<p>Hi, I took a final exam from mit's open-course ware (a free class online or something) to see how I compare to 8.01. Self grading was pretty straight forward and I ended up getting a 75%. Does this mean I should be studying a lot more to get A's in my classes? Are the grades curved any way and what is an average final exam grade score? </p>
<p>Don't be afraid to tell me how it is. It will be useful to know in preparing to attend in fall 012 and thanks guys!</p>
<p>Classes are not necessarily graded in any particular way across the board, but it’s not unusual for freshman classes/larger classes to be curved in that the class average is equivalent to a B. Professors tend to set thresholds for A and C by other means. It is MIT policy that classes/exams can only be curved in a way that is not harmful to students – that is, no class is curved in the way that the highest score achieved is set at 100% and everybody else’s score is adjusted accordingly.</p>
<p>So it’s generally not possible to say what grade a particular score would equate to without knowing the class average for that exam, although it wouldn’t be unusual for class average in an 8.01-type class to be around a 70%.</p>
<p>At any rate, two things are true:
<p>^ What percent is considered “passing” for first semester freshmen - 70%?</p>
<p>Is there anyway to find average gpa’s per major? Just a curiosity.</p>
<p>Passing for my Solid State Chemistry class is strictly defined as getting 50% of the points. Hence, there is no curve and you are competing with yourself. The average on past tests has been in the 60s.</p>
<p>For biology, passing is a bit higher (~55% of the points). The average on past tests have been around 70.</p>
<p>Getting an A in the course is significantly harder, and requires you to get at least 80% of the points in those 2 classes.</p>
<p>I passed out of all my math/physics GIRs, so I can’t comment on those. But I heard that the calculus tests are usually pretty straightforward, and the average sometimes run in the upper 80’s.</p>