How can professors get away with this?
 

They teach a class which starts with seventeen people enrolled, thirteen drop it and of those remaining four people only one or two people pass.

As far fetched as it might seem, this is the current situation in my 'Economic and Business Forecasting' class. I'm not complaining that I'm going to get an 'F' in the class (I can honestly say that I earned that 'F'!), but it's always struck me as odd how professors can get away with such a high drop/fail rate...

Anyone else ever been in a class such as this?

The best professors I've ever had (from whom I learned the most) were the ones who didn't stick by a silly curve. Either you knew the material or you didn't. Of course, maybe the professor is just a dick. I guess it depends on the actual material, if the standards are reasonable, and if they are applied fairly to each of the students.

So, to answer the OP, I guess I haven't been in one of these classes.

Either they don't and the next semester, the class isn't offered or if it is offered, a different professor teaches it, or...

The professor has tenure and there's not much the university can do.

I used to take it as a challenge. Some professors want people to fail in order to believe that they are maintaining really high scholastic standards. When I came into a class like that, I usually had like 3 hours of sleep a night but I did everything humanly possible, short of witchcraft, to pass that class. If you can make it out of there with a C or above, take it as a compliment.

in general, i'd agree it's tough to say without more context. in this particular instance il; perhaps i'm not understanding. 4 people are taking the class, you're saying you think you deserve an F, and so that would leave two kids who will pass - maybe with an A or a B, and one other kid who you are projecting to fail. if you weren't in the class, and assuming the other 3 are really working hard at it...i'm not surprised to have 2 people pass the class, and 1 not pass.

then again, i've only run into that type of situation in grad school, and the standards are a bit higher there. i think at the school where i did my undergrad studies, that class would have been cancelled, depending on when the dropouts came inside the semester.

On the first day of an organic chem class the professor helpfully explained that 60% of the people failed the class each year. This was cushioned with the assurance that most people passed it on the second try. This was soured somewhat by remarking that about a quarter of the people changed to a major that didn't require OChem rather than take it again.

I got a D and felt pretty good about it. ¦¬)

The class is an elective specifically for economic and accounting majors (4000 level, if that means anything) dealing with, as the name implies, forecasting economic data and involves a great deal of use of the program R.

The class started with seventeen people, but over the course of three or so months all but four people have dropped it, and of those four people I know that there's one who'll definitely pass. Personally, I've been teetering on the D/F borderline for a while now. Whatever I get, though, I can honestly say that I earned it.

As a few people on the board already know, I'm in a class that's very similar. The class is a 300 level CS class. It's a class which has pretty tough material to start, but the professor has made it pretty clear that she doesn't want to be approached, and the TA isn't much better. The professor's first test had an average of below 50%, and a few people took her practice test to professors from the CS department, and most couldn't do the practice test, and the few that could do it couldn't finish it in just over an hour (the class period). Keep in mind these are people with Masters and PhDs in CS. Our last test average, from what the TA is telling us anyway, was below 10% with the highest grade in the class still being below 50%. She just informed up that she won't be giving the tests back, she'll just decide whether we passed or failed, then mark it down. (Yes that's right, we just have to take her word that we failed.) Most of us have read the chapters from the book six or more times (the book being one that was designed as a guide for the professor to base the class on for an honors 400 level class). The TA will refuse to answer most of our questions, implies that we're lazy idiots, then bitches at us for not asking him any questions. He's also refused to help us on certain topics because he feels it's a waste of time despite the professor emphasizing that we will be tested on the material and most of the class having no idea how to do those problems. There's also poor communication between the two of them. The professor actually told us once, "I looked at your homeworks and it looks like some of you were graded too harshly. I know he's mad at me and I hope he's not taking it out on all of you."

Word of advice for next time, as soon as you see these trends, go in to the head of the department immediately, and have as many others from the class go in as well. Also, find other professors from the department and talk to them. It reflects poorly on the department when a professor acts like this, and the other professors will be pissed if their department is viewed in a negative light due to a bad teacher.

That is routine in some of the photo classes I've been in. Other than that, yeah, it happens.