<p>Does anybody have any idea about the percentage of students that fail during the Fall semester in the course 030.205(N) Introductory Organic Chemistry I? As both 030.205 (N) and 030.206(N) are offered in the JHU Summer Programs, I am wondering if these courses are designed to help students who failed in the Fall semester pass, as they have to pass them to continue toward graduation. Also, are there still many students who might fail again during the Summer programs and eventually may have to drop out of JHU? Any comment is highly appreciated.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll be able to find that information anywhere.</p>
<p>Well, I was just wondering if a lot people failed this class. I’m having a hard time fitting in JHU, and I’m thinking to possibly give up / transfer.</p>
<p>A couple of my friends took Orgo over the summer two years ago and they said that a decent percentage of the class was people who were retaking Orgo from the regular year, which set the test averages etc off a bit since they had already all seen the material once through. Don’t have any actual numbers, but hope that helps.</p>
<p>my AP Chem teacher used to teach organic chem at a university and she said that half of the class fails or drops out by the end of the year because it requires so much studying and memorizing of the tons of organic compounds</p>
<p>I think that Klein teaches over the Summer. Klein is a great professor and with Klein, most people think the classes are considerably easier than during the semester. I know people that have taken it over the Summer, and they rave about Klein.</p>
<p>Is this how JHU boast about around 90% pre-med success rate - by weeding out a good chunk using orgo? Scary.</p>
<p>I took orgo with Klein back when he taught during the year and IIRC, we had like 30% A’s and 40% B’s in our class, and I don’t think that many people failed the class. (The class wasn’t curved all either - those were the actual grades people earned on the tests). Also, Klein tracked class attendence every day (not who came, but how many people came) and when I went to talk to him, he showed me that the average number of people who didn’t come to class was almost the same as the number of peopel who failed. Don’t remember what the exact number was, nor does correlation imply causation, but just food for thought… Orgo at Hopkins is tough as it would be at any top school, but it’s not impossible and they’re <em>not</em> out to fail people</p>
<p>AMD, in a word, no. it’s very difficult to fail at hopkins.</p>
<p>Wait. So, if it is very hard to fail at Hopkins, then how are they able to compare the summer Orgo class to the regular semester Orgo class? Or would that simply be a comparison based on other classes they’ve already taken?</p>
<p>Directly off a syllabus from the Fall: “About 20% receive As, and about 10% fail.” (My disclaimer–note that even this is not a guarantee.) Course was curved to C+/B-.</p>
<p>Dr. Klein is also a very unique teacher, take a look at those amazing books for a great example of how and why. I would say the summer is an entirely different animal. Also, as tanman said, recall that it may also seem different because of some students who are retaking and ‘know’ the material; all the better for a non-curved class over the summer, imo. In other words, there’s frustratingly no way to compare. </p>
<p>Personally, the way I measure classes at Hopkins is more along the lines of how hard is it to get an A, rather than fail. As previous people have said, it’s very hard to fail, to the point where it’s really not a good measuring stick of difficulty. And in classes like this, a sense of security goes a long way…</p>
<p>“About 20% receive As”</p>
<p>I expect all who come to Hopkins are very good students. It must be a tough class if only 20% get As. I hear some Ivys give As to about 50% of such classes. Any truth to it?</p>
<p>AMD, yes. Colleges like Harvard are known to significantly inflate grades by adjusting the mean and so on.</p>
<p>Agree. I asked an admissions guy about this during the speech, something like why would someone come here based on the assurance that grad schools look at JH differently, as opposed to going to such other schools where a better GPA (at least number-wise) was almost a guarantee. Got a really lame response, something about people appreciating a challenge. Bah.</p>
<p>Orgo-wise, nerdy as it is I bought Klein’s book over intersession and familiarized myself with the basics (seeing resonance structures easily, formal charges, undrawn electrons, basic naming, blah blah) so they were as ingrained as I could get them. It actually worked to some extent, I was free to focus on the harder stuff. Just imagine how it looked tho, me with that book during break…</p>