Would you say that grades usually go up after Freshman year?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I just completed me 1st year in college and did very well - almost all A's (A or A-) but always had a B- each semester which led me to get about a 3.5. I KNOW 3.5 is more than good enough so I'm not worrying my butt off the GPA but would you say that GPAs normally go up as you progress despite the difficulty of classes also increasing? </p>

<p>I will be taking more 300+ level courses next semester so I'm just curious whether you guys think students obtain better grades as they progress despite taking harder classes (and in my case, I'm gonna start taking six classes as opposed to five like I did my first two semesters)</p>

2

<p>My grades went down…</p>

<p>I was taking general education classes that I knew I would be no good at, so I wasn’t too surprised. You do have to consider that the further you go, the harder the courses will be. That doesn’t have to mean anything though- it just means that you have to work that much harder.</p>

3

<p>Typically I’ve found a lot more high grades are distributed in upper level courses…But the students are all really good because the class is naturally self-selective. People are usually more interested in the class, don’t complain as much, etc., </p>

<p>Usually less memorizing every single detail to get good grades (like in intro courses) and more about understanding some of the harder stuff going on. The skill set needed to get good grades isn’t exactly the same as intro classes.</p>

4

<p>It depends if the grade inflation overcomes the increasing difficulty. As you get deeper into your major, the classes will undoubtedly get harder. However, upper level classes are sometimes curved at some schools since they’re so hard.</p>

5

<p>Maybe:</p>

<p>Here is my GPA breakdown so far…</p>

<p>Freshman year:</p>

<p>First Semester - 3.83 GPA
Second Semester - 3.95 GPA</p>

<p>Sophomore year: </p>

<p>Third Semester - 4.00 GPA
Fourth Semester - 3.83 GPA</p>

<p>This indicates that your grades can improve beyond freshman year.</p>

6

<p>^ That’s a useless point to argue, it bears no purpose.</p>

7

<p>^ Ok.</p>

<p>10char</p>

8

<p>^ I’m cuckoo for Coco Puffs</p>

9

<p>My grades shot up sophomore year and by the end of junior year I was pretty much back where I started.</p>

10

<p>Overall, they go up.</p>

11

<p>Well based on these responses I guess it depends on the person/situation…</p>

12

<p>At my school the average grades in the higher level classes are higher, but then they’ve also weeded people out at the bottom so the students are smarter/harder working.</p>

<p>Anyway, 6 classes, like 24-ish credits? If you’re at a strong university that sounds like a very heavy load to me, but I guess if you took 5 before and decided you could handle that fine, 6 should only be 20% more work.</p>

13

<p>a class at my U is usually 3 credits so that means I’ll be taking 18 credits</p>

14

<p>our university’s trend is that student grades increase on average throughout the years</p>

15

<p>awill430, sorry. I was only saying that your point of emphasizing simply that grades can improve after year 1 doesn’t mean anything.</p>

16

<p>bump. more responses would be appreciated =)</p>

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<p>In my experience, if your grade dips during Freshman year, it’s going to continue to dip.
Each quarter/semester, it’s going to get harder and harder to catch up. Unless you make some serious changes to study habits after freshman year, I’d wager most grades go down.</p>

18

<p>Grades are typically lower freshmen year, regardless, due to the transition from HS -> college, as students sink into their school and adjust accordingly.</p>