A Guide to What Your Humanities Midterm Grades Really Mean

Don’t you just love when you thought you were doing well in your humanities classes, and you were so excited to receive your midterm grades, but they turn out to be the actual devil (i.e. you got a 6, 6, and 6)?

If you answered yes to this question, then know that ~some~ people can really relate. If you need any support, know that ~those people~ will be your friend because ~they~ need your support too.

Anyways, as an upper experienced in this kind of thing, I can tell you that midterms in humanities classes don’t really mean what you might think they mean.

No one gets A’s on their midterms unless they’re lying.

An A- is also pretty rare. If you somehow scored that, give yourself a pat on the back because you’ve really knocked your teacher’s socks off.

B+ really means that you’re doing a good job. Your submitted assignments exceed the low expectations of the first half of fall term, and your Harknessing isn’t too shabby either.

B probably means that you are doing okay with regards to graded work, but that you should step up your game in the Harkness category. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you should talk more or less though. It could also mean that you once said “basically” or “obviously” and your teacher won’t let it go even though you clearly stated that you didn’t mean it.

B- can mean two things. It could mean that you really did bomb that first paper, but that your teacher is trying to pull your grade up with the Harkness grade you probably don’t deserve. OR it could mean that you wrote a slightly subpar paper and your teacher is rounding down so that you work harder for the next one. The latter is more likely than the former.

C+ could mean that you once brought food into class and didn’t share with anyone. You probably got crumbs everywhere, and you didn’t even bother to push in your chair when you left.

C means that your teacher is old school, and they actually believe in the idea that C should be the average in the class. #Exeterhasarealproblemwithgradeinflation

C- means that you probably asked your teacher something like, “are you sure?” or “will this be on the test?”

D+ means that, one day, you were falling asleep in class, so your head started to fall, but then it banged down on the Harkness table, interrupting someone mid-point.

D means that your teacher caught you dicking assembly, or worse, Community Time.

D- means that you used Arial font in a paper.

E means that you probably told your teacher, “I hate this school and I’d really appreciate it if you gave me grades so poor that I’d be required to withdraw.”