›
To take part in discussions on talkSFU, please apply for membership (SFU email id required).

How hard is the marking on the curve for SFU business?

enjoiii
edited January 2009 in General
Im going to be starting at SFU business for accounting and im curious about how the curve works. Im going to be transfering in for my 3rd and 4th years from Kwantlen where I came out with a 3.6. So are all 3rd and 4th year business classes marked on the curve? Is there a set curve that is applied to all courses ie. 18% get an A or something to that extent or is it up to each professor? Also how hard will it be compared to Kwantlen, I know this is a extremely subjective question but overall how does it compare?

Comments

  • JayDub
    edited January 2009
    If you get average then you will get a C. Then depending on how far away you are from the average and the standard deviation, will determine if you go up or down.

    It will also be much harder than Kwantlan. Welcome to playing with the big boys.
  • Agentbob
    edited January 2009
    From what I've heard, the GPAs from Kwantlen are inflated, so you can't really use it to measure how well you'll do. I'm in CS, but from what I've seen from my friends, it's incredibly competitive.
  • Kevin M.Kevin M.
    edited January 2009
    It's usually up the prof. The way curving work is that if, at the end of the semester, the average of the class is skewed to the right or the left of what it "should be" then they'll scale it to compensate for any deviation from the norm. So yea, it's basically up to the prof and they usually wait until the final exams are marked before they decide if they want to scale or not. As far as I know this applies to all faculties since it is an SFU policy.
  • ToddB
    edited January 2009
    Its based on factors such as class size, whether its a required business class for all bus majors or one that fulfills a concentration requirment and it also depends whether its a 300 or 400 level class.

    From my experience, in the upper levels, class average should get you about a B- and generally, you need to be about 15% above class average to get in the A range. Usually top 2 or 3 marks in class get an A+. But again, it all depends on the class.

    I transferred from Kwantlen as well and my GPA dropped about .2-.3
    It's a lot more competitive in SFU and accounting is probably the most competitive.
  • puredaaan
    edited January 2009
    Well, I've been TA-ing for quite some time and I know that there is no "strict" rule about giving out any A's, B's, or C's. General guidelines are top 10-12% get A+'s depending on the Professor.
    Class average usually obtains a C+. However, many professors like to batch students up into the "C" group, "B" group and "A" group. How they do this is that in students' grades, there is usually a couple percentages that students are never in. For example, if there are 10 students in the 60-70 range and no students are in the 70-75 range, then the next grade group would start from the 75 range.

    On the brighter side, many Professors can and will give out as many A+'s that he believes should be deserved by students! That's why it is sometimes important to get to know your Professor or even visit his office hours!

    TA's sometimes have a say when students are borderline between grades (say 1% away from an A). TA's will determine if the student has been attending classes and participating and such. Contrary to belief, such effort during the semester is in fact rewarded.
  • mmw4
    edited January 2009
    i'm only in second year business
    but my MIS, financial accounting and managerial accounting profs all told us
    that only the top 12-15% gets the A range

    and i believe upper division accounting courses like 320 and 321 only have about 60 people in a class?
    so that gets really competitive

Leave a Comment