Mar 13 2010, 09:12 AM
QUOTE(gjoy993 @ Mar 12 2010, 06:24 PM)
I graduated in New York in 2009. Well is US, almost everything that you do in the courses counts toward the final grade. Here's the typical grading policy and grade distribution in my engineering course:
5% - attendance
5% - final presentation
10% - weekly quizzes
10% - weekly homework
15% - Exam 1
15% - Exam 2
15% - Exam 3
25% Final exam
> 93% = A (4.00)
90 - 92 = A- (3.67)
87 - 89 = B+ (3.33)
83 - 86 = B (3.00)
80 - 82 = B- (2.67)
76 - 79 = C+ (2.33)
70 - 75 = C (2.00)
65 - 69 = C- (1.67)
60 - 64 = D+ (1.33)
55 - 59 = D (1.00)
< 55 = F
Most lecturers know that it's a pain in the ass to give 100% commitment to your courses in the whole semester, so they offer things that can raise your grade such as:
1. you can miss 2 classes without grade penalty
2. you can drop 1 exam with lowest grades so the final will count more towards the final grade
3. you can do optional assignment
4. you can get 5% bonus score if you attend all classes
5. etc.
So you can judge how hard/easy is it to get good grades in US. Overall I'd say that it's EASY and FUN but the most important thing is don't miss any assignment. One assignment could reduce you final grade by 0.5% but if you keep missing it, like me, at the end it will be very hard to get A. They really encourage group work and discussion so almost in every class you'll have 1-3 partners.
Also take note that difficulty of course is different from school to school in the U.S.. Generally, the more reputable is your school, the tougher it is.5% - attendance
5% - final presentation
10% - weekly quizzes
10% - weekly homework
15% - Exam 1
15% - Exam 2
15% - Exam 3
25% Final exam
> 93% = A (4.00)
90 - 92 = A- (3.67)
87 - 89 = B+ (3.33)
83 - 86 = B (3.00)
80 - 82 = B- (2.67)
76 - 79 = C+ (2.33)
70 - 75 = C (2.00)
65 - 69 = C- (1.67)
60 - 64 = D+ (1.33)
55 - 59 = D (1.00)
< 55 = F
Most lecturers know that it's a pain in the ass to give 100% commitment to your courses in the whole semester, so they offer things that can raise your grade such as:
1. you can miss 2 classes without grade penalty
2. you can drop 1 exam with lowest grades so the final will count more towards the final grade
3. you can do optional assignment
4. you can get 5% bonus score if you attend all classes
5. etc.
So you can judge how hard/easy is it to get good grades in US. Overall I'd say that it's EASY and FUN but the most important thing is don't miss any assignment. One assignment could reduce you final grade by 0.5% but if you keep missing it, like me, at the end it will be very hard to get A. They really encourage group work and discussion so almost in every class you'll have 1-3 partners.
Curving grades is the other scale system used in U.S. In this system, 20-30% of the class shares the A+, A, A-. So imagine if you have 20 people in a class, only 5 people get to go to the A grade. If you have 200, that will be 50. Under this system, the professor does not have to worry about lampooning you with the hardest questions he can find because he is assured that there will be people who gets an A in the class. (My advanced calc 1's mean was 50%. There were only 5 questions on the test, 3 hours.)
Difficulty also depends on who you are competing with. This usually is the element that makes the course the hardest. If you're in a very good school which only admits top students, you will be competing with crazy people (people from singapore, india, china, and malaysia) to be part of the top 30% of the class.
So generally, difficulty of a U.S. school varies.
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