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What is the worst mark you've ever had on a midterm exam?


st8ic

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LOL. The one and only course I ever dropped. I almost stayed in it too! I figured out that I needed 97% on the final to get an 85 (anything lower drops my gpa so whats the point) and I was actually gonna go for it. Then the prof told me the exam was half short-answer. Dropped it like its hot. Good thing too cause according to my friends the final was murder.

 

But now I feel so liberated knowing that theres no advantage for me to carry a full course load anymore. :D

 

Oh ok that's the course that ruined your chance of using that sexy uoft formula!

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62% Calc I midterm #1. 100% midterm #2. 70% final... the prof curved the marks, posted them, and i had an A-... then i think the dean came down on him hard and he had to re-work the marks... brought me down to a B+... boy was i ever disappointed

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25%, Calculus IV (Math 317 at UBC, I think). That was the sign that I needed to drop that course and just take the W. I remember Martha Piper talking about how it's worth failing a class and that you need to test your limits. I thought to myself, "Ah, to test my limits.... lim(D-Rock|Advanced calc|)--> F; screw that"

 

But I stuck with my inorganic chem (201), and surely failed my final exam but still wound up with a 54%. And now I have a biochemistry degree! Yay!

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Newbie Noobie question: What is curving?

 

I've done two mid terms so far and they are 71 and 76%. I was totally crushed but I'm working like mad to make up for them.

 

Basically the class marks are changed according to some normal distribution centered on an average they decide. For example, assuming your 71% was in the top 1% of grades and the class average was very low (e.g. 40%)), your mark will be bumped up so that your mark will remain in the top 1% percentile (e.g. now 90 instead of 71) while the average is now higher.

 

This rarely happens in life science courses in my experience (except brutal physics tests) and often occurs in engineering.

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Basically the class marks are changed according to some normal distribution centered on an average they decide. For example, assuming your 71% was in the top 1% of grades and the class average was very low (e.g. 40%)), your mark will be bumped up so that your mark will remain in the top 1% percentile (e.g. now 90 instead of 71) while the average is now higher.

 

This rarely happens in life science courses in my experience (except brutal physics tests) and often occurs in engineering.

 

Yeah, it really occurs when profs are unable somehow to actually create a fair test. Then they pull out this sort of "magic" to correct everything in the everyone's eyes. Trouble is that a) class averages are rarely normalized in the first place so most way prof's correct things are not valid B) When tests get truly bad your placement has so little to do with your actual level of understanding that the shifting is almost random c) lets professors think they can continue to create crappy tests as they can just "correct" them in the end. :)

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I got at 63% in my very first university mid-term - Economics, which was my main major at the time. It was worth 10%. Thought I studied for it and everything, but obviously was missing some key concepts. Ended up with a 90+ in the course after seriously amping up my studying.

 

So you can start out badly and end up ok :)

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I got at 63% in my very first university mid-term - Economics, which was my main major at the time. It was worth 10%. Thought I studied for it and everything, but obviously was missing some key concepts. Ended up with a 90+ in the course after seriously amping up my studying.

 

So you can start out badly and end up ok :)

 

I did poorly on my first econ exam as well--I reviewed the exam before the final and ended up with an A+ because the prof used the EXACT same exam for the midterm and the final!

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Basically the class marks are changed according to some normal distribution centered on an average they decide. For example, assuming your 71% was in the top 1% of grades and the class average was very low (e.g. 40%)), your mark will be bumped up so that your mark will remain in the top 1% percentile (e.g. now 90 instead of 71) while the average is now higher.

 

This rarely happens in life science courses in my experience (except brutal physics tests) and often occurs in engineering.

 

Thanks a lot. Lots clearer.

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I always love these kinds of threads.

 

I once got a solid 31% on an analytical chemistry midterm.

 

Ended the course with an A-. It helps when your final exam is changed so as to become worth 100% of your mark!

 

And of course, I've had my fair share of bad marks in midterms and finals throughout undergrad.

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36% on Quantum Mechanics II. I had pretty much aced the first semester of QM but screwed up badly because I got stuck on a proof and due to poor time management (only 50 minutes for the exam) screwed up on everything else. Without scaling, I ended up with 78% in that course (B+) so it was somewhat salvaged.

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LOL, I think I've got you all trumped. I got a 22% on my final in first year bio lab (which was a bird course, btw). It was the last exam, in the last slot, in the second semester, and all I wanted to do was go and get drunk (actually, I got drunk while I was in the exam). I finished in 30 minutes, which is the amount of time you're required to stay for, and was the first person done in the entire gym.

 

I've gotten more serious about school since.

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LOL, I think I've got you all trumped. I got a 22% on my final in first year bio lab (which was a bird course, btw). It was the last exam, in the last slot, in the second semester, and all I wanted to do was go and get drunk (actually, I got drunk while I was in the exam). I finished in 30 minutes, which is the amount of time you're required to stay for, and was the first person done in the entire gym.

 

I've gotten more serious about school since.

 

ouch, what did you get for the course then?

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LOL, I think I've got you all trumped. I got a 22% on my final in first year bio lab (which was a bird course, btw). It was the last exam, in the last slot, in the second semester, and all I wanted to do was go and get drunk (actually, I got drunk while I was in the exam). I finished in 30 minutes, which is the amount of time you're required to stay for, and was the first person done in the entire gym.

 

I've gotten more serious about school since.

 

Wow, yeah that takes the cake :)

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