<p>Does Penn give out +'s or -'s?</p>
<p>If it does, wat's considered an A? 94% or higher? And is it possible to get an A+?</p>
<p>How does the GPA system work? is it A=4.0, A-=3.7, etc?</p>
<p>thx in advance</p>
<p>yes, + / - are given out - with the exception of an a+, which is still a 4.0, the + is 0.3 above the base (b+ = 3.3, c+ = 2.3), and the - is 0.3 below the base (a- = 3.7, b- = 2.7).</p>
<p>percentages are usually not relevant at all, given that we have a curve...</p>
<p>If there's no strict curve, 80% is commonly an A-. </p>
<p>Most freshman level courses are curved, though.</p>
<p>I'd also like to ask about incoming freshman high school GPAs. How does UPenn recalculate them? Do they use the standard scale or do they use the base scale where A+ to A- is 4 and so on?</p>
<p>Really, how would we know? They don't reveal the secrets of the admissions process to you once you get in.</p>
<p>Well, my high school counselor told me how some of my safeties recalculate GPAs, but I didn't ask her about UPenn because at that time I really wasn't looking at it. I thought people on the UPenn forum would know, but I guess not.</p>
<p>tenebrousfire - how can a 3.7 be an A-? then what would be a 3.6-3.3 if 3.3 is a B+</p>
<p>does Penn have a grade inflation or deflation?</p>
<p>it has grade</p>
<p>stagflation</p>
<p>a 3.4-3.6 is somewhere in the nebulous range between a b+ and a-. however individual classes will never give anything other than a 3, 3.3, 3.7, or 4 (for grades between a b and an a)</p>
<p>is 87% a B+? or is it 88%?</p>
<p>and i also heard before that the curve gives out about 45-48% A's overall.</p>
<p>but does anyone know how many strict A/A+'s they give out? not including A-'s?</p>
<p>45-48% A's? Dream on.</p>
<p>There is no set formula for grades within any given class - each professor is free to do whatever s/he pleases. For example, in Greek last semester, the class average was just under 84% That professor happens to like to center the grades at B and my 81.1% just squeeked in. She had started with a range where that would have been a B- (2.7 on the transcript). </p>
<p>Some professors, particularly in the big lecture classes, will go to a simple A=90, B=80, etc. and don't care how many of any specific letter grade they give out. Other professsors will award certain percentages of each letter grade (e.g. 15% A's in a class of 20 would give the top three students an A.)</p>
<p>The "standard curve" (approx. 2.1% F's, 13.6% D's, 68.2% C's, 13.6% B's and 2.1% A's) in practice never occurs. Almost everyone uses some version of the 90-80-70 system or a pre-determined percentage of each grade that is considerably more generous than the standard curve.</p>
<p>That said, some schools and or classes, may, indeed, come pretty close to the standard, or so people say. </p>
<p>In any case, you will be told what the grade system is on the first day of class so you'll know what you're in for.</p>
<p>40-45% A's in a cruved class, that's funny (though it does happen in some really, really fluff but big classes, this means you, polisci department)</p>
<p>for the math/science courses it genereally looks like <20% A/A-, ~40% B-/B-/B+, 25-30% C range, and 10-15% below that.</p>
<p>I know this is a subjective question, but how difficult is it really to get an A in those math/science classes assuming you study and can absorb the material at a fairly decent (not crazily fast) rate.</p>
<p>there was a firefight!</p>
<p>as your name is "premed guy" i assume you want information on premed classes.</p>
<p>Penn is fighting grade inflation in its sciences.</p>
<p>All science classes are curved, but the type of curve varies per department.</p>
<p>For example, a description of the math curve can be found at the bottom of this page:
<a href="http://www.math.upenn.edu/%7Edgalvin/114/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.math.upenn.edu/~dgalvin/114/index.html</a></p>
<p>Chem (orgo/gen) varies depending on the professor, biology adheres to a strict standard deviation. Sometimes professors will pick score ranges before the test happens and then adjust them slightly once the scores are out. (Ie; if your A range was 80-100, but no one scored 80+, you need to reset your ranges)</p>
<p>In intro biology, the average is set to a C+/B- (over a few, under a few). Chem sometimes does this as well, but the average is generally set a little higher, maybe B-/B. </p>
<p>To get over one standard deviation above the average, you need to score within the top 15% of the class. Unless you're a crazy genious, that's pretty hard to do. Usually, that 15% of the class ends up receiving some type of A. In higher level science courses the A distribution is usually about 25-30%.</p>
<p>If you keep up with your work, it is very easy to get a B-/B. If you don't, it's pretty easy to dip into C territory - people don't mess around here, the curves are really mean, especially when you get into classes that are past the initial weed-out phase (aka - biology 101).</p>
<p>Come to penn if you want to work hard and learn, penn is a fun party school but you need to hunker down if you want to beat people on the curves.</p>
<p>when i heard the cut-off from other places, i feel pretty lucky because it sounds like grading here is really flexible (meaning: almost solely depending on the professor). that means it's a little more reasonable (because no rules are always reasonable but some places choose to adhere to the unreasonable rules). my bro went to PSU and he said the mean of a freshman chem class was 60, and everyone who got 60 got a D. The A's was always 93+%. I did get some A's at Penn but there were only 1-2 classes that I actually got scores in that range. I'd have had multiple C's if they grade everything by the number.</p>
<p>still, it's not a piece of cake to get an A here. In my experience (when I take mostly science classes), people who get an A actually have strong background in that field before they take the class. (notice lots of kids who have AP credits come to this school and retake the classes for premed req etc... though some AP kids did screw their grades... no guarantee here). For some humanities classes, you might need superior writing skills or excess memory space in your brain to do well.</p>
<p>ooh yeah and i was lucky enough to place out of most 100-level classes and find that it's much easier to do well in higher level science classes (not necessarily if u dont know anything in that field and jump to higher level, unless u'r a genius). prob because i really liked the classes, the stuff was more exciting (more related to what the prof was doing), and everyone in the class was in-major (not necessarily premeds). i still believe after a bunch of upper level classes in bio, i won't get an A in biol101 if i take it. i'm just not that good at being at the top of the cruel curve. too confess, i got a B- in one of them... (which is the worst grade in my major).</p>
<p>There was a firefight</p>
<p>if youare someone who is used to getting all A's/A+'s and upper 1500's SATS, is it still generally impossible to get A's because everyone is super smart, or is everyone really that super smart? Do a lot of ppl get in for reaosns other then grades because Penn wants a unique student body?</p>