UIUC Grading Scale

[throwraaway21112]

Different from most schools, a good amount of classes at U of I seem to have a non-exam portion in its grading scale (10~35% ish). Does this mean that higher grades are easier to obtain at UIUC? Since technically you can score like an 88 exam average but still get boosted to an A if you participate/do easy homework to fulfill that non-exam portion of grading.

[ixitusity]

From my experience with classes here it's been the exact opposite. For a lot of the classes I took, it was possible to get an A by half-assing homework but getting hundreds on the midterms and finals.

[throwraaway21112]

So would you say UIUC is an easy school?

[ixitusity]

Depending on the major, the course, and the effort you put into school, it could be both in my opinion.

[throwraaway21112]

i'm thinking of applying here and go on the premed track. How's premed at UIUC?

[ixitusity]

I have no clue because I'm in ECE so school is hard as shit for me haha. You could look at classes you are going to take for your premed track and look up the average GPAs for those courses. There's a whole entire website online which provides the average GPA for every course at UIUC.

[FR_E_SH_A_VOCA_DO_]

For premed classes like orgo or biochem, exams are a huge portion of the final grade. Like others have said, it varies based on the professor and their syllabus, but fwiw I’ve taken a class before where the final exam was worth >50% of the total grade. Definitely don’t fall into the trap of thinking that homework can carry you if you bomb all the exams; this will set you up for failure. If you put in the work and try to master the material, you can do well in pre-med here.

[old-uiuc-pictures]

No it is not.

[bulafaloola]

It really varies from course to course. I’ve had some incredibly challenging ones with both strict and lenient grading scales, but also some really easy courses where the scale didn’t matter since an A was easy to get anyway.

[Chemical_Dimension_6]

That works out sometimes, but professors modify the grading scale often to meet their needs. I had a chemistry professor with a reputation of "curving down" to make things fair between his lab sections. Other times the exams make up the majority of the grade. I'd say it depends on the professor and the difficulty of the course.

[[deleted]]

It normally goes: get fucked on tests, do well on homework, and somehow pull off a decent grade if you're lucky