Grade inflation? In MY university? It's more likely than you think!

[tenlittlebullets]

Haha so I might have mentioned the evil algorithms homework of dooooom that kicked off the shittiness of last week. Seven pages of proofs and algorithms, handwritten, on both sides of the paper. Stayed up all night last Sunday to finish it, left three or four problems blank, half-assed a couple others, and was completely unsure whether the rest was acceptable or not. Had a minor breakdown in the study-abroad program director's office an hour before it was due, flailing about how I was going to get a three out of twenty and die of shame. He made a bet with me that I was wrong about failing the universe: if I got a passing grade (10 or better) I owed him coffee; if I got 5 or less he owed me coffee ("and a bottle of rum I should think!" added the assistant director).

That was last Monday. We got it back today.

The program directors KNOW we are a bunch of overachieving anal-retentive freaks and have beaten it into our heads that the French grading system is not the American grading system. Depending on the class, 14 to 16 out of 20 gets converted to an A when they do our transcripts. So they have spent a lot of time going "DO NOT KILL YOURSELF IF YOU GET A THIRTEEN, it does not mean what your gut reaction thinks it means, nobody gets more than an 18 practically ever, etc. etc."

Turns out they lied. Liiiiied. Because my raw grade was 15.25 out of 20 (yes, I did the math), but they curved it so that the people with the highest score got a 20. I ended up with a 19.

I have never been so happy to lose a bet in my life.

Comments

[toi-marguerite.livejournal.com]

ROCK ON!

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

:D *teh happy*

[lovemoony4ever.livejournal.com]

Awesome, congrats! They occasionally do stuff like that here too - if half the class failed and the best score only merits a 4, most people seem to think that's clearly the teacher's fault alone and they'll make adjustments so that the 4 ends up being a 5;) This is indeed most prevalent in maths.

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Haha, the thing is that 15 is considered a perfectly respectable grade--I have no idea why they felt the need to adjust it unless there were two or three people who did well and everyone else did miserably.

[coloneldespard.livejournal.com]

Oh, awesome! I had a (over achieving) mate at Uni who used to tell me "remember...any mark over a pass is the waste of a good mark." Pulling marks like this puts the lie to that statement - there's nothing quite like getting that unexpected sensational mark (even if I suspect it's much more deserved than you think it is).

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Haha, we have a different (but related) mantra at Smith: "Done is better than good." Because we are all fricking perfectionists and need constant reminders that FINISHING a paper is more important than getting every little thing right.

Thing is, though, I don't think I deserved the 19. I might have deserved the 15, but I really have no idea why they felt the need to curve it, when most Parisian university students are satisfied as long as they get over a 10.

[kittycallum.livejournal.com]

Haha, well done! I had the same reaction when I got an A on my Greek Civilisation paper -- the "huh, what? everyone told me I'd fail the first assignment!" thing. I'm sure your mark was perfectly well-earned, though, given that you're in such a programme in the first place.

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

The complete unexpectedness makes it that much sweeter, doesn't it?

I don't know about well-earned, though--one of my friends in the program is a physics student who is busting her ass ten times more than me and getting 8s. It might just be a matter of some departments being more lenient than others.

[mmejavert.livejournal.com]

Yay!

(Reminds me of the time I managed to get a 97% on my pre-calculus final and I swore I failed it.)

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

XD It is always happy-making when that happens, isn't it?