I just found an AMAZING site for predicting grade distributions

[InquilineKea]

http://www.myedu.com/

Wow, it is almost criminal in how well its predictions match up with the actual grade distributions of classes I've taken. It's not completely accurate, but it's still far better than anything before.

For one thing, it's definitely correct about the courses that give everyone 4.0s, and also about the courses with massive grade deflation. And grade inflation too.

And it pretty consistently predicts which professors are the toughest graders.

I seriously wonder where it gets its data from. It has only been here for a year, but it has data all the way from 2004 (so it can't just be user input). I'm curious - do you think the site's grade distributions are accurate?

[Karen H]

I'm an employee of MyEdu (www.myedu.com) and I came across your post and wanted to say thanks for the shout out! I also wanted to give you more background on where MyEdu obtains our grade data.

MyEdu works directly with universities across the U.S. to obtain the official grade records (number of A's, B's...F's, drop rate, etc.) directly from the schools. So we don't rely on students to write in and tell us what they received in a course, we have the official data straight from the source.

We have been collecting this data for years (at some schools, we have data as far back as the late 90's!) and at the end of each semester, we get the new set of grades and update our site. All this information means students can view timelines to see how grades change semester-by-semester and we can take the historic data to predict grading trends. Very interesting stuff!

Now I know that as a MyEdu employee I'm totally biased, but what I find fascinating is that this grade information is paired with the university's course schedule, student reviews and degree degree requirements to allow for better planning and decision making in college. And here's where I really brag on MyEdu...we obtain data for 2-year and 4-year schools across the U.S. so in our system we report on 2.3m professors and 2.4m courses. We have a lot of information for students to take advantage of since we are free.

Hope the above helps in answering some of your questions and thanks again for the great feedback!

Cheers,

Karen

[shepardn7]

http://www.myedu.com/

Wow, it is almost criminal in how well its predictions match up with the actual grade distributions of classes I've taken. It's not completely accurate, but it's still far better than anything before.

For one thing, it's definitely correct about the courses that give everyone 4.0s, and also about the courses with massive grade deflation. And grade inflation too.

And it pretty consistently predicts which professors are the toughest graders.

I seriously wonder where it gets its data from. It has only been here for a year, but it has data all the way from 2004 (so it can't just be user input). I'm curious - do you think the site's grade distributions are accurate?

Well, I joined primarily to check out my undergraduate professors. There isn't any data from my alma mater beyond course titles, so that didn't work. But then I decided to check out my graduate school to see if I was listed as an instructor (I graduated in 2009), and indeed I was. Funny. No reviews, but they have my grade data. Although it said I gave "100% Bs" to a Freshman Comp section in Fall 2007, which is not true.

[InquilineKea]

I'm an employee of MyEdu (www.myedu.com) and I came across your post and wanted to say thanks for the shout out! I also wanted to give you more background on where MyEdu obtains our grade data.

MyEdu works directly with universities across the U.S. to obtain the official grade records (number of A's, B's...F's, drop rate, etc.) directly from the schools. So we don't rely on students to write in and tell us what they received in a course, we have the official data straight from the source.

We have been collecting this data for years (at some schools, we have data as far back as the late 90's!) and at the end of each semester, we get the new set of grades and update our site. All this information means students can view timelines to see how grades change semester-by-semester and we can take the historic data to predict grading trends. Very interesting stuff!

Wow - that's quite amazing. Thanks for showing up and answering my questions! I didn't anticipate that my thread would lead to that.

Hm, it surprises me that the schools are so willing to provide that data (since professors generally don't like giving out their grade distributions to most students). That being said, greater transparency is probably a good idea, since it might resolve many of the problems that institutions are having with grade inflation.

Do you know why grades of W are counted as 0's though? I've noticed that a lot of courses have course means below 3.0, but that's mostly due to the number of students who drop the course. Are there any plans to introduce the data for the median GPA as well?

[aginath]

Hm, it surprises me that the schools are so willing to provide that data (since professors generally don't like giving out their grade distributions to most students). That being said, greater transparency is probably a good idea, since it might resolve many of the problems that institutions are having with grade inflation.

My undergraduate alma mater has made grade distributions available in person to enrolled students since the late 80s. The reports paired with compiled course evaluations went online around the late 90s/early 00s. Around the mid 00s, I noticed a number of websites, such as PickaProf (which is now MyEdu), popping up that simply tapped into publicly available databases. I think it has definitely taken some institutions a bit longer than others to hop on the participation wagon, but it's certainly not a well kept secret.

edit: for clarity

Edited January 22, 2011 by aginath

[Sarah S.]

I always quite like myedu. I used it to help pick which section of a course to take as an undergraduate.