<p>My son signed up for an Eng-W 171 course during orientation. He knew that this writing class would be more challenging than the basic W-131 class, but on the first day of class, his professor went over the Syllabus and basically told the class that most students will probably get a C in the class. She said that this grade indicates good, sound work and is "praiseworthy." My son said that he and several in the class were alarmed by this statement. He has always received very good grades in English, but he wants to get his GPA as high as possible, but unless he "walks on water" in this class, he's afraid he'll just end up with the C. He talked about dropping the class or swapping out for a W-131 class (if available). In the end he said he would just stick with this class because he didn't want the hassle of doing the drop/add. I hope he's making the right decision. His prof. is R. Baumann. Would anyone care to weigh in on this topic? Thanks.</p>
<p>Drop it. College is not a time for pride. It is not a time for proving yourself personally. It's a time for the grades, gradschools, and jobs.</p>
<p>Drop it like it's hot.</p>
<p>P.S. Do you mean 170? And what's your professor's name?</p>
<p>Last semester Baumann's W170 had only 3 grades in the C range, and eight in the As and nine in the Bs, so that teacher does not look like such a tough grader, although some of the others that taught it last spring look much easier gradewise.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input. It is 170, my bad. He's still going to take the class, but seeing her grade distribution report, it is a little encouraging.</p>
<p>Yeah, lots of times teachers try and scare kids with the grades, but the distributions tell the whole story.</p>
<p>That link shows that 7 kids got an A+/A/A-, 13 got a B+/B/B-, and 9 kids getting a C+ or below. A relatively fair distribution, but not "easy" to get an A.</p>