martinguerre

just got one on a midterm.

yeah, it pretty much felt like the end of the world. i'm drinking beer until i feel better, which should be in another pint or two.

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For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

abaya

C's are average, no more, no less. People should not be offended when they get one, unless they have been absolutely superior students and did not get recognized for that fact. The whole sense of entitlement that people have these days REAAAAALLLLLY drives me nuts... one of my huge pet peeves.

That said, as a student, I had the closest thing to a nervous breakdown that I've ever had when I got my first B in my senior year of high school. Looking back, I'm so glad it happened then, so that I could learn that I wasn't the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. I remember one of my teachers actually apologizing for having to give me the grade, he felt so bad. The other teacher, I am still friends with and I respect him all the more for being a hard-ass and grading me on my performance. I have never had much respect for teachers who didn't give me what I deserved, bad or good.

When I got to college, I let my studies slide since I didn't know what grad school was (I'd given up on med school by my 2nd quarter) and there was just too much fun to be had. Got a C in calculus (acceptable; I have always sucked at math), and a C+ in World Literature (unacceptable, since I was in love for the first time, but also an English major!). Still, I didn't really care that much, since my identity revolved around a lot more than just my grades, after those first B's in high school. And, in terms of grad school, it didn't really matter anyway, since I took a lot of post-bacc courses and proved that my 3.55 undergrad wasn't a true representation of my ability. (Have been getting darn near 4.0's ever since, yay!)

Now, let me say that as a high school teacher and a college teaching assistant: a C is AVERAGE. And that is not a judgement on someone's intelligence; we just can't have the majority of the population running around thinking they are A students, when really they are average. People should be okay with who they are, not feeling inadequate and needing teachers to validate their existence with an unearned "A." I believe in the normal curve, with a little room for people at the bottom to redeem themselves after the first hard knocks.

I don't care what kind of insane inflation takes place, I do not see any reason for giving an average student anything higher than a C. If they have not gone out of their way to be an excellent student, and by that I mean giving up certain social activities before things are due, not coming in stoned or drunk, seeing me during office hours and obviously making a huge effort to BE A GOOD STUDENT, then they do not deserve a higher grade. Now, of course, if some idiot manages to pull off really high scores on everything while still being a horrible student (somewhat like myself ), then I won't deny them the A. But those who are smart enough to do that are few and far between... the rest, IT'S OKAY TO BE AVERAGE, jesus. Take your C like a man/woman and move on.

... and yes, I am almost SURE I got a C (or worse) on my recent Statistics test. This makes me feel like crap, not because of the C, but because I know I deserved that C. I know I am an above-average student, but I let myself be average on this test, and that is why I feel bad. It is not shameful to have the C, but it is shameful that I did not apply myself more efficiently.

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And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

hrandani

I thought I would give the perspective from the other side, if you will permit.

I am what is generally considered to be the poorest sort of student as illustrated above.

In college since enrolling I have 60 hours of credit. I am 19 years old. This makes this the first semester of my junior year currently. My GPA is 2.5 and my major is neurobiology.

I have failed, on average, one course a semester. I get more C's than D's and consider that a success.

I don't give a shit for grades, or this whole system. I am just plodding along to get my degree at this top-ten rated college because I frankly can't think of anything else better to do, yet. Some of you adults probably are thinking, what a waste.

Well it is a waste. College is a waste of my time, and everybody else's. The whole system of American education is bullshit and has been for a few hundred years. Standardized tests are a joke and I put no effort in because none is required, and when an essay is required I just write something and forget about it.
I've known people that fail multiple choice tests, and others who ace courses they don't go to. If you want to be yet another horse rode hard and dumped to the side when they're done with you then work hard and get your A and go to graduate school. It doesn't mean shit.

Lots of things affect grades such as ability to concentrate, type of major and how well it suits you, if you are working on things on the side while you are supposed to be going to school - people have mentioned girls, video games - whatever. People who do well want to, and those who do poorly don't.

My parents rail at me for wasting my education, but I haven't learned anything so far and the only reason I don't make A's is because I don't care about the details. I follow concepts and patterns, and couldn't care less about the specifics. I don't care to follow in the footsteps of my predecessors. Fuck memorization and true/false. This country is fucked and the values are all in the wrong places and nobody gives a shit. So fuck getting a job, and fuck America. I work hard, and I have in the past. But not for this. Not for this. Ustwo is probably now calling me anti-american and a bum, saying that I will change my mind when I go out and experience the starving masses outside, but I can't say I care. I'm just trying to share my feelings here and if I get banned for that, that's up to the mods.

It doesn't have to be this way. Our world is set up to fuck 90% for the benefit of 10% and we have the gall to toss words like utilitarianism around. There is some depressing shit floating around and most people do all they can to ignore it. I contemplate dropping out but I can't see any advantages as long as I am progressing at college, and despite everything, I should graduate within the standard four years thanks to the full year of advance credit I got in high school.

Academia is a fucking fantasy world with little application to reality. Yes, I reject it. You can't quantify anything worth having, and grades are definetly not on that list. We are substituting grades for reality in the workforce, and I've talked to both employers and professors in my field who would prefer me, a shitty student to the constant stream of memorization queens the colleges currently produce in mass quantities.

By the way, I have tried transferring but the other college that purported to be open-minded and accepting of alternative students didn't like my grades, or apparently my essay. Sometimes in the depths of my dillusions I consider myself a writer of sorts. I should wash my hands of this now.

So, Gilda, is a C a bad grade? No. It's passing.

But see above for the attitude of a C student. Would you want this to be your son or daughter?

Captain Canada

Cs are average. They arent bad, or good, they're fine.

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raeanna74

How bad or good a grade is all depends on the student. If they're capable of better and do much less than their best it's a disappointment.

If ALL of the class gets c's on a test when normally the grades would be more spread out then that's the TEACHER'S fault. If the students all did poorly then the teacher failed to teach.

I don't think I'd ever make a student retake a class if they got a C unless they wanted to and feel they could do better. Otherwise they suffer from their lack of effort if it is less than standard for that particular person.

I personally have had failed college course or D's in college courses, that I studied the books for all summer, can back and squeezed out a B in the course second time around. A grade of B was about as good as an A+ for some students - My average was around C+ or B- in highschool and college. C's weren't my best usually but it depended on the class too. In Science a C was poor - in Math a C was actually quite good.

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Rekna

Grade inflation is a horrible problem and the big schools are the biggest offenders. Schools like Harvard hand out A's like they are candy. Because of this all the other schools have to do the same otherwise it looks like their students aren't as good as other schools.

For instance here is something that pisses me off. I'm working on my phd and in my program anything lower than a B is considered failing and all core classes must be passed with a B+ or higher.

Now my advisor argued that this is because in graduate school everyone is a lot smarter and need to be held to a higher standard. But if everyone has the same grade you do you distinguish between the good students and the average students?

For instance on the GRE analytical writing section it is scored out of 6 points with .5 increments. Seriously can you tell anything about a group of applicants with that scale? all your applicatants are going to probably be a 5.5 or a 6...

Xenomorph

I have a moderate scholarship to a school at the low end of the top 100. To keep it, I need a 3.2. That's one A and four Bs in a typical five-course semester. There is very little room for C grades, and a single failure is damning.

...which isn't much of a problem, since C's are definately below average here. It takes a hearty amount of skipped classes, missed assignments, and tests gone completely unprepared for to pull a C in most classes. I get perhaps one teacher for whom B and A grades are reserved for excellent performance. B's can almost always be achieved with only the most minimal of effort, and many times A's are given to half the class or more. I coasted through my first semester to a 4.0, and now that I've taken the odd class here and there where a B actually does indicate superior performance and an A is given to only the top handful I've settled to around a 3.7. I am not the best student in the world, but this is the level of difficulty I've experienced college classes are now on.

The same was true in high school. I'd say something between a quarter and a third of my class graduated with perfect 4.0's, since a cumulative average of 93% or better in all classes across all 4 years was scored as one. An 100% grade was far from unattainable in most classes, and anything in the 80s or below was seen as very shoddy. Sure, there were kids that threw it all out the window and just skipped and did drugs all day, but even the most average of students that more or less did they work they were supposed to easily graduated with something in the middle 3's on a 4.0 scale.

In the great race for admissions and scholarships to higher schools, the emphasis has shifted away from grades because of the fact that a 4.0 means almost nothing now. In talking to high school counselors about college scholarships and college counselors about graduate school scholarships, I've been told time and again that students need to really beef up their brag sheets beyond just good grades in order to get recognized for anything. Do extracurriculars. Do something academic over the summer even if you don't get credit for it, or try to look like you'll eventually make your would-be school look good by doing volunteer work. Make sure your personal statements or essay responses are top-notch, because there is where they'll be looking for the 4.0 who actually has a soul over the 4.0 who went to Kaplan looking for the formula sure-thing essay. Standardized tests. If school is now easy enough that everyone can get a perfect score, ACTs and LSATs are not yet. Some people cry foul. My kid doesn't test well is a common wail. I think, though, that the argument that the dedication implied by a high grade is more important than the raw aptitude demonstrated by a test should hold water. The problem is that those consistent high grades don't mean anything these days. The sharper fellow that screwed around a lot in school knowing he could pull A's on the ease of the system has a 4.0 and a 32 where the slower guy who was determined to bust his balls and get the good grades no matter the cost has a 4.0 and a 26.

I think this is just the result of a system in which we've decided that the best schools have the kids with the best grades. There are still some checks in place to make sure schools don't just give A's to -everyone-, but each school is quite strongly motivated to give out the highest grades it can get away with.

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maskedrider

A "C" is a bad grade for parents who have very high expectations from their children. As for me, it doesn't really matter if I would have a child who's not so smart as long as I can see that he is doing his best.