If you’ve just gotten your midterms back, perhaps you’re not too happy with your performance on some of them. Many people at Harvard are in fact disappointed with at least one midterm grade (or two). Sometimes, the midterms just don’t test what you thought you should know. Other times, you just didn’t attend lecture. Then there are those times, when the midterms cause mass damage to an entire class’s morale.

Regardless, it’s useful to sit back, relax and reflect a little, now that the crunch period is over.

Whether you want to pull up your grades or keep them strong, taking a few minutes to figure out what the hell your courses want from you will, maybe, save your arse in the long run.

1) Grading at Harvard

The general sentiment among the faculty here is that Harvard students are smart kids. (Whoopee!) This means, their grading philosophy is probably much different than what it would be at say a state school.

My faculty adviser my freshmen year told me (more or less):

You want to design an exam that allows the least capable student something to do during the entire test, and keeps the most capable students busy the entire time.

Lovely. My CS 50 “Quiz” exemplified the sentiment with a sheet of riddles to occupy the “hackers” in the class. Moi, not quite incompetent or a hacker, rushed through the two coding exercises.

And today! Professor Malan (of CS 50) talked about how grades were useful constructs to give students the incentive to work hard in a class. (And how Harvard students do indeed work for a grade.)

Ultimately, this means (generally) that you should not stress out.

2) Huh?

Most exams/classes/finals are designed so that the average is a 70% raw score. Don’t try to equate this to your high school grades, or the grades your friends at many other schools receive, or you will be very very very sad.

Receiving a 70% (when the mean is 70%) at Harvard means that your a smart fellow who took away from the course the main pointers that the professor wanted you to know from the course. Generally, a 70% means that you knew what you were doing and performed admirably.

The real reason why professors design midterms this way is so that they can figure out who falls in the 80%, 90% or the damning-to-all-other-students 100% raw score. Those are the kids that these professors want to snap up and turn into dutiful research assistants, etc. etc.

So, only the geniuses will get A’s then?

No. Because the mean is usually curved to a B+/A- at Harvard. So, if you’re following the pack (aka the mean), then you shouldn’t worry about your grades.

Isn’t this grade inflation?

Strictly speaking, yes. If only because 70% generally looks like a C to the rest of the world. But, ask a Harvard student, and he or she’ll tell you that the B+/A- is what is in fact deserved.

The problem with a school full of smart kids is that the average study time for a midterm is a fairly solid amount that allows fairly smart kids to score 90’s on a midterm in the same class if the class were administered by a different school. But that’s no fun for professors. What’s the fun of having a class of people ALL scoring 90% raw on a test? No fun. Thus, making the exams much harder than they generally are at other schools.

Important disclaimer: Not all classes are curved or designed in this way. Statistics 104 is not, since the mean is a 92% raw or so. My Chinese classes sure as heck, aren’t. But, these are classes designed so that the raw scale is equivalent to your final grade. (Good rule of thumb is that large introductory/core classes generally display this type of trend. Another good rule of thumb is that you should heavily discount this generalization regarding humanities and paper-heavy classes, since I haven’t really taken many of them.)

3) So, stop stressing out

All you really want to do, is make sure you’re following the pack, however the pack is defined. And the grades will follow.

By pack, I also do not mean your incredibly smart roommates who may have a tendency to brag about their grades.

4) I’m an outlier! Help!

On the other hand, if you’re trailing the pack, significantly, you will most definitely know. Your professor will probably say something like, “If you’re scoring below X, come see your TF or come to my office hours.” That should be warning bells for you (assuming that you of course care about your grade in said class).

Much of the rest of this post will concern this issue (because it is actually an issue).

5) Resurrection

So, there is a little policy that a lot of classes utilize known as “Resurrection.” This means that if you do absolutely stellar on your final, then this will significantly deweigh your not-so-good grades from the beginning of the semester. (It is, after all, what you leave the class with that matters at the end.)

Not all classes do this. (It is more common in the quantitative classes.) But the classes that do have it, won’t mention it BEFORE your first midterm. (It creates the wrong incentive structure for learning.)

To find out more, go ask your TF nicely.

6) Get to know your TF or professor better

They’re all understanding people. Each semester, students don’t quite get what a course requires of them until the midterm kicks their butt.

Thus, take a not-so-good grade on a midterm or major paper as a sign that you should get yourself to those awkwardly timed office hours. Bring in your paper outline, or your problem set, and nicely pester them with questions.

Do not under any circumstances attempt to piss your TF or professor off. You may be angry and bitter and blame the entire teaching staff, but try not to let it show in their presence.

If you have an unfair TF, bring it up in a…non-confrontational way to the head TF. If you have the head TF, ditto to the professor. If the professor has taken a ridiculous dislike to you, then bring it up to your proctor/tutor.

7) But I calculated the grades and it’s impossible for me to catch up

If this is the case, bring up your concerns to your TF or professor. Now is the time to show dedication to the field and a sincere interest in improving yourself.

8) But I’d have to get a 110 on the final to even get a B-

I have a feeling that a lot of TFs and professors track upward trends rather than straight averages. While this means you will have to work very very hard at actually (re)learning the material, chances are, you will be much more relieved when grades do come out.

Besides, B’s are good.

9) But I don’t want a B

Then, you probably have a quirk in your personality that would make you unhappy no matter what grade you got below an A++++!

Assuming that your not incorrigible, you’re going to Harvard. People I think expect a few Bs (and perhaps the random C in a non-concentration course).

10) But I’m premed

Bless your soul.

11) So how do I actually bring up my grade?

You need to figure out what the hell the course wants from you. Does it want you to know how to do the problem sets? Does it want you to have a theoretical understanding of the examples? Does it want you to apply a certain way of thinking? Does it want you to regurgitate facts? Does it want you to be able to perform historical research? etc. etc.

Once you figure it out, the rest becomes a matter of execution. Use your midterm and TF as a guide.

And then, you just need to do it.

12) Resources that everyone should be aware of, regardless of how satisfied you are

The Bureau of Study Council has tutors for many courses that you would want to get tutored in. Pay them a visit. Don’t be shy. Sometimes, being able to bug someone with a billion questions for an hour is equal to 10 hours of studying on your own. (P.S., Harvard also subsidizes it, so you pay like $4 bucks an hour…or think, a Starbucks coffee.)

Your tutor or proctor or academic point person. Although it is too late to add/drop/withdraw/change grading for a course, keep the deadlines in mind for next semester. I’m sure every Harvard student has add/dropped a class at least once by graduation.

If you have extenuating circumstances that are generally not part of the college-package, go to your academic point person or someone who can function as an academic point person. Harvard + Real Life can sometimes be a little too crazy. There is no shame in taking a semester off, I promise you. It’s hard enough to balance Harvard with a regular, not really exciting sort of life.