Is it normal for Sociology class to have 3/4's of the students getting D's and F's?

[Toots71506]

Hi - I'm in a Sociology level 100 class at North Hennipen CC and out of 50 students, the majority are getting D's and F's.... Anyone else experience this? The prof is extremely difficult in his testing. We're graded only on 4 exams with each one covering 4 chapters (100 pages each) and we basically guess what is going to be on the test and if you're wrong, then you could fail the whole test! Thoughts?

[esunada]

Do you know for a fact that everyone is getting Ds and Fs? You should check and see if you prof curves the grades at all. My understanding is that profs can't give almost everyone such poor grades, I think schools require that profs do at least a C average curve. Second, schools are technically a business and if everyone is failing, everyone would get kicked out and they don't want that either. I would talk to him to see how you can improve, and ask him how people do on avg. on these tests and whether he curves, and if everyone is still failing after the second test, maybe speak with your advisor or the dept. chair.

[llg, PhD, RN]

It's not uncommon for grades in the beginnng of the semester to be worse than they are at the end -- and it's the grades at the end of the semester that count. It's particularly true that classes taken by freshman have low grades at the beginning as the class may contain a lot of students not ready for college-level work and/or not used to being a little more independent in their learning. The students need to learn how to succeed in college classes and some students may need to discover that they are not prepared to succeed in college. Those intoductory courses taken by freshman are often the courses that "weed out" those who are not prepared to succeed in college.

If you are struggling, then talk with the professor and get yourself on track. Figure out where you are going wrong and focus on improving in that area. I doubt most people will receive D's and F's in the end. Just make sure you are not one who does.

[HeartsOpenWide, RN]

I got a B in my class but I was working full time and taking a 16 week course in 3 weeks. Personally I think sociology is a cake walk, totally interesting so it is easy to study. It is possible that your teacher is extra hard, but it could be do to the 100 status, which usually are the classes everyone has to take so you do not always have stellar students in the class or students that are really not gun ho about the subject; like some one else said, lots of freshmen that are still learning how to do the college thing. I took Poly-Sci which is required in California. I got an A in the class and it was a very hard A to get; the professor was a lawyer and his test questions were hard to decipher let alone figure out the correct answer. The class did not require any upper division English or even college level English to get in; I was taking it the summer before my last semester before transferring to the University for nursing school so I had already taken my English courses. I remember I got a 99% on one of my papers and the class average was in the 60s...

[Toots71506]

Fortunately, I am one of the higher grades. Our prof sent around the grade list so we are all well aware of how horrible 90% of the class is doing. I honestly thought this class would be fairly easy and it's not. I get the whole freshman weeding out thing but a great deal of our class has degrees and are going back to school (myself included). It's just unfortunate that the prof doesn't make the course interesting...I guess he has the right to teach however he wants to though.

[Magplad]

I had to laugh when I read this post. I had Sociology at NHCC back in Fall 2005 and am guessing the same instructor is still teaching. Honestly, I LOVED his lectures but his tests were TOUGH! We had 4 tests total and even though they were open book/open notes, they were some of the hardest tests I have ever taken. Just think, if you can pass through his class you can accomplish just about anything!

[inforthelonghaul]

Care to share the professors name, or another teacher you found out you would have rather had? I'll be taking sociology fairly soon, probably this summer actually. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[caliotter3]

There are some instructors who go out of their way to make their tests and other requirements extremely difficult, but they are the exception and not the rule. I got an instructor one time that I found to be, shall we say, not to my liking. I dropped the class after the first paper. I just decided that I was not up to dealing with his negative attitude and even more negative grading.