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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m the OP. My kid is a sophomore. It’s not faux outrage. My kid just left home this afternoon to go back.

I’m Worried given my kid is stressed about a class.

Median grade in a stem bio prelim was a 69. Just fyi. The median for some of the stem classes is just crazy. Has As in 2 Econ classes so it’s not that.[/quote]

Yes engineering/STEM classes are brutal, always have been.  I can recall (at a T10 school) having a calculus course (calc 4 so not freshman) where the average was 18% (yes you read that right).  Top score on a midterm (30 students) was 36, someone else had a 32 and then it dropped to 25 and on the way down.  [b]I had a 31 and got an A in the course.[/b]  But it was frustrating to attend class, study and do the work and sit in a midterm and literally have no clue what you were doing and wheterh you were goign to pass or fail.  And I was "at the top of the class", so I have to imagine the stressors for those with 12/15% in the course felt like.  
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This is not limited to Cornell. Many top schools have median scores or 30-70% out of 100 based on some professors enjoying giving a very challeng ing test, but then they curve that median grade to a B or B+ at Cornell, or a B+ or even and A- at other schools. Many freshman do not understand how college grading works. Below the median often still earns a B- or even a B. As another posted, the median in humanities courses at Cornell is A-. It is not accurate to blame Cornell grading for a mental health tragedy. There was a recent year where NCState had 5 suicides in a few months. This happens everywhere, most unfortunately. It is a mental health crisis with this age group. [/quote]

oh I understood how college grading worked.  But it's still incredibly defeating and frustrating to study/go to office hours and TA hours/be as prepared as you can be and sit thru an exam and literally think "well I could end up with an F or I could have the best score in the class, I literally have no clue which".  That is not testing knowledge or learning at all, but many STEM profs are known for doing this (back then and still)

I was ultimately a 3.9+ GPA in college with an engineering and Music performance double major (almost 6.5 years worth of courses crammed into 5 years, so tons of overloading and two very time consuming majors).  Yet the 3-4 times I sat thru courses like this it was mentally frustrating.  Sure I got an A or A-, but it's extremely frustrating.  So it's easy to see in today's environment of push push push the kids have been in for 10+ years already, to have a course like that could send someone over the edge.

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