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I didn't count the Linear Algebra and the Partial Differential Equations
courses I took as an undergraduate (along with many of my classmates).
We
took these not out of great intellectual curiosity, but rather because we
believed this to be beneficial to our future careers. We are also
talking
amongst ourselves in a rather unique group--mostly Ph.D.s and Master
level
physicists. I'm not sure we can extend our experiences to the general
student body.
What do you mean by hard graders? Is the average grade in the courses
really a C?
If the students are college-prep (and looking toward schools
with competive entrance requirements), are they really unconcerned about
their likely grades?
I agree. They want quality but they don't want their kids getting Cs.
When
that happens, they often jerk them out of that school and place them in
another.
If things nationwide were as you portray them, then why is there a
problem
with grades inflating upwards and why did we all get so upset a couple
months ago about a large public university course where one could pass
without do anything (certainly without leaning anything)? Colleges and
Universities are in competition for students and (despite the formal
rhetoric) in most cases the product being sold is a degree (not knowledge
or
skill). It therefore falls on the faculty to maintain the standards that
will ensure that the degrees conferred will represent the prerequisite
gain
of knowledge and skills by the graduates. Unfortunately, we've had
enough
reports, on this list alone, of instructors under pressure from
administrators to back off from some of those standards.
To return a little more to Jim's original concern about grade inflation:
It
seems to me to be a real detriment to send students out of High School
with
3.9 averages and then have these students find out that they are B-
students
in College. I have any number of these B- students come to me totally
confused (yes, about the Physics too) because they just can't understand
why
they aren't doing better in the course. After all, they had all A's in
High
School! Their expectations are that they can get an A with the same
level
of effort (or the same memorization techniques) that they expended in HS,
and it doesn't work. This is not just a problem at the HS level either.
My
wife is an elementary school principal. She has to deal with parents who
can't understand why their children have to go to summer school (based on
the state-wide testing program) when they have been on the honor-roll all
year!
Rick