<p>like the top how many percent?</p>
<p>pickaprof is your friend =)</p>
<p>i think i tried looking it up before for math 53 and 54, but there was no data</p>
<p>lemme try again</p>
<p>edit: never mind, it’s on there, thanks</p>
<p>you’re welcome</p>
<p>For lower division math courses, the grade distribution seems to be:
A, 10%
B, 25%
C, 50%
D+F, 15%</p>
<p>you sure about that? pickaprof says it’s more like 30% get As.</p>
<p>It is very possible that 30% of students get A in Math 1A+1B since most freshmen had single variable calculus in high school. Math 53 is multivariable calculus. Math 54 is linear algebra+differential equation. People get lower grades in math 53/54 since there are new materials to learn.<br>
I took math 54 in the fall 1996 and math 53 in spring 1997. In both cases, just 10% of people got A. After the final grades came out for math 53, I went to the GSI’s office to retrieve my final exam and i saw the GSI surrounded by a group of about 20 angry students complaining about the harsh grading. Things got so heated that campus police were called and two officers came and dispersed crowd.</p>
<p>Each department has guidelines on grade distribution. Some professors ignore those guidelines, some follow the guidelines to the letter. In 1996-1997, the math department guidelines RECOMMEND that no more than 10% of student get As. </p>
<p>Maybe things have changed since then.</p>
<p>As of now, it’s somewhere around:
A, 20%
B, 30%
C, 30%
D + F, 20%</p>
<p>^
why is the class so hard… :(</p>
<p>Grades at the berkeley are quite arbitrary. In one chemical engineering class, I did very little homework and got below avg on midterms. Then i scored a 90% on the final (on which the avg score was 50%) and was rewarded with a course grade of A because the prof thought that was a great comeback on my part. In one mechanical engineering class in which 14 students enrolled, a student accidentally knocked over and broke an equipment that the prof had brought in for an in-class demonstration. The prof got so upset that he vowed that no students will get As in his class. After the final exam, the grade distribution is: C+, 5 people; C, 5; C-, 4.</p>
<p>Well, the grade distribution is better than my HS eqival. of Math 53/54. Lol.</p>
<p>I don’t care too much about the distribution, but I assure y ou that the course is worth your time. Multivariable Calculus is one of the more interesting course I have taken. In addition, I believe that Math 53 is available on Berkeley Podcast. Prof. Hutchings understands what he’s doing…AND he teaches extremely well (relative to my HS teacher. T_T)</p>
<p>In summary, ignore the grade…take the class for knowledge sake.</p>
<p>Ben Zheng</p>