A Lack of Sympathy

It goes without saying that a person's life experiences affects his/her viewpoint.

After a conversation with my roommates, I've come to realize I don't have much sympathy for people with bad grades.  Maybe it's because I've, for the most part, always had good grades or it may be because I actually like school and my classes that I don't understand.

My roommate was complaining that her class is graded to a B+.  I didn't see a problem with this: isn't it nice?  A free easy grade for the class.  Her complaint wasn't the nice grade (which she appreciated); her complaint stemmed around the fact classes in a department are graded to different curves: some to Bs, some to B+s, some to C+s.  She griped that because students didn't know ahead of time what grade classes would be curved to, students could not make proper decisions.  It was unfair, in her opinion, that some students could take all the easy courses and get a better GPA than other students who took a hodgepodge of courses (not knowing if the class was easy or hard) and thus had a lower GPA because their classes were harder.

I see a few issues of contention:
1. It's unfair that some students know which courses are easy and which courses are hard.
2. It's unfair that courses within the same department are curved to different grades.

Regarding the first: There must be a reason that this student knows what courses are easier or harder.  Presuming that this reason is because they know upperclassmen who can tell them which classes are easier or harder, I have no sympathy.  Are you really complaining to me about the fact that they made friends with upperclassmen and you didn't?  It seems like a very unusual complaint to me, and I don't quite understand it.  No sympathy.  (Well, if you're my friend and griping about this, I might have some sympathy for me so long as you realize the utter insanity of this complaint..)

Regarding the second:  I disagree that all courses should be curved to the same grade.  I think harder courses should be curved to a higher grade than easier courses.  Presumably, the smarter students take the hard course and the less-smart students do not.  Therefore, in the entire population of possible students, self-selection has already occurred and all the people that would populate the average/below-average grades are not in the curve population.  Ergo, for the people remaining, they should be curved to a higher grade, in my opinion.  What if a less-smart student took this harder course anyways?  Well, your grade will be below the class's average so your grade will already be lower.  Perhaps the difference is you would have been a C+ and now get a B-.  Okay, you get a lucky bump up, but I would rather reward the low-performing student who tried harder than punish the above-average-performing student, who got stuck with all the rest of the above-average and higher-performing students, with a lower grade.

Student in Hard Course with Top Students Curved to B: B (straight in the avg)
Student in Hard Course with Top Students Curve to B+: B+ (straight in the avg)
Student in Hard Course with All Students Curved to B: B+ (1 SD above)

In the example above, the same student, because he took a harder course (which only the above-average students take), is "punished" with a lower grade, which I think is unfair.  Therefore, I think the harder courses should be curved to a higher grade.

In my friend's case, I agree that it's unfair that all the easy courses are curved to an easier grade.  An easy course should be curved to a B or a B-, not a B+.  However, I disagree that all courses should be curved to the same grade.

However, honestly, I thought the point of an education was, well, what you learn, not your grade.  If I have my choice of courses, I choose the course that sounds more interesting to me, not the course that will give me an easier/higher grade.  If my chosen class is an easier class and thus it's easier to get good grades, good for me.  If my chosen class is a harder course and it's hard to get good grades, at least what I'm learning makes it worthwhile.  (Of course, I may be biased because I've never had a hard course I'm doing poorly in with material I am uninterested in/dislike learning.  Or if I did, I gave up caring and stopped complaining..)

I guess between not getting bad grades and actually enjoying my classes, I can't really understand why my friend is complaining.  Okay, your GPA is worse... but you learned interesting material.. Presumably you have a better foundation in your major than someone who took entirely fluff courses (for the sake of good grades). Your stronger grasp of your major's material will transmit to anyone who's interested (presumably an interviewer or someone reviewing your resume, if you can list your courses).  Ergo, I can't understand why she's complaining.

Is she complaining because she didn't know which classes were easy ahead of time or were curved to higher grades but other people did?  If the easy classes were public information, she should have gone out and found that information.  If the easy classes were only known to upperclassmen, I feel she's complaining about not having gotten to known her upperclassmen, which is again something she could have reached out and done.

Is she complaining because some students who took fluff courses have better GPAs than her?  In this case, I believe the material she learned compensates for her worse GPA.  Presumably she has a better understanding of her major because she took "serious" classes instead of "fluff" classes.  (Also, at least for me, as I take classes I actually enjoy, the fun I had learning the material compensates as well.)

Is she complaining it's unfair that courses are curved differently and she wants all classes curved to the same grade?  This is a more understandable concern, in my opinion.  I think this comes down to personal thoughts. I think the classes should have different curves depending on their difficulty levels (easier classes =  lower average grade; higher classes = higher average grade).  One of my friends thinks it should all be the same.  Whatever.  I can understand where my friend is coming from with the "all equal" mentality and I know why I think the way I do.

The friend advocating all classes have the same average grade argues that a student who takes a harder course and thus gets a lower grade will have the opportunity to explain to the other person (interviewer/recruiter/etc.) that he took a harder class and thus has a lower grade.  However, I don't understand why someone who took a harder class and was curved to a lower average grade can't say the same.  Of course, either way, you sound like sour grapes so I'd just stop complaining.

In sum, I really seem to have no sympathy for people complaining about their grades.  Again, this is probably because my grades and GPA are both very good.  Then again, I didn't take all fluff classes and was able to do well with lots of studying and hard work.  I guess with that as a standard, it leaves little sympathy for everyone else who complains.  Oops.

Your thoughts/opinions?