<p>My Winter Quarter Grades (note I am a premed chemistry major):</p>
<p>Chemistry 30C (hardest undergrad chem class) = A
Chemistry 30BL (hardest undergrad chem lab behind 30CL) = A
Life Science 2 = A
Philosophy 7 (supposedly a joke humanities class known as an easy A) = B</p>
<p>Like seriously, are you kidding me? A B in that class is basically like a D in a south campus class since they don't really give anything lower.The funny thing is that I actually tried in that class, I was not half assing it at all. </p>
<p>Hopefully this makes you north campus majors feel better, because I gained a lot of respect for you all at the expense of my GPA. I suppose though that this will further the stereotype that south campus majors can do nothing more than regurgitate material taught to them in lecture, and that the highest scorers are not the smartest people, but rather the ones who locked themselves in their room longer than anyone else.</p>
<p>I'm kind of embarassed too...wondering if anyone has had any similar experiences, or if I should just stay as far away from north campus as possible?</p>
<p>Ahahaha…seriously though, I think the rumor that north campus classes just hand out A’s has gotten a little out of hand. Yes, they are easy A’s for HUMANITIES MAJORS, but they can really be hell for us south campus majors who didn’t take AP English in high school and can’t write worth a damn.</p>
<p>I took 2 history GEs and I got B+ in both… True that I was being lazy and BS-ed a lot on my papers and exams, but I did spend hours and hours to keep up with the readings. I didn’t do very bad, got 85%-ish on exams and low 90%-ish on papers… so it seems that there are hardly any curves for those classes.</p>
<p>In S.campus, if you’re a genius, you don’t really have to work hard to get a good grade(except for labs), but in N.campus you need to be proactive even though the material is easy… Never assume north campus classes = easy A’s. They are very time consuming…</p>
<p>Yep, exactly. There’s no curve, plus you know that north campus majors are going to take up a huge chunk of that A grade. And they can’t give A’s to everyone, so basically they leave south campus majors, slackers, and athletes to fight over the leftovers.</p>
<p>i took a philo class this qtr with an absolute a-s-s TA. I think that is what made the difference. I’ll probably get a B. Is North Campus still a joke? Yes, it most certainty is a joke and they HAND OUT As like candy. North Campus MAJORS ARE NOT BETTER THAN SOUTH CAMPUS MAJORS AT WRITING. I write differently in essays than I write on this forum, but trust me my writing is good. Just because my TA is a jerk doesn’t mean anything. **Philo is a major hugely dependent on ur TA. North campus majors have an ABUNDANCE OF FREE TIME TO GO TO OFFICE HOURS, an amount of time we south campus majors just don’t have, because our classes are real. Maybe thats why u got a B. **</p>
<p>as a phil. major, there’s some truth to the above statement. However, there’s no standard ‘format’ for phil. papers (or there is, but most people either don’t use it, or use it partially and develop it into their own style)</p>
<p>anyway, as long as you follow these guidelines (which pretty much every philosophy class i’ve ever had has recommended) there should be no reason why you shouldn’t get an A:</p>
<p>phil. papers are pretty difficult because there are very difficult problems; sometimes, the problems are so difficult, they can completely fly over your head, and as a result of you not seeing them, and addressing them, you can get a lower grade. Also, for certain classes, office hours are essential because the prompt is too vague, and what’s being asked of you isn’t very clear. </p>
<p>Either way, there are extremely difficult classes in any major, north or south. Take David Kaplan’s class on Russel and Denotation (127b) and see how much that class destroys the fu ck out of you.</p>
<p>I took philos 6 this quarter. Like most of north campus lower div classes, the TA controlled 100% of my grade. My TA was a dick. Gave me the first B- in a paper. Still I have to thank north campus because without them my gpa would be horrendous. I didn’t get my final grade yet in phil, but if it is anything lower than A- I am gonna cry</p>
<p>Still north campus is a joke especially for south campus majors.</p>
<p>Why would you expect classes that consist almost entirely of writing to be easy if you’re bad at writing? And it’s silly to expect all North Campus classes to be of equal difficulty. Some professors are very demanding, others aren’t. On the bright side, I’ve generally found that the tougher North Campus professors actually tend to be better teachers, while the opposite is true of South Campus.</p>
<p>UCLAri, maybe I should have gave a detailed explanation as to why I called him a dick. </p>
<p>As you know most lower division north campus classes depend on the TA entirely. And because of that there are inconsistency in terms of grading. My philos professor outlined what we need to include and mention on one of the papers. I did it exactly as I was told and even went to his office hours to confirm. My friends all did the same thing. However, my TA took a letter grade off of that paper because he didnt want it the way the professor taught. Yet he did not mention this. My friends who have different TAs all got As and my paper was at least as good and detailed as theirs.</p>
<p>I think this is a problem in many north campus classes. The TAs control 100% of your grade and if you get a bad TA you get owned.</p>
<p>I guess in that sense, I meant to call the entire system a dick.</p>
<p>Yeah I’d reckon it’s pretty normal to ace chemistry classes and not do as well in Philosophy. Why are you surprised? Did you really believe that north campus classes are easy A’s? This is UCLA…no such thing. There are a lot of fantastic writers here that you’re competing against.</p>
<p>I had a 3.9 GPA in my third year (computer science) but got a ‘B’ in a Poli Sci. class. It takes some adjustment.</p>
<p>Something i learned last quarter is be sure to discuss the strategy for your paper with your TA. Professors don’t do the grading, TAs do. You usually find out what they want through their office hours, but they’re also pretty good with emails too.</p>
<p>philosophy isn’t some south campus class with one objective answer, and unfortunately sometimes you’re going to have shi tty TAs, and what the professor recommends might not be what the TA’s looking for. But it’s your responsibility to find out what your TA expects, and they usually detail this in office hours. I have a hard time believing that whatever TA you had didn’t at least give some sign that he was looking for something that went against the professor’s recommendations. The goal of philosophy is to think critically about a given problem, not to simply regurgitate the teacher’s point of view on an issue.</p>
<p>Unlike SC classes, TAs have more leverage (at least in phil. and maybe english classes) but even still, there had to have been some good reasons for getting the grade that you did that i’m pretty sure you’re omitting other than your TA being a ‘dick.’</p>