grades

[katster]

Department	Course Number	Course Title	Units	Grade	Credit Code
INFOSYS	206	DISTRIB COMP APPLIC	4.0	B
INFOSYS	208	ANA INFO ORGS/SYS	4.0	A
INFOSYS	290	SPECIAL TOPICS	3.0	B+
INFOSYS	290	SPECIAL TOPICS	2.0	I

I'm not totally happy with it. 206 was a killer class, and I should be grateful for the B, but...in some ways it feels disappointing, and having it all be on tests and quizzes that I was happily assured I would do well on if I just read the textbook. Computer Science is not my forte.

The I I'm okay with, since Glushko could have just as easily flunked me, and I honestly deserved it. Not sure why exactly a B+ either in the lecture class, considering I showed up and did all the assignments.

The A I'm a bit surprised at too, but not upset. That's only my second straight A at Cal, and I got it despite missing an assignment.

And that puts me at a 3.468 for my first year of grad school, with some downhill that is going to happen with that I, because I won't deserve much better than a B in that class. Assuming a C (which I think is worse case, and I think I'll retroactively drop if that happens), it's a 3.329. I just have to finish fscking XML.

Yeah, I need to let you all know what the last two and a half weeks have been like, but I'm still not quite back to writing. Give me a chance.

Comments

not bad

[jwmo.livejournal.com]

Those are nice grades, considering the following:

1) This is grad school, not undergrad. The coursework is significantly harder and the expectations are far greater. To get an A, you work is expected to be on a professional level.

2) That's thirteen semester units by my count, which is, around here, incredibly high for a graduate student. I think (if I remember correctly) that graduate students in the UNL school of music are not permitted to take more than 12 credits in a semester if given an assistantship, 15 otherwise. Pulling that much duty in a semester of grad school is quite impressive.

My director of bands at UNL has some philosophies on grading, and since she's the only person I've done graduate level work with, I'll share some of that. First of all, she has a strict theory on letter grades. To her, C is average work, since it sits on the middle of the grading scale (this is especially the case in curved situations). Thus, the grade for a class where you turn in every assignment on time at an acceptible level with proper use of grammar, etc. would be a C. A work is reserved for publishable papers and research representative of a professional situation in a Research I institution (which UNL is, and Cal very well may be). Any A, thus, is incredibly impressive. Also, she highly encourages us to report grade point averages anywhere higher than a 3 on resumes when applying to professional positions. Such a mark, she claims, represents high academic work. So frequently we tend to think our GPAs have to be ridiculously high. I know that I'm disappointed that I dropped under 3.7 this semester, but if I walk out the door at a 3.75, I'll have done some amazing work in college (that computes to an A/A- average at UNL). If you stay over 3.00, however, you should be proud, and around 3.5 for graduate work is highly impressive.

Keep the chin up. You're doing well.

Yay you. Glad it's over for now ;-)

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

What does the 'I' mean? I never could get a grip on the letter grade system, I find it almost as unintuitive as the Imperial Weights & Measures you folks use (and grading letters on a curve? <Shudder>). We use a number scale of 0-10 (or 0-100 for exam/assignment grades), with 5.5 as passing.

Not that the metric system is Scientifically Holy or something (ain't that a nice oxymoron), it's just so much easier to Grok. To each their own I guess.

Yay you. Glad it&#39;s over for now ;-)

[katster.livejournal.com]

I == incomplete.

Which is why I'm glad he did that instead of outright failing me.

-kat