Re:Evidence That Computer Science Grades Are Not Bimodal [pdf]
by groundhogday1 on Tuesday September 27, 2016 @01:43PM
(#12591443)
I'm about the opposite of you. Not a good programmer, but I excelled at the 'formal stuff.' Automata theory, regular expressions, compilers, operating systems, discrete math... these are all areas where I did well. Labs and programming assignments held me back. Although I will say that I feel infinitely more comfortable working with memory allocation in C than I do with anything involving JavaScript.
I also don't think the overall grades were bimodal. I guess I was in the second mode in programming intense courses and the first mode in theory heavy courses. I also feel that most of my peers were either the same as me or the reverse, like you. Wouldn't that create a single mode bell curve?
Of course, this is all purely anecdotal
I'm totally living for development and everything to do with it, but most of the formal stuff completely eluded me.
I failed every math lecture at least once.
Because of my projects and thesis I still finished with a 2,7 which isn't good but also not really bad. Maybe I would have been one of those "college-dropouts who followed their dream" if companies in Germany didn't look so much on your degrees.
Also I never had the impression our grades were bimodal.
Yes about 40% dopped out and yes there were a few "eager beavers", but most were simply okay enough to finish their degrees.