<p>Quick Question...
How do your grades at Cal show on your college transcript? Is it just A,B,C,D,F?? Or will it show like A+,A,A-,B+ etc. etc.?? Or do they show percentages?</p>
<p>anyone have a clue?</p>
<p>pluses and minuses show up because they have different grade points (except A+ and A which have the same grade point of 4.0)</p>
<p>As quoted from UC</a> Berkeley Registrar : Grade and Credit Code Definitions
"When attached to the grades A, B, C, and D, plus (+) grades carry three-tenths of a grade point more per unit, and minus (-) grades three-tenths of a grade point less per unit than unsuffixed grades" (A+ and A are exceptions and have the same grade point of 4.0)</p>
<p>Haven't heard anything about percentages, classes probably don't report this to the registrar.</p>
<p>In other words..:</p>
<p>A+/A = 4.0
A- = 3.7
B+ = 3.3</p>
<p>An example of a Berkeley transcript:
Bear</a> Facts: Unofficial Transcripts</p>
<p>"A+/A = 4.0
A- = 3.7
B+ = 3.3"</p>
<p>Speaking of which... if you guys are in a class and are on the borderline between getting an A- and a B+, try your hardest to get the A-. There is a bigger drop (0.4 points) between an A- and B+ as opposed to only a 0.3 point drop if you were to go from an A to an A- or a B+ to a B. </p>
<p>If you get a lot of B+'s... your GPA "suffers" a lot. You get a big boost if you manage to do a little better in that class and get that A- instead. Of course, an A or A+ would be even better!!! :) </p>
<p>I think they should make the +/- points equal (all 0.33 apart). So in other words, I think grade points should be:</p>
<p>A+/A=4.0
A- =3.67
B+ =3.33
B =3.0
etc. </p>
<p>Food for thought.</p>
<p>Khan makes an excellent point. However, it's often a lot easier to get a B+ than an A-. The jump from A- to A can be brutal, also, in some majors.</p>
<p>ah man thats ridiculous....why does Cal do that?</p>
<p>Because Cal is the top public university in the nation. If you want anything easier, go to [put hated university here].</p>
<p>Well, I mean what else would you expect? The grading system has always seemed to be quite fair in my opinion, on par with what more other colleges do. Covered grades for the first semester might be something that would make the system more friendly, but I understand their rationale for not doing that. A bit of a bump for an A+ in terms of GPA would also be pleasant. :) The .33 distribution also makes quite a lot of sense.</p>
<p>If you are applying to grad schools some committees do subscribe to khan's method. For example the law school admissions council converts all your grades into a 0.333 incremental system. </p>
<p>However for those who have received more A-s than B+s, this is detrimental.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Well, I mean what else would you expect? The grading system has always seemed to be quite fair in my opinion, on par with what more other colleges do.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>How exactly is it "quite fair" or "on par with what other colleges do?"</p>
<p>Based on your post history, it looks like you're an engineering student. In my opinion, the CoE's grading policies are simply horrendous and unjustified.</p>
<p>I currently rank in the top 20% of my class, and I managed to get a "C" in Computer Science 170. I spent more time studying for that final than I did for all of my other classes combined. I went to just about every lecture and discussion, attended office hours, and read the textbook multiple times. Unfortunately, on the exams, I didn't "see" certain algorithms that other students could. It turns out that the professor also used a horrendous grade distribution, with a 2.7 class average consisting of roughly 20% A's and 33% C's or lower. This is one of the lowest I've ever seen for an upper-division class.</p>
<p>Getting a grade like that just looks horrible on a transcript, regardless of the reason. I know of so many Cal engineering majors who would like to pursue graduate school or get a JD/MBA or otherwise move on to a higher place in life...but can't because they're screwed over by their GPAs, and screwed over from transferring to another major by the school's bureaucracy. There are so many students who took the general-ed courses in their first years, discovered that EECS/BioE/whatever wasn't their passion over halfway through their college careers, and by then couldn't transfer out even if they wanted to.</p>
<p>Stanford's grading distributions are not like Cal's. Yes, it still requires effort to get an A. Yes, there's still a lot of tough competition. However, neither are nearly as bad as it gets at Cal, due to more reasonable grading practices. The median grade from CS classes is typically an A-, with the overall distribution ranging from A+ to B-. That's much more fair, in my opinion: it's still very hard to get a solid A, but it's harder to fail just because your peers thought of a clever algorithm solution that you couldn't come up with on an exam due to lack of time or ingenuity.</p>
<p>In fact, with the long history of student activism at Cal, I'm surprised that students haven't made any protests about the grade deflation, especially in the math, science, and engineering departments.</p>
<p>Of course, you may be a top-notch student, and if so, congratulations, and I feel good for you that you can thrive in any environment. However, I'd generally advise against jumping to any conclusions about the grading here until you've reached your third year, no matter how well you did as a freshman. I say this from personal experience. :)</p>
<p>K-twin is a top-notch student.</p>
<p>Ahhhhhhhhh, it's so easy to get some form of a B at Cal, but soooooo hard to get some form of an A. Like kenf said, the jump from B+ to A- is really steep. And the distance between A- and A is also pretty long.</p>
<p>How exactly is your GPA calculated?</p>
<p>If you mean by semester, convert your letter grades into points. Add 'em up and then divide by how many classes you took for the semester. Classes taken for P/NP are not included in the GPA.</p>
<p>"student": the avg GPA on campus has been going up steadily at Cal, so there is actually more grade inflation than deflation. I think that the avg GPA is now around 3.3, whereas it used to be well under 3.0 a couple of decades ago.</p>
<p>As well, graduate schools tend to compensate for the harder grading at Berkeley. Having a relatively poor GPA out of Cal did not prevent me from getting into top MBA programs. Generally speaking, I would encourage you guys to focus more on your campus experience and developping your leadership opportunities instead of overly worrying about your GPAs.</p>
<p>
[quote]
the avg GPA on campus has been going up steadily at Cal, so there is actually more grade inflation than deflation. I think that the avg GPA is now around 3.3, whereas it used to be well under 3.0 a couple of decades ago.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Ah, but that's for all the colleges. What about the College of Engineering?</p>
<p>Everyone I know in CoE has fantastic grades. Fantastic in their lowness.</p>
<p>I think the avg GPA at the CoE went from something like 2.65 in the 1980s to around 3.0 today. Pretty low, but not abysmally so in comparison to the past.</p>
<p>CalX's point regarding college GPAs is right on. It's important to remember that college is not four (or more) years of high school. While grades do matter, it's probably more important to take advantage of the opportunities a school like Berkeley has to offer. Every year, thousands of students graduate from this institution with all sorts of academic records; what really makes the exceptional students stand out is what they do with their educations.</p>
<p>For those who are interested, I suggest reading the tributes to this year's University Medal winner and nominees. (The University Medal is Cal's highest academic honor, traditional given to a graduating senior.) You'll notice that while their GPAs tend to be high, they're usually less than perfect and certainly not the highest on campus. Of course, their accomplishments tend to be most impressive.</p>