<p>is it true that at berkeley only a set amount of people in a class are allowed to get A's, such that if everyone scored high a 90% could be a B?</p>
<p>its not a rumor. this is true in some classes. it totally depends on the professor/class. some professors are nice so if this happens, they just grade on a straight scale. others dont.</p>
<p>It’s not so much that only a set amount of people in a class are allowed to get A’s, but that the classes are designed so that roughly a certain amount of people in the classes get A’s. For example, in most classes, if everyone gets perfect scores on all the tests and homeworks, they all get A’s. But that never happens. If it ever happens, the tests are deemed too easy, and the class is made harder so only maybe roughly 30% get A’s.</p>
<p>People always have the misconception that if the class is curved, then it’s harder than a class with straight-scale. In fact, this doesn’t matter. It’s all about how the class is designed. For example, CS classes are all graded on a straight scale. However, they are some of the hardest classes at Berkeley. Why? The straight scale is designed so that it’s very hard to get an A. Not only that, but the people in CS are major nerds, so in order to make sure most people don’t get A’s, they make the classes that much harder, such that it would be much easier to get an A in a curved class than a CS class, because the curved class is inherently easier.</p>
<p>Or in other words.. “Just do your best and you’ll do fine.”</p>
<p>many classes are curved, you get your grade based on the number of people you beat, not your percentage grade relative to 100</p>