Dear Steven, 50% is indeed the minimum grade needed to obtain course credit. Over all courses at the university, the average is about 67%. The average in the first stats course in our department is about 60%. The course is difficult, and taught conceptually. Sincerely, Stuart ___________________________________________________________________ Stuart J. McKelvie, Ph.D., Phone: (819)822-9600, Extension 2402 Department of Psychology, Fax: (819)822-9660 Bishop's University, 2600 College Street, Sherbrooke (Lennoxville), Québec J1M 0C8, Canada. E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Bishop's University Psychology Department Web Page: http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy ___________________________________________________________
________________________________ From: Steven Specht [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tue 5/8/2007 5:34 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] grading and standards and multiple institutions Stuart, Are you implying that a grade of 50% is passing at your institution? I'm not interested in getting into any argument about appropriateness of grading standards anywhere (since I have no idea about the details of the testing and grading procedures at your institution). That is, I realize that 50% can be quite impressive depending upon difficulty of material. But it raises an interesting question in that it conveys to students that knowing "half" the material is sufficient for a passing grade. Do others have a similar policy? Perhaps on a related note... I teach statistics at Cornell University during the summer session. I typically give exams which are a bit more challenging than the ones I have given at other institutions (because the Cornell students perform very well indeed). I'm always a bit tempted to "raise the bar" a bit given that the mean on the exams is typically in the mid-high 80% range (or higher). On the other hand, perhaps a statistics course should cover certain material and should remain relatively the same no matter where one teaches it. I have been teaching with the Gravetter & Wallnau text for almost 20 years now and find that every semester I get through less because of the ever-eroding competencies of my students. Would love to hear from others who teach at multiple institutions of differing quality. -S On May 8, 2007, at 5:14 PM, Stuart McKelvie wrote: Dear Tipsters, I would not argue that the student should be given an A- in the circumstances presented, particularly when 90% is the cutoff. However, the case raises interesting questions about the precision of our grading. If I had a final grade of 88.61% I would automatically round it to 89%, just as a grade of 88.31% would become 88. Because we actually give percentage grades at our institution, I am not faced with the issue of granting an A- or a B. However, when someone obtains 49.61, I am faced with the question of whether to pass the student. In these circumstances, and indeed whenever the final percentage is above 48, I do review the components of the mark, particularly because the maximum percentage based on multiple choice in my courses is 18%. At the end of the course, the part of the student's work that I usually have to hand is the final examination. I look over that to see how I allocated points. The general question is this: When we calculate a final percentage grade, how reliable is it? Another way of putting this is: What is the standard error of measurement? Sincerely, Stuart ______________________________________________ Stuart J. McKelvie, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Bishop's University, 2600 College Street, Sherbrooke, Québec J1M 0C8, Canada. E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (819)822-9600, Extension 2402 Fax: (819)822-9661 Bishop's Psychology Department Web Page: http/:www.ubishops.ca/ccc/dev/soc/psy __________________________________ --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english ======================================================== Steven M. Specht, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Utica College Utica, NY 13502 (315) 792-3171 "Mice may be called large or small, and so may elephants, and it is quite understandable when someone says it was a large mouse that ran up the trunk of a small elephant" (S. S. Stevens, 1958)
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