Quote:
Originally Posted by Erasmus00
I look at this from the teacher side- I have been involved in teaching college level physics courses. For me, the grade is an evaluation- it signifies a student has attained some level of mastery over course work, and to be honest, I don't care how hard working a student is, how often they come talk to me, etc. I care about the quality of their work.
An A grade signifies the student has mastered the concepts taught, and can apply them to novel problems. B is usually the student can work through some problems, but is largely limited to problem types they have seen before. They are familiar with the material, but cannot apply it in new ways, etc. If a student never studies, but can do any problem I throw at them, why should I fail them? If a student works their tail off but can't do any problems, why should I pass them?
As far as I'm concerned, a good physics student is a student who ends the course capable of doing physics.
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QFT
What's more, if a student can do the problems with little studying (and there is a reason for this that doesn't consist of the student just being naturally better than everyone else...) why should they go through the motions of trying just as hard as someone else might need to. It's unnatural, its a waste of time and effort, and it makes no sense.
That is like a farmer cultivating twice as much food as needed and letting it rot.
Although... I think it is easier to be objective in physics. The answer is just a number that's just right or wrong... or close because of the number of digits used in calculations. All you could do is curve, I don't see how you could rearrange the curve. You could not have any novel problems at not let the A students stand out I guess.
