Is this normal in graduate classes?

[dvdngu]

I am in my first quarter of graduate school in engineering. I was expecting a change of pace in graduate classes compared to my undergraduate classes, but nonetheless, I am definitely struggling to grasp the material that is presented. Sometimes, when I am in class thinking "what the hell is the professor trying to say," I look around and see a handful of students nodding as though every single word is prior knowledge to them. On top of that, these students never take ANY notes in class, while I am frantically writing down the nonsense uttered by the professors for me to decipher later on. This makes me feel SO much more inadequate in my abilities. I feel as though I am so far behind all of the other students playing a desperate game of "catch up."

Secondly, I've heard of averages on midterms and finals as low as 15-20%. Are these things normal? I would be in a state of complete panic if I was only able to answer 15% of a test. Averages in my undergrad classes seldom dropped below 55% (which I already thought was very low). What are your experiences?

Edited November 5, 2016 by dvdngu
added

[fuzzylogician]

In my experience, when one student asks a question in class, there are several others who were also confused, but were too afraid to ask. Unless you have some reason to believe that everyone came into the class with more background than you, there is no reason to expect that they would all do significantly better than you. I'd be much more inclined to believe that each one thinks they are the only one who's not getting it, and that the nods aren't as significant as you might think. Is there a TA who you could reach out to? Does the professor have office hours? Have you tried taking advantage of extra resources in your department to help you through this class? Do you think the professor is even aware that some students might be struggling? 

(Your question about grades is too idiosyncratic to answer. It depends on the particular department/course/professor. You could ask more advanced students in your department about their experiences. In my program grades didn't matter -- everyone got an A, and a B was a signal that things weren't going well. But other programs are different and you need to know specifically how your department treats grades. We can't answer that for you.) 

[breadwinner]

Actually this sounds a lot like my classes, except for the rumors about low test averages. So I think it's somewhat normal for professors to sometimes lecture in an incoherent fashion. I also think that when they teach graduate classes professors sometimes slip into the assumption that people have a lot of prior knowledge because they're used to operating within a bubble of peers studying similar topics. That said, I think the task of having to decipher what they said by looking back at your notes really thoroughly might be a good exercise for retaining material and making sure you're not just like memorizing bullet points that have been given to you. That's my positive spin on it anyway. But it's likely that if you asked the prof to provide a study guide of some sort before the exam, other students would appreciate you speaking up and then you'd know what points to focus on. 

[luisalasnjr]

I believe it all comes down to your study habits. In my case, I can totally relate to what you say. I'm always trying to write down as much as I can from the lecture, and sometimes I struggle to answer the professor's questions. 

But I realized some people are better off re-watching the lectures online, or using the lecture notes/textbook. They use the lecture to get just an overview of what the course content is about, but the actual learning comes from their own study. 

As for the grades, I wouldn't be too worried about it. I'm not saying to just give up and fail. But, if the class average is a 30-40, then try to stay above the class average and you will be fine. 

[MarineBluePsy]

Some of my classes seem like this and what's worse is when someone asks the professor for clarification they're often dismissed.  So how are you supposed to learn something if you're saying you're unclear and the person tasked with teaching you isn't teaching you?  And somehow these experiences are supposed to motivate us to become professors?  Hard pass.

[shadowclaw]

I wouldn't worry about the rumors of low test scores. Either they are rumors and students typically do well, or they're not rumors and final grades get scaled up to the A-B range. 

Some students at my school in different STEM fields have mentioned that some of their courses are like this - students get surprisingly low scores on exams but still get A's and B's. I think it's an issue of professor expectations. A subject may be incredibly difficult, and if students can understand 50% of the information, it's worth an A. In another subject, understanding 50% of the material may be terrible.

If you're concerned, I would have a chat with the professor. Perhaps they can give you some insight into their expectations.

[dr. t]

This has always struck me as a strange bit of the hard sciences. If the average student in your class can correctly answer 50% of the material on a test, there's something wrong with the teacher.

[dvdngu]

19 hours ago, telkanuru said:

This has always struck me as a strange bit of the hard sciences. If the average student in your class can correctly answer 50% of the material on a test, there's something wrong with the teacher.

Yeah, 60% averages are normal from my experience. From what I've heard, the logic behind designing tests with averages in this range is to give a good differentiation between A students and C students since a normal distribution is normally achieved with a large enough standard deviation. Averages around 90% will give you just a few point difference between high and low achieving students (and the same logic on the other side of the spectrum). The scary thing is, if i knew someone was designing a plane with 50-60% competency, I would never step on a plane ever again.