stuff.</p>
<p>If you don’t need chem, don’t take it and take earth science instead. Labs are literally identifying rocks based on properties. Anthropology and earth science are easy ways to avoid harder bio and chem classes if you’re not a science person.</p>