Sorry I’m not too good with math, I was wondering if this would make it harder for me to get an A. The class is Biology. The professor doesn’t curve, she just does proportions to assign grades.
Yes. Drop it like a hot potato and pick up a different professor, especially if you’re premed.
ETA: Drop it only if you’re still in the add/drop period; don’t take a W for it.
Really? She’s such a good teacher though, especially compared to my other options :l on rate my professor she has an average grade of A
It means that you have to do better than 90% of the class to get an A. If the rest of your class are very good at biology and do very well, then it will be harder to get an A. If a lot of the students are struggling more than you or are less well prepared for the course, than it will be easier to get an A.
Your grade is based on your performance relative to the rest of the class (rather than just a simple numerical average where if you got an A on most assignments, you’d get an A average - etc.) – This could go one of two ways. If you’re ahead of the pack right from the jump, it wouldn’t be too much of a problem. However, if your class is competitive (and Biology classes are typically breeding grounds for pre-med gunners) it’ll be far more difficult to get an A.
If there are 50 students in the class, the top 5 get an A. If there are 30 kids, the top 3 get an A.
Let us say there are 50 people in your class and your final numerical score is a 95. If 5 other people have a higher score, you now have a B. So you are also competing against the other students in the class for your final grade.
I dislike this type of grading scheme. I loved when my daughter’s math teacher sent an email after a quiz saying he was delighted so many students got A’s. In my opinion it is OK to curve/scale grades up but not down, and the scheme she is using could cause grades to be curved down.
That’s a curve.
There will be a score, some percent of the total possible points a student could get in the class. From this students can be ranked in order from best to worst. The top 10% on that list will receive As.
It could also cause them to be curved up. What if no one in the class originally scored an A?
If one conceives of grades as absolute evaluations of performance then one might not like curves. If one conceives of grades as comparative evaluations of performance relative to the other students in the class, one can understand why a professor might curve. An A in the class is kind of meaningless if everyone else has an A.
I think whether or not you should keep the class depends on your motivations. Are you pre-med? If you are, then it might be more difficult to get an A - although you should investigate. Maybe all the professors in your department curve their grades and just aren’t as explicit about it. Maybe it’s the departmental policy. If you’re not pre-med and you are more focused on learning biology than what your final grade is going to be, then getting a B in the classroom of an excellent professor is better than getting an A in the class of a mediocre professor.
Rate your professor websites truly are a brilliant thing 
Seriously, dodge the lunatics. I’d give anything if I could be doing that already but I have to wait at least a year 