Roughly 80% of Grades Given at Harvard Are in the 'A' Range

Re:Roughly 80% of Grades Given at Harvard Are in the 'A' Range by Jensson on Friday October 13, 2023 @02:59PM (#37874186)

Practicing to solve tons of standard problems is a waste of time, it doesn't help you grow much, which is why having interesting problems on exams is way better since it gives students a better goal to aim towards. It also gives a fairer view of each students understanding, since students tend to forget everything they crammed to pass the standard questions.

> Pedantry and intellectual hazing seem endemic in academia

I wouldn't call interesting test questions pedantry or intellectual hazing. Giving tons of basic easy questions is pedantry and intellectual hazing to me, I'd rather just have the harder questions.

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Re:Roughly 80% of Grades Given at Harvard Are in the 'A' Range by beambot on Friday October 13, 2023 @03:42PM (#37874691)

Exams designed to have a 60% median score with subsequent curve adjustment are (a) wildly common in elite colleges, and (b) certainly classify as hazing in my book.

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Re:Roughly 80% of Grades Given at Harvard Are in the 'A' Range by swatcoder on Friday October 13, 2023 @03:50PM (#37874796)

For people pursuing personal growth rather than a starry transcript, challenging tests are more like "lifting to failure" or "grinding the boss on hard mode" than hazing.

But on the other hand, yeah, for fragile egos and given the very high stakes associated with one's transcript, not everyone is there to get good and it can absolutely be devastating to never ace tests like you did in earlier years.

Different programs/eductators may have more sympathy for one group than the other, but there's no viciousness involved.

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