<p>I suppose these questions are more so directed towards current students but any applicable knowledge is greatly appreciated :]</p>
<p>Are final exams departmental or do teachers administer their own version? </p>
<p>How exactly is GPA determined? According to the GPA calculator on the Tulane website, an A=4.00, A- = 3.667 (citing off the top of my head), etc. My concern however is if an A is universally acknowledged as a 95-100, A- as 90-94, B+ = 86-89, B = 85, B- =80-84... etc..</p>
<p>Final exams are usually teacher specific. There may be exceptions, but mostly this is true.</p>
<p>Forget the 95-100=A, etc. Within a class, a teacher is going to grade on a curve the majority of the time. If it is a really hard class (for most people, anyway) like chem or physics, the highest grade on a test might be a 75, and that would be an A. What you are seeing from the GPA calculator isn’t the scale for within a class, it is how they calculate your GPA overall given the letter grade a teacher submits. They don’t submit grades of 93 or whatever to the registrar’s office, they submit letter grades. So if you took 4 classes and got 2 A’s and 2 B’s, you would have a 3.500, even if your highest exam scores in one of those classes in which you received an A was 75. You may have set the curve in that class! Hope that answers your question. BTW, I am quite certain it works the same way at most universities.</p>
<p>Final exams are departmental for classes such as Calc I, foreign languages, etc. Any class that has a large number of students taking it, usually. While SOME science/math classes are graded on a curve, the only class I have ever taken at Tulane where the grade has been curved is Calc I. Most of the classes like chem, bio, etc curve, but if it’s not a science class, I wouldn’t count on it. I can’t speak for all of those classes though, since even my lab science class didn’t curve. Hope this helps :)</p>
<p>I saw a syllabus for one of S2’s courses where it stated that the prof reserved the right to raise or lower anyone’s final grade by one letter grade based upon a student’s participation during the semester. I actually liked that. What better way to keep students active!</p>
<p>In my experience with the School of Liberal Arts I have never had a professor assign grades with a curve. The only class at Tulane I took that had a curve as a Psych class - definitely more a science & engineering school thing. As far as grading goes, i second ptcgal…once you get past the lower level courses with lots of different sections professors tend to do their own thing with exams. Professors also reserve the ability to change grades for participation, attendance, etc. which helps make students take class (or at least showing up for class!) more seriously. </p>
<p>As far as the grading scale with A / A- / B+ / B etc. etc. — i had professors that took it differently throughout my time at tulane. some professors would give an A for >93 but for some it would have to be >93.333333. Really depends on the professor - important to pay attention to the syllabus the first week so you know what to expect when the end of the semester rolls around.</p>
<p>Also had teachers (in certain lower level departmentalized classes) who told us before the exam if we did poorly but had a “A” and had participated all semester that we shoudn’t expect our grade to change regardless of our performance on the final…</p>
<p>Woah, thank you all for the information. I have gained much insight reading this!</p>