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SFU one of the hardest universities marking in North America??

silent2angel
edited March 2013 in General


hi all,
how is your semester so far?

a friend of mine sent me an article about the hardest universities marking in
North America. Suddenly, I found SFU as the only Canadian university reported
as one of the hardest universities to get high grade. It's really shocked me as
many of my friends study at UBC, keep telling me if you getting B+ at SFU, you
will not get more than c+,b-.





what do you think?



note: the discussion just for your opinion of the report, not a comparison btween SFU and UBC or
other schools.



http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37243170/grade-inflation-colleges-with-the-easiest-and-hardest-grades/

Comments

  • ryan
    Your friends are mistaken. It is no easier to get marks at SFU than it is at UBC or anywhere else for that matter. If anything it might be easier to get a higher letter grade at UBC since their A+ starts at 90 and goes down from there where as at SFU you technically need 95 for an A+, Of course these are just guidelines though, with the actual percent required depending on the teachers discretion.

    Someone at UBC could argue that their version of a transferable course is harder than the SFU equivalent, but any blanket statements like the ones they are making are misinformed.

  • spidy14
    edited March 2013
    I was attending University of Toronto for 2 semesters and I found SFU is tougher in term of marking. At SFU, it is almost impossible for a bachelor degree student to be a TA while many other schools accept advanced undergraduate students to fill the position. At the end, the GPA is only matter in term of undergraduate degree no matter where you get it from. I guess I need to transfer to somewhere else. 
  • Flash
    It's marked extremely thought because (most) TA's are just dickheads, especially the math ones. They will substract you marks just for fun. I have at least a few stories of where my friends requested a remark and they got back 10-20% of their marks, including myself. Some of them have the superiority complex showing too.

  • sfu_guy
    Yeah I went to another university in Canada for a number of years before transferring in - SFU marking is ridiculous. The tests are all waaaaayyy harder as well. I've never taken courses before where you can study your ass off, do all the work and still fail because the prof's ask such hard questions, or word the questions in a way that make them ambiguous unless you can recall one particular sentence from the notes. Then you get a 0 if one little thing in the answer is wrong. I've also had to go back and ask for part marks on most of my test/assignments because the damn profs don't mark the tests themselves and the TA's are garbage. This has been my experience in every one of the courses I've taken. I will most likely be transferring out of the university after this semester, for this reason.
  • bitsbytes
    I think it depends on the department.. I do not think that you can easily say that all profs are bad markers..
  • silent2angel


    thanks all for comments.



    I'm planning to transfer to another university in BC. I studies at collage for
    a year before SFU. I was an A student in high school and the collage but in
    SFU!!! I know any university will be harder than school or college but still. a
    professor asked for an assignment for two pages, I had 2 and half line in a
    third page so really not that much, guess what !! I lost 1.5 just to add two
    line and a half in a third page!!!



    I really don't want to end up my BA's GPA with less than 3.0 so I will get out
    of SFU...

    SFU_guy where u plan to transfer? I want a university that accept most of my credits
  • 112233
    Good luck with that, I doubt transferring will help you.
  • bitsbytes
    @silent2angel  at what department were you?
  • silent2angel
    I'm a business student
  • bitsbytes
    edited March 2013
    maybe what you describe is only for this department? anyone from other departments ?
  • sfu_guy
    I've been taking courses mostly in computer science, math and statistics. I couldn't figure out why the prof's would always tell me to go the TA's when I had marking issues...until it dawned on me that they don't mark anything at all! .....completely unheard of in the university I attended before. In the big classes the prof's would have help with marking, but they would be marking along with the helpers. I'm taking a distance course and the prof isn't involved at all. He makes up the tests and then decides how much to curve the marks after the final.....They might as well have said the course was taught by a grad student.
  • silent2angel

    I have the same issue with the TA, especially the ECON's TA, he ridiculous and useless. anyway, I sent my transcript to a university in BC. I'm willing to transfer, if the university accept all my credits.
    SFU is a good place but there is something wrong with marking

  • xxx
    Oh I can definitely vouch for the ridiculous marking at SFU. I am a 4th year science student who studied at 2 other Universities before, and the marking at SFU and the way tests are designed is just such a scam. The problem also mostly comes from only allowing us 50 minutes for midterms and 10 minutes for quizzes. And, as a previous person wrote, the TAs do all of the marking, i.e., the prof sees NONE of it. There is also a complete disconnect between the TAs and the profs. Essentially, what with tutorials and labs and all, you are being taught by the TA. We are paying thousands of dollars to be taught and graded by TAs. This is particularly clear in the science department where the profs suck and don't care about student whatsoever, combined with the University's greed - cramming 300 students into a classroom with one unqualified prof (in a teaching sense) who barely speaks English. I had awesome profs at the other universities, and I have had one good prof out of 20 at SFU.
    I am minoring in Psychology so I also see what goes on in the Arts and Social Sciences and the problem with marking is slightly less evident there (except when TAs mark essays...that is just a joke). But exams/tests are mostly multiple choice and easy as hell, so a prof/TA just puts them through that grading machine. Whereas in the sciences, we don't have multiple choice (or rarely) and so grading is based on how much the a-hole TAs like your answer...or how they are feeling that day. And I agree with the person above - the math TAs are complete jerks on a power trip. They will deduct you big marks for the stupidest things. It's sad that they hate their lives, but hey, they are probably pissed off at the SFU Science Dep. too. SFU science faculty has so many flaws. I would suggest going elsewhere.
  • silent2angel
    hey all,

    it's true the main issue is with the TAs not the professor. I took several classes without TA or the TA is the professor, all my grade where high or I got what I was expecting

    but I had sooo many issues with TAs, one of the TA (POL101-TA during fall 2013, female ) she was the most ridiculous TA I have ever seen on my life. for some reason, she hated me from the first class, I don't know why. anyway, she was picking me for any difficult question for the discussion then she claimed I plagiarized on the essay drift "simply because she believed that not my work", I knew that will happened so I kept all my notes & drifts & sources to proof that my work then she gave me a B- on the essay, I went to the professor and he changed it to A-.

    another thing, she gave me a poor participant mark while she gave a classmate who didn't participate at all a high mark !!!!
    the same thing happened with another TA, I attended every tutorial & participate , I ended up with a poor mark compare with classmates who never show up.

    anyway, I transferred to another university in BC, I will start on September.... goodbye ridiculous SFU & cheap TAs

    good luck guys =)
  • ofikey
    that article is from 2010.
  • andyle604
    LOL 

    I was at Douglas College before coming to SFU. Yes, SFU is hard, but I find it laughable to label it "one of the hardest" in North America.

    I had a class where my friend got a C+ while he played Hearthstone the entire lecture. 

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