“Holding Colleges accountable for Teaching America’s History and Institutions”
Would you believe that no college that was part of this test earned better than a “D+”.
WIth that in mind I bet you wouldn’t expect to find Harvard, Yale and Brown college on the list or the University of Minesota and University of California - Berkeley in the 50% correct range. see Rankings
Thanks for sending this site to me J-MO!
6 responses so far ↓
1 william // May 5, 2008 at 7:58 am
I got a 63.3% correct.
2 Jonathan P. Figdor // May 14, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I don’t know man. I went to Vassar and I did pretty well. And Harvard did score the best overall. I posted my score below. Oh, and for the record, my Dad, who is 67 and a graduate of Harvard Law and Harvard GSAS scored a 44 out of 60 or a 73.3. You know what I think this means? THE GODDAMN TEST IS STUPID! Knowledge of the material on this test isn’t proof of understanding of the American political system, or of citizenship in general. Only of knowledge in somewhat arcane, dusty facts that play little roll. Sure people should know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, but knowing in what year Jamestown was founded? Give me a fucking break.
You answered 46 out of 60 correctly — 76.67 %
Average score for this quiz during May: 65.0%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 65.0%
3 Jonathan P. Figdor // May 14, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Also, a 69.56 is a C-, not a D, since it would be rounded to a 70.
4 william // May 15, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Agreed, that test was trivia.
As far as the 69.5 = C-, I got the comment of the D+ from that site, so apparently not.
On a side note, did they round up at Vassar?
Some classes at the colleges I attended did round up, some used curves.
I actually missed an A in Chem 2 by .2, my instructor didn’t round me up.
But and A was 89%, so it was below what a true A should be anyway. Just like a 70% should be a D.
But that is just my personal opinion as is curved grading being Bullsh!T in any college level course.
The last college I graduated from there was no curve strictly a 92 A,84 B,76 C,69 F.
I would assume this is how it is at Harvard as well?
5 william // May 15, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I should also point out that I never had to take calculus either. If I had I probably would have been begging for a curve and it most likely wouldn’t have been big enough.
6 Jonathan P. Figdor // May 15, 2008 at 10:25 pm
The grading works like this at most schools these days:
A: 94-100
A-: 90-93
B+: 86-89
B: 83-85
B-: 80-82
etc.
Most elite schools don’t use curves because they punish good students. For example, imagine if you taught an intro to western philosophy class at Harvard. You might get 10-12 papers that honestly deserve As. However, if you go by a curve, then you’re going to have to give one of those kids a B+. These days, colleges rely on high professorial standards for grading. An A paper at Vassar (in the philosophy dept. at least) was a publishable paper in a peer-reviewed journal.
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