Can half of a class of 50 end up with a grade of A in a course in university? Under what conditions? What is your opinion?
What have I been up to this past month?
Well, I didn't have decent internet so no new blog posts.
Read some good stuff,
watched a lot of DVDs (including three seasons of Basketball Wives, one season of Amores Perros - yucky genius),
fell in love with Math (Analysis) again,
read a lot of Nigerian blogs and was a tad mean in the comments (not anonymously),
gained some weight and got some pimples (but been drinking water recently to clear out whatever - water works!),
did not finish up the novella I've been writing - one week I'll just do it,
sister got engaged,
many friends (not close friends but still-) died,
brother graduated, ...
As usual, my parents are really interested in my life and 'milestones' - give us a baby, bring a guy home, get a real job - ah yes I interviewed for a 'very real' job and was relieved when the people finally said no for whatever reason. I don't know what I'm doing but it's probably right.
My next goal in life is to get very good internet (but where? how?) and download music: Classical Guitar by Milos Karadaglic, and all the Rufus Wainwright stuff I've missed in the past three years, then maybe try some new music (Carla Bruni?) NaijaPop has some great songs but I need to bathe in new sounds.
So what do you think about grading systems? What fraction of a class should get an A? Who should decide?
10 comments:
yes get them a baby! on grades really i just dont know what to say! guess they paid their dues
i fell in love with Differential equation after leaving school and modeling! so how is Otta going? Miss y
The purpose of teaching is to impart knowledge. The purpose of testing is to confirm it. So a (small) class of fifty all getting "A"s should not be unusual. What is really unfair is th teachers who insist on a natural curve in grading. Nothing natural about marking down.
I like how "minor insurrection" is suggesting that I did a good job. Yeah I did to be honest :)
I think they showed up and did what I wanted in this course, and if they hadn't, they wouldn't be getting As, like nearly half of them. I think too, about a likeable guy who is getting an F that he really could have done it too, I'll have to tell him that.
Can't wait to meet them again in Sept and grow their math.
Class-size matters. I have another class 3x as large. I gave a diluted exam, you know, knowing that while there are some advanced students (maybe 5-10percent of them on fire), more than half of the class is completely not engaged. Well, you would think like 1 in 10 would ACE the exam. Instead it's more like 1 in 100. Next time I get a big class, I'm splitting them to start with so we can do baby class and sexy class ( except of course once you bring the class size down, all you'll have is sexy class really. ) Lots of Fs in this class. What can I say, the As were there for the taking.
Why would we not just do all we can to cap class size at 50, or even 100? Especially in first and second year classes. Instead it's usually this messy foundation in the early years then smaller classes later. Standards people, standards.
This ended up being an important conflict at work. I'm against marking up and marking down and all that abracadabra, as in, data integrity and all.
In the end, I allowed it but insisted on not doing it myself. It's a ridiculous habit 'they' have, what can I say?
For those trained in Nigeria, it also goes to the heart of 'our' inability to do science - we don't have the requisite insistence on absolute honesty. Indeed, we lie a lot. We make up data.
This ended up being an important conflict at work. I'm against marking up and marking down and all that abracadabra, as in, data integrity and all.
In the end, I allowed it but insisted on not doing it myself. It's a ridiculous habit 'they' have, what can I say?
For those trained in Nigeria, it also goes to the heart of 'our' inability to do science - we don't have the requisite insistence on absolute honesty. Indeed, we lie a lot. We make up data.
Pardon me, 1 in 20, not 1 in 100 aced the exam. I had to scale those marks down too, because perfect scores are 'unheard of.' How weird is that?
I think it would depend on if the grade is a measure of knowledge, or is percentile based. If it is a measure of how much material you know, then yes. On the other hand, if it is a measure of where the student stands in relation to others in the class, then no.
"we make up data". Reminds me of Engineering labs.
Oh I love my music. Used my increased bandwidth to grab music torrent files (apologies to the rights' owners) .
Carla Bruni's Quelqu'un m'a dit is divine. Very simple, very sexy in its simplicity.
Her No Promises album is OK, it's the English counterpart to the other album, but somehow doesn't work as well.
I've also been enjoying Rufus Wainwright's Out Of The Game, and the two? three? year old album All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu. I am biased. I love everything Rufus. Love. Even a non-Rufus fan could easily dig Out Of The Game.
Milos. Milos. Beautiful stuff. Spanish guitar, etc. I have the album Mediterraneo. Unable to get the other albums. But this one has enriched my life.
Between Carla, Milos, and Rufus, there's been so much more beauty injected in my days. I am thankful.
P.S. I also got the following albums:
Beautiful, by Vivian Green - very good stuff.
Back to Black, by Amy Winehouse - you know it's good, you don't need me to tell you.
Watch The Throne, by Kanye and Jay-Z - OK. Cultural experience, widening my horizons etc. I could get into it.
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