How do I get my grade average?

Why do some professors seem to aim to get B as the average grade in class?

• Say, there are three professors that teach the same course. With one professor, most students get A, but with the other professors, most (like 98%) of the students get B. In one such class, the professor always complains everybody is getting low grades. However, the students seem to be motivated, so it looks like the professor is treating B as the target grade, or the target average grade of A is not attainable (isn't one of the goals in teaching a course to get an A average grade in class?) For the case of unmotivated, untalented, and busy students it is understandable that A will not be the average. But I am talking about a Big 10 university graduate students, which as a class do get an average grade of A doing the same course with another professor.

• Answer:

  It used to be that C meant "average". That is, more people were supposed to get a C than any other grade. The A was for truly exceptional work. I worked at one university in the 80s where we had to have a C average in the courses we taught. But then all students started feeling entitled to an A or B just for showing up. And a big factor was the student evaluations of the teachers. Teachers know that students give higher evaluations if they think they're going to get an A or a B. Those evaluations count when you're getting tenure. So the teachers started giving everyone As and Bs. It's called grade inflation. Think of it this way- if you knew you were doing outstanding work in a class, but all the students got As, wouldn't you be upset? Grades are supposed to be an indication of how tough a university you can handle, or how capable you're going to be on a job. If everyone gets the same grade, they're pretty meaningless.