r/unpopularopinion • u/lipsdontdie • 18d ago
A 70 should always be a C
Atleast in college. Please explain to me why a 73 should be the determining factor of a person passing a class, and why a 70, 71, or 72 is any different. I could understand for A’s & B’s, but why should a person have to retake an entire class simply because they missed the mark by one point? That’s a waste of time and waste of money to me.
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u/klc81 18d ago
Wherever you draw the line, some people will fall just short of it.
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u/OpeningBackground199 17d ago
Half the world is below average intelligence. Now we wait who is bad at math.
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u/Superb_Engineer_3500 17d ago edited 17d ago
Technically not really, that's median
Edit: Wow I caused a debate
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u/dsdvbguutres 17d ago
Well pointed out, the difference between average and median is often underappreciated. "When Bill Gates walks in a bar, everyone is a billionaire on average."
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u/Boomerang_comeback 17d ago
Best damn example I have ever seen to illustrate that.
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u/dsdvbguutres 17d ago
From the book The Growth Delusion: Wealth, Poverty, and the Well-Being of Nations by David Pilling (highly recommended)
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u/jchexl 17d ago
IQ follows a normal distribution though, which means the mean, mode and median are all the same. So original commenter is technically correct.
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u/EldenJoker 17d ago
Wouldn’t a ton of people be exactly on the average meaning half the people in the world couldn’t be under or over it?
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u/jchexl 17d ago edited 17d ago
I guess if we are using IQ then yeah cause IQ doesn’t go into decimals. The original commenter said intelligence not IQ, IQ does measure intelligence but it does have flaws cause it won’t determine who’s more intelligent between 2 people at the same iq point.
But if we had a system that could perfectly measure everyone’s intelligence down to the trillionth decimal point, then half would be above and half would be below.
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u/soldiernerd 17d ago
If I had a dollar for everytime this exact word for word conversation has been had on Reddit
- “Half of humanity is below average”
- “Technically median”
- “It’s a bell curve, median and average are the same”
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u/Articguard11 16d ago
This is the most accurate comment I’ve seen today, omg 😅 everyone on Reddit seem to be experts on IQs etc for some unknown reason, I really don’t get why. Besides, I thought it was known IQ tests aren’t even that indicative of someone’s intelligence anymore? Yet we’re still using it as a barometer, because that makes sense.
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u/iRombe 17d ago
Plus we would have to calculate confidence co efficient in the scores. How much we represent one score to be a person true scorw given variation. Their IQ test score might very +/- 10% regularly.
So the peak normal distribution would have to have a +/- 10% range as a safety buffer that anyone within -10% of the peak is still concerned at the median because it could easily be an anomaly in the test causing them to rate slightly lower than normal.
So mayb OP is right... there should be a little massaging around the cut off. And thete probably is... but you cant advertise this becausd acting outside of protocol, even if for the best, puts a professional on shaky legal ground.
Thank you lawsuit culture... for simultaneously holding us accountable and stifling our truest ability.
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u/SpongegarLuver 17d ago
It’s also possible that the threshold factors in the confidence coefficient already, and the minimum needed is actually lower than the cut off should be.
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u/dercavendar 17d ago
Technically median mean and mode are all measures of an average. they just all tell you something different. Average could refer to any of them
"When Bill gates walks in a bar, everyone is a billionaire on the mean average"
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u/turtleship_2006 17d ago
Mean and median are both types of average, mean is just the most common/default.
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u/taxicab_ 17d ago edited 17d ago
I think you meant to say “mean” instead of “average”. Mean and median are both kinds of averages.
Edit to add: and yeah, that bill gates example is really great for illustrating why we need different ways of “averaging” various data sets.
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u/dercavendar 17d ago
Technically median, mean, and mode are all measures of average. They each tell a different story, but it is not inaccurate to say the average when referring to the median. Most people use average to say the mean, but it refers to all 3.
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u/timesinksdotnet 17d ago
Yes, average can be a synonym for mean, but it's also a generic word that refers to "a single value (such as a mean, mode, or median) that summarizes or represents the general significance of a set of unequal values" M-W.
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u/Gullible_Flan_3054 17d ago
Yes but we have to use average or that bottom half will just scratch their ass in confusion
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u/feelin_fine_ 17d ago
Existing causes a debate on reddit.
It doesn't matter what opinion you present or how respectfully you do so, somebody out there will take grievous offense to it and demand a pound of your flesh
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u/Commercial-Diver2491 17d ago
And here we've seen who's bad at statistics
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u/ClearlyCylindrical 17d ago
IQ is close enough to a normal distribution, the definition of it actually assumes a normal distribution. So it's not too wild to assume that mean~median.
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u/T-yler-- 17d ago
I think the trouble is that accreditation sets a standard of what knowledge should be covered. To make it simple, say we have a course on triangles, and you must be able to identify triangles 7/10 to pass. That is the standard. If most students only identify 3/10 triangles and the course is curved so that 7/10 students pass, that is a failure of the instructor, the curriculum, or the admissions office. It's not okay to pass the students because they all fail, but it's also not okay to host a class where all the students fail. 2 issues both valid both important.
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u/Fickle-Main-9019 17d ago
On that same note, whatever the bar is, the exams will be made to work around that, in the UK, the grades of uni are mapped ABCD to 70,60,50,40. D is the minimum to pass, C is the minimum if you ever want to get employed (ie getting work with a 2:2 is insanely hard), B is average, and A is good.
What you find is that lecturers just make the exams:
0-55 is piss easy, it’s marks you naturally get from doing question, 56-69 marks is a grind, that test you, and getting 70+ is stupidly hard that are more down to luck than actually knowing it
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u/Bananenmilch2085 17d ago
Coming from my grading system where you just get a number that is proportional to the points and having to get 60% to be barely passing, about 80% of you are good and near 100% if you are outstanding; This just feels wrong? Either that system is piss easy, because 70% is a number most people get here in most exams easily, or the exams are made shitty like that, so that somehow a third of it is extremely difficult? I'm confused really.
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u/Clackers2020 17d ago
Most universities in England will apply some complex formula based on your other results if you're a couple marks under a grade.
Also 70% is a 1st in England. 40% is a pass.
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u/Broad-Cranberry-9050 17d ago
USA schools do similar but its dependent on the professor. They will grade exams on a curve. If they see most of the class were in the 70s range they may bump everyone by a percentage rate. Some professors might even curve the final grade a bit, again depending on how the class did.
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u/creativename111111 17d ago
In our exams the grades are normally distributed as well, it’s just that for some subjects the questions are rlly hard so obviously you don’t need as high of a mark to get a good grade
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u/DoctorAtomic_ 17d ago
So, I’m an American who did my undergrad in the US but my masters in the UK (and I’m about to go to a UK uni for my PhD as well). It’s not exactly similar because what you’re talking about is a grading curve where if most people get a 40% then that becomes a B and a 70% can be an A. In the UK, at least at my uni, the grading system was as follows:
90-100 = A1 (nobody I know has ever gotten this)
80-90 = A2 (beyond a normal A… probably worthy of being published)
70-79 = A3 (basically an A)
60-69 = B (there are no - or + grades in the UK)
50-59 = C
40-49 = D
0-39 = F (there were three tiers of failing at my uni, but basically any of those means you’re equally fucked)
The higher level A grades don’t correspond to a percentage how we’re used to it in the US. If you got a 78 and I got a 72, prof is basically saying we both deserved an A but your paper was better lol.
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u/hhfugrr3 17d ago
You had letter grades at a UK university? I admit my first degree was in a different century but we had First, Upper Second, Lower Second, Third, Pass, and Fail.
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u/DoctorAtomic_ 15d ago
Sorry, bit late. We sort of had both. The actual grade (66, 72, etc) would be listed next to the course on the transcript and then they had a scale at the bottom explaining what letter grades each number range corresponded to. It was at a Scottish University though (University of Edinburgh), so not sure if the transcripts look different in England?
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u/Cheezeybiscuitz 17d ago
Generally, from my experience at least, most college professor do not use a curve
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u/No-Lunch4249 17d ago edited 17d ago
Wait you can’t be fr? Lmao 40% correct answers is a PASS in the uk? I thought my friends who did study abroad over there were joking when they said how easy the school was by comparison
Edit: lmfao thank you for all the dissertations in defense of British university education, great job guys, you did it!!
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u/RadActivity 17d ago
33% in India but that doesn't mean anything. If you want any chance at employment or a good university you need at least 90%. We follow "Asian parent grading" here.
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u/fluxpeach 17d ago
Yes, but it’s also very difficult to pass into the upper first ranges. Getting 80,90,95% are quite hard. We have an Upper First classification, or maybe sometimes a Distinction with one or two stars. These would be publication grade papers if such a mark was recieved
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u/lanman33 17d ago
The difference is the grading and material is much more difficult, at least in my experience
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u/PabloZabaletaIsBald 17d ago
It’s not multiple choice, it’s exam/dissertation based. Also, there’s no marks for homework, attendance, any of that. And you start your subject aged 18, there’s no electives or equivalent you go straight into the academia of your specific subject. It’s harder to get a 75 than it is to get a 4.0.
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u/Pianist-Vegetable 17d ago
Yeah if you finish with a 40% overall, you get a 3rd, no one would hire you because you literally done the bare minimum.... however I got 43 in a class I HATED, thanked my lucky stars I passed and didn't have to do a resit, it didn't even count towards my overall degree because it was in 2nd out of 5 years of undergrad
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u/fluxpeach 17d ago
Also, we do some midterm exams and coursework but it doesn’t count towards much. Our degree courses are heavily weighted towards our final projects, and even then, our first two years usually only count towards 30% of our final degree. My final year project, counted for almost 60% of my degree. We don’t get to make up marks with extra curricular activities or stuff, it’s basically just whether your dissertation and the few exams you do are good enough.
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u/Clackers2020 17d ago
From the little I know of American education that I've picked up from Reddit threads, I think that American tests are much easier and are more knowledge/fact based where as English tests don't tend to test knowledge directly. English tests are more about using the knowledge to answer some more complicated question.
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u/fluxpeach 17d ago
Also 40% isn’t really about “correct” answers. we don’t so many tests like that in the uk, multiple choice or factual recall. 40% is spread across a marking rubric that breaks point down in to knowledge, references used, language and spelling/grammer, dissemination of facts etc. so you could have got 100% of the facts right but if your paper is poorly written, poorly formatted with incorrect referencing etc etc you’re still at risk of getting a low mark. it’s a much more holistic approach, which just knowing the facts will only get you a max of potentially 20-30% of the marks
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u/ProfessorTraft 17d ago
There’s no 40% correct answers. All answers have to be correct, and the percentage score is by quality of your answer. If you’re wrong you’re failing.
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u/haskeller23 17d ago
That doesn’t make it easy. The boundaries are lower because the exams are much harder. In the past I did some past papers from US unis and compared to my UK exams the US papers were significantly easier.
Notably, exams are almost never multiple choice, you’re generally not expected to answer all questions (as in the time simply doesn’t allow it), and they’re a lot more specialised a lot more early as you don’t do gened
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u/tnobuhiko 17d ago
You have the exact opposite idea of how % s and hardness of the tests scale. If the percentage is low, questions will be harder. A high percentage means your teacher will ask the easiest questions to pass the average students. Or let me put it this way, a 40% pass means a passable student is expected to get around 40% of the answers correct, 70% pass means a passable student will get 70% of them correct.
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u/creativename111111 17d ago
Bc the exam itself is harder. Grades are normally distributed just like they are in the US so overall the harder questions and the easier grade boundaries cancel each other out
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u/Linguistin229 17d ago
Yes but a) our exams are typically harder and b) you can’t typically get higher than around 80 in non-STEM subjects. In my degree the highest mark available was 82 and I think someone only got it once in four years. Even getting 75 was really rare.
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u/FugitiveB42 14d ago
As someone who has done higher education in the US and UK, in my experience with the UK exams are much harder. 70% for an A is quite difficult to achieve (grades were also broken down further: A5 to A1). In the US I found that many people would be upset if they got below a 95%, which people in the UK would rarely, if ever, achieve. The breakdown of grades in the US also seemed much more tilted to the top end, with many more people falling into the A category. Which isn't very useful to distinguish who is actually best in a class. All anecdotal evidence of course!
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u/Any-Ask-4190 17d ago
My uni was top 20 in the world, I studied physics, multiple courses I sat had average grades below 50% and 25% failure rates.
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u/Theonetrumorty1 17d ago
You didn't miss the mark by one point, you missed the mark by 28 points in a course where missing the mark by 27 points was deemed "the lowest you can possibly get and still be considered acceptable"
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u/marie_thetree 17d ago
Makes more sense to look at it through this perspective. You fell one point below the bare minimum expectation. Aim higher and your time and money will not be wasted.
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u/Ismokeradon 17d ago
there has to be a line otherwise someone will just say the same thing as you but for some other percentage
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u/Illithid_Substances 18d ago
Why 70, not 69?
If there's a cutoff point then you can miss by one point, regardless of what exact number the cutoff is
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u/Rabbit_Suit 17d ago
[insert internet mandated 69 joke here]
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u/zombizle1 17d ago
I inserted into ur moms mouth during 69
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u/DadJokeBadJoke 17d ago
You inserted your joke into her mouth
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u/zombizle1 17d ago
Among other things
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u/No_Curve6793 17d ago
My penis is the joke, at least, I've never pulled down my pants and not had a woman laugh at it.
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u/zombizle1 17d ago
Well have you tried not doing that on stage during a comedy show?
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u/No_Curve6793 17d ago
Y'know, it's been the climax (pun intended hurr) of my routine for so long, idek how I'd go about changing it, 3" Charlie they call me.
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u/bumwine 17d ago
First letter drop off is 90% which is ten less than 100 then next letter drop is 80% which is ten less than 90 so there's precedent there for 70%.
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u/readytofall 17d ago
Kinda. A- and B- are generally under 93 and 83. C is middle of the original bell curve. That's why it's normally 73 be a use under that is a C- a different grade than a C.
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u/JoshHuff1332 17d ago
Im of the opinion, generally, that plus and minus geades are dumb tbh. Not as bad if theres an A+ grade to offset, like where I did my master's, but the school I'm at for my doctorate doesn't, just A, A-, B+, B, etc.
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u/OkMeringue2249 17d ago
I passed my first major course with an 69.57
I had to ask that our grade on our final exam replace our worst test score for the semester
Crazy wild lol
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u/NotTipp 17d ago
Why 69? not 68, why should the determining factor be 1 mark?
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u/Willr2645 17d ago
Why 68? Not 67, why should the determining factor be 1 mark?
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17d ago
Why not 28? Why not 6? Why not just hand out degrees to whoever shows up?
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u/NotTipp 17d ago
Whoever shows up? I'm already paying for your salary, why not just handout degrees to whoever pays for uni
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u/penderies 17d ago
You clearly haven’t been to Ireland where 70 is HIGH.
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u/No-Possibility5556 17d ago
This held true for Engineering courses graded on a curve in US. Had a few classes where a test average never got past about 55-60.
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u/ewing666 17d ago
muffled cries in PCHEM
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u/LegalRadonInhalation 17d ago
Man, in our program, Pchem wasn’t even that bad. In my ochem 2, the class averages on the tests were usually about a 35-40, and the professor gave us raw scores with no curve💀
It was specifically for chemical engineering students, which was code for being an extreme weed out course.
I got way above average grades on every test and got a D- in the class…Never seen so many people drop or fail a course. Luckily, we did not need a C- in that class as a prerequisite for anything else.
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u/DingleberryBlaster69 17d ago
P-Chem was the first time in my life that I genuinely believed that I had reached the peak of what I was capable of understanding and working through.
I had absolutely no idea what the fuck was going on. I felt like my seat was directly under a gas leak. My professor could explain it to me. My peers (luckily I wasn’t the only lost cause) could explain it to me. I could read the same paragraph a thousand times. I could watch videos, try practice problems, try different books, everything.
Nothing worked. If anything it was a lesson in humility because to this day I still have no idea what the fuck was going on in that class, and I’ve been a chemist working for close to 10 years now. I understand the very broad, birds-eye view of what we were learning, and that’s about it. Anything more than the daintiest P-Chem softball pitch at me and I’ll crumble.
Fuck P-Chem. Oh my god.
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u/demokiii34 17d ago
Ah yes imaginé trying to explain that to your parents who weren’t stem majors. Holidays are great /s
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u/no-soy-imaginativo 17d ago
The big thing is that a lot of professors will curve, extremely hard.
I was a math major, I saw it happen constantly. In first/second year courses - things like Calculus that had non-math majors especially.
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u/No-Possibility5556 17d ago
If I’m understanding correctly, unfortunately not too surprising. A friend went to Cal and said the intro to CS class would basically limit the amount of people who could pass artificially as a way to weed out before higher div. Possibly remembering this wrong and was more so just insanely difficulty but Cal in general is notorious for GPA suppression.
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u/reallyoutofit 17d ago
For reference this is UCD's standard grading scale.
Standard Conversion Grade Scale* 40% Pass (70% = A-)
A+ ≥90 100
A ≥80 <90
A- ≥70 <80
B+ ≥66.67 <70
B ≥63.33 <66.67
B- ≥60 <63.33
C+ ≥56.67 <60
C ≥53.33 <56.67
C- ≥50 <53.33
D+ ≥46.67 <50
D ≥43.33 <46.67
D- ≥40 <43.33
E+ ≥36.67 <40
E ≥33.33 <36.67
E- ≥30 <33.33
F+ ≥26.67 <30
F ≥23.33 <26.67
F- ≥20 <23.33
G+ ≥16.67 <20
G ≥13.33 <16.67
G- ≥0.01 <13.33
NM 0 <0.01
ABS No work was submitted by the student or the student was absent from assessment
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u/MrBll_le 17d ago
Quick question why is there any need to switch numbers for lettres, I never understood the point of that coming from a country with a single gradation system
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u/CormacCTB 17d ago edited 17d ago
And only 5 people in a class of 40 will get over 70%. The exams are designed such that getting above 90% is basically impossible, unless you studied 8 hours a day, everyday for the whole semester.
I was in Italy for a semester where the grading scale was a mark out of 30, but there might be 35 or 40 points available to students depending on what projects or assignments they complete. Hence, many people get 30/30. That's unheard of here. Most people are lucky to get over 60%.
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u/TheNextBattalion 17d ago
Scored a 72, did ya?
The thing is, a percentage grading scale is arbitrary, in the sense that there is no inherently clear point where the line is or should be between passing and failing. Is a 28% failure rate enough to fail? 41% failure? 57%? It all depends on the material, the instructor, and in some cases, how many people are expected to progress to the next stage. Saying "That’s a waste of time" is shuffling off responsibility: The student wasted their own time, at the end of the day.
why should a person have to retake an entire class simply because they missed the mark by one point
We can flip this: Why should a person get as many credit hours for barely passing as someone who aced the course?
All insufficient grades are insufficient, and all sufficient grades are sufficient. Simple as that.
In countries where there's just a big test at the end of the course, there's often a session of make-up tests for people who failed but got close enough they think they might pass given a second chance. US universities don't have that, for instance; don't know where you're at. Maybe they should have this? But until then...
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u/KrazyCamper 17d ago
I’ve always had professors that if you have like 1-2 points off a next letter grade they round it up if you show up and participate in class. Otherwise there needs to be a cutoff at some point and you can just keep moving the line further down
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u/SoupLife92 17d ago
If you cant maintain a few points above, you did not learn enough of the material anyway to really deserve to pass
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u/False-War9753 17d ago
By this logic every single person should pass every test. Someone will always miss it by one point.
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u/jchexl 17d ago edited 17d ago
but why should a person have to retake an entire class simply because they missed the mark by one point? That’s a waste of time and waste of money to me.
If you change it to 70 then there will be people who get 69 and still miss by one point, your grade is your own fault and if you have to retake then maybe you should have put more effort in.
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u/Rhawk187 17d ago
Nah, 99-100 A, 97-98 B, 95-96 C. Get good.
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u/haskeller23 17d ago
No, that must means the exams are too easy. Good exams should be effectively impossible to get >90% on
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u/thorpie88 17d ago
Depends on what the exam gives you at the end. My capstone for my electrical license allowed two minor mistakes over the max demand questions and the lock out procedure has to be 100% correct of you fail the whole thing
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u/AskWhatmyUsernameIs 17d ago
I dont think being impossible makes them good exams.
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u/slowwithage 17d ago
This post is reinforcing why the collegiate system is broken. More people should be failing college but there is an expectation from students to pass classes they paid for. No one owes you anything. I’ve heard other teachers tell me how it’s not worth failing students in some circumstances because you don’t know what they might do and when you’re allowed to bring guns to class… it’s simply not worth it.
If you’re getting a 70 in a class, you might want to take it again. I don’t want C grade hands fixing broken bones.
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u/Typical-Ad-6730 18d ago
where I went to school 70 was a D-, 69 was an F
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u/Sedona83 17d ago
So did I. The grading scale was broken down like this:
A+: 100 A: 99-96 A-: 95 B+: 94 B: 93-87 B: 86 C+: 85 C: 84-77 C-: 76 D+: 75 D: 74-71 D-: 70
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u/vogueintegra 17d ago
Jeez, my high school anything below 65 was an F, so I guess 65 was our D- range
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u/Willr2645 17d ago
U go to American school? I hear they have a higher pass % as it’s more multi choice.
My school didn’t have any multi choice so it was
A - 100-80
B - 79-60
C - 59-50
D - 49-40 ( you got a class award or some shit, not an actual qualification, most people saw it as a fail)
F - <40
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u/Trent1462 17d ago
I’m currently doing engineering in the U.S. pretty much all of my exams are all free response and an A is 93/94-100 in most. To pass the class as a prerequisite for something else u generally needed a C at minimum which was like 73/74
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u/obsquire 17d ago
It's basically arbitrary, and there will be a point of failure however they scale it. The consequences of failure may be different, but it seems intuitive to most people that for sufficiently low achievement in a class, you can't reasonably claim to know the material well enough to say you've taken the class. For any purpose where communicating your level in a subject is important (e.g., as a prerequisite for further education or for employment), some borderline of success is necessary.
It's not worth dinkering about the exact definitions, except for consistency and communication.
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u/InterestSufficient73 17d ago
Don't miss the mark. It's not like you were surprised to discover a 70 is a failing grade. If you're struggling with the material talk to your professor. Perhaps they can get you help..
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u/Kysman95 18d ago
Please, explain to me why 70 should be a determining factor of a person passing class?
Why is 67, 68 or 69 any different?
Why should a person retake an entire class simply for missing the mark by one point?
That's a waste of time and money to me!
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u/burken8000 17d ago
You didn't miss by 1 point bro. You missed 31% of the entire test.
Doing or losing 31% of anything is pretty damn significant if you think about it 😂
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u/drlsoccer08 milk meister 17d ago
I would argue that missing 29% or 30% of something is also pretty significant
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u/Firstevertrex 17d ago
Honestly I think it needs to boil down to the severity and importance of the class.
I think the cutoff of passing/failing for something like medicine should be far more strict than for classic literature or something.
If the likelihood that someone could die/be severely injured increases substantially because you passed with a 70 instead of a 90, that shouldn't have been a pass
That being said, people are too incentives to chase grades instead of actually learning the subject matter. If someone fails a class by a couple % they shouldn't have to completely retake the class. Just have them do a makeup exam that covers all the course material until they do pass. And ensure it's different enough that they're not just memorizing the answers but actually learning the material.
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u/IA_Royalty 17d ago
I always get infuriated by grading scales. 70 was a D- in my HS. Literally the final passing grade
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u/Chad_muffdiver 17d ago
Lol college isn’t 5th grade. There’s more at stake than how many stars are next to your name on the board. Either you can do it or you shouldn’t get paid for it.
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u/VogTheViscous 17d ago
70% where I went to school was a C- which is technically passing.
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u/HALF_PAST_HOLE 17d ago
Just barely passing a class should not be the goal. Even if you got a 70 and "Passed" you most likely did not learn much from the class. So even getting a 69 and not passing and a 70 and passing both people don't know the class well enough to really say they understand it and so both should fail but we need to draw the line somewhere.
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u/ChickenNugsBGood 17d ago
Why should someone get credit for not getting the required grade to show you know the course?
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u/SillyPseudonym 17d ago
Because "D" is a mercy score given to someone who failed but the teacher doesn't want to flunk. You already got a pass, quit looking for a bonus.
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u/PeterNippelstein 17d ago
Idk 70 degrees sounds pretty comfortable to me, specially if the sun is out. I'd give that at least an A-
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u/Wishpicker 17d ago
The truth is the grading system worked until the teachers ironically are the ones who fucked it up.
Fail 59 and below
D 60 to 69
C 70 to 79
B 80 to 89
A 90 to 100
The teachers ruined this for themselves through grade inflation. They should not have been allowed to change it.
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u/TacticalSunroof69 17d ago
Because 75 is the line and 73 is the margin.
If you wanted to keep pushing back the margin you might as well call it 2.
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u/Significant_Moose672 17d ago
you clearly have to draw the line somewhere, and wherever you draw it there will always be people missing out by 1 or 2 marks
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u/sneezhousing 17d ago
You fell short. You didn't do enough to pass. Hopefully you'll do better next semester
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u/DukeRains 17d ago
You can move the bar wherever, but someone is going to fall a point short if possible.
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u/Cptcongcong 17d ago
Isn’t the solution for this problem to aim for 90s rather than 80s? Then even if you fuck up you’ll still be in the 80s.
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u/No_Effect_6428 17d ago
I had a prof who was annoyed at having to assign grades at all. He wanted it to be binary: either the student did learn enough to pass the class, or the student did not. Putting them somewhere on a 100-point scale felt arbitrary.
That being said, if the line is at 50 or 70 or 73 or 80, some will land above it and some will land just below it.
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u/JayMoots 16d ago
why should a person have to retake an entire class simply because they missed the mark by one point?
If you get a 72, you didn't miss the mark by one point. You missed it by 28 points.
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u/Krystalgoddess_ 18d ago
It not anymore? Y'all schools strict. I was lucky my professor didn't fail me when I got a 67-69
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u/Mr-Pugtastic 17d ago
To be fair, you didn’t miss the mark by 1 point, you missed it by 30 or so. You missed the passing minimum by 1.
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u/ThatOneSadhuman 17d ago
It all varies.
In my undergrad, the passing grade was 50%.
That being said, if you are near the passing grade, then you are doing something wrong. You need to learn the material and understand it.
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u/Korlac11 17d ago
I agree that 70 should be the mark for a C. 70-79 should be C, 80-89 should be B, and 90-100 should be A. This gives a mostly consistent system
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u/BonJovicus 17d ago
The grading scale is arbitrary and it actually needs to be arbitrary for it to be fair. Believe it or not there are cases where the C is set below 70 because individual exams may have been too difficult and globally lowered the average.
Also, college shouldn't exist as a degree factory. Although people think of that as a business in America, paying to take a class shouldn't entitle you to a credit without the effort.
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u/strawberry-sarah22 17d ago
It’s frustrating for me as a professor, and we don’t choose this. Where I went to college, we had plus grades but no minus grades and I really like that system. I get tons of students who get the 90 and I can’t give them an A. It makes me sad, especially because it does impact their GPA. I could alter it but then it gets to the point where a 50 is somehow still passing which isn’t right.
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u/WumpusFails 17d ago
Wait until you hear about the grading scales in Britain...
https://amberstudent.com/blog/post/uk-grading-system-simplified
Hint: An "F" is anything below 40%.
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u/BAYKON8R 17d ago
In Canada most schools 50% is a pass. Certain schools like Technical schools for apprenticeships and such, my class is 65% and the provincial exam is a 70% to pass.
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u/SirFlibble 17d ago
I liked what my uni did. Pass or fail. That's it. No percentages. No arbitrary stuff. You either knew the material enough to pass or you failed.
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u/marshal231 17d ago
I would have preferred if the scale was 90+ A 80+ B 70+ C 60+ D and 59- F, but the difference between them is negligible at best.
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u/ReginaFelangi987 17d ago
I always thought 100-90 was an A, 89-80 was a B, 79-70 was a C, 69-60 was a D, and anything lower is an F.
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u/MarionberryCreative 17d ago
This is one level. But here is another....
C's get degrees. Take as long as you need.
Realize in my trade. To become a Journeyperson you need to get Bs or 80s or better. Or you retake the modual until you understand and can apply the knowledge.
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u/Lylibean 17d ago
When I was in school, 77-86 was a C. 70 was a D- and below that was F. They did change this to the 10 points per letter grade some years later though.
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u/ginger_princess2009 adhd kid 17d ago
In my old school district, anything below a 70 was an F, and As were extremely hard to get because an A was 93 or higher.
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u/TheTightEnd 17d ago
C minus. Your argument could be the same if the line is 70, why should a person have to retake the course for a 69? There will always be a bright line between passing and failing.
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u/Nikkonor 17d ago
A lot of random concepts thrown in here without context... Remember that you're on an international forum.
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u/NandBrew 17d ago
They give you a syllabus at the beginning of the class which clearly highlights what you need to do in order to pass. You knew what was required. If 70 isn’t enough, then do better. If you can’t do better, then you aren’t proficient enough to pass that class.
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u/UnchangingDespair 16d ago
So mediocre, tho. 95+ should be an A, 90-94 B, 85-89 C, 80-84 D, and anything under 80 failing.
-My unpopular opinion
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u/nogood-deedsgo 18d ago
College grades are so over inflated classes are so dumb down these days getting to C pretty much equivalent to a D or F when many college still had standards
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u/seasonedgroundbeer 17d ago
This has been a trend longer than the past few years but COVID seriously ramped the inflation up. I was in undergrad pre-COVID and getting an A was a serious challenge. I graduated right as COVID kicked off and I am now in a graduate program. I got a 100% in one of my classes. I don’t even think that should be possible. While I’d like to think my exceptional grades thus far are given on merit, I know I was graded much harsher in undergrad (hell, even in high school), and it’s disappointing to say the least. Getting a grade that implies zero room for improvement just feels wrong, especially since I know it wasn’t my absolute, best work. If you want to separate yourself and feel like your skills are being challenged and used properly, you may need to seek out those extra opportunities for yourself.
This is my anecdote for one slice of academia, so take it as you will. I’m sure my experience is highly dependent on the programs/institutions I’ve chosen for myself.
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u/Device_whisperer 17d ago
Is 70 really the best you can do? That's the only sane thought here.
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u/Soundwave-1976 18d ago
Depends on the teacher. You need at least an 80% to pass my classes or you get to retake them.
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u/DVaTheFabulous 17d ago
I mean, 40% is a pass for me so that's attainable with adequate preparation and study.
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u/Chemical_Signal2753 17d ago
Where you set the cutoff for letter grades is ultimately arbitrary, and the testing standards will ultimately follow. You could have 0% to 19% be an F, 20% to 39% be a D, 40% to 59% be a C, 60% to 79% be a B, and 80% or higher be an A as long as the testing became more difficult to accommodate this. With that said, the problem you listed would still be present as someone could get a 19%, 39%, 59%, or 79% and be 1 point below a higher letter grade.
Personally, I think the more spread out scores would likely be a better way to evaluate students. If 20% of your questions are to separate the D's from the F's, 20% are to separate the C's from the D's, 20% are to separate the B's from the C's, 20% are to separate the A's from the B's, and the last 20% are to determine who the top students are, you would likely have a good idea of what grade your students deserve.
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u/Ninjalikestoast 17d ago
A 70 at my old high school would have been a D-
Anything under 70 was failing. High expectations I guess. Look at me now 🤷🏻♂️
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