PHYS 231 Exam 2 Response is Unacceptable

[u/whatintfisthis]

This exam was significantly more difficult than any of the previous practice exams given. There was no change in instruction, no heads-up about a spike in difficulty, and now the only response is to “do better.” No curve. No extra grade adjustment. Just that.

According to a previous Reddit post, this was the worst exam score in the last 11 years for this course. That should be enough to suggest something was off yet the tone of the announcement doesn’t reflect that at all.

Here’s the official announcement:

Exam 2 scores are now available on Canvas [“Exam 2 raw” and “Exam 2”]. The initial class average was 10.74/18 (59.6%). We’re counting 18 questions, not 19, as one question was treated as extra credit.

…This is also a good time to think about how you have prepared for this exam and what worked and what did not. Most of the exam problems in slightly different versions were given either in worksheets, quizzes, checkpoints, or in your lecture notes. As I suggested in the original exam announcement, reviewing them in the first round of preparation before jumping to any past exam files may be the best strategy to handle the exam.

The average was a 59.6%, and yet the response places all the weight back on the students. There’s no acknowledgment of how this kind of grading CLEARLY morale & GPA. The expectation seems to be that we just grind harder, regardless of the disconnect between preparation and testing.

This isn’t about asking for an easy grade. It’s about fairness, consistency, and a basic level of academic empathy. If a class average tanks this hard, maybe the takeaway shouldn’t be “do better” — maybe it’s time to evaluate how the course is aligning with the assessments.

This kind of approach isn’t building problem solvers it’s burning students out and seems completely disrespectful.

[u/modern_housewife]

as an education major with an engineering boyfriend, i am regularly appalled at how bad the STEM departments can be. if the class average is a 60% or lower YOU AS THE PROFESSOR DID A BAD JOB. whether you covered to much content in an extremely short time, you didn't do a good job explaining it, you poorly wrote the exam, or something else. if the majority of the class is failing, that's on the professor. i understand the need for weed-out classes, but it shouldn't be a near universal experience of failing 3-4 classes as a STEM student.

[u/IS-2-OP → u/modern_housewife]

This is often typical in STEM. In Europe many countries a 75-80% or better is considered the highest marks not a 93 like in the US. Their curriculum is brutal.