Findings

Time: How does a student’s grades and academic time commitment change over time?

The amount of time I spent productively throughout the years looked like a bell curve: I peaked my junior year in Fall 2014, and the lowest productive times were my very first and last semester. As I continued my beginning years, I became more motivated to work, but as graduation loomed closer, I spent less time being productive. My GPA also continued to fall consistently until my final semester at Cal.

The emphasis I place in certain productive categories depended highly on what period I was in my life. My first semester (Fall 2012) was all about figuring out how Berkeley classes and grades worked, and spent most of my time studying. My first semester junior year (Fall 2014) was all about how to spend time for the most good, and spent most of my time on activities. My final semester (Spring 2016) was all about how to not fail my classes so I could graduate and get a full-time job, and spent much of my time job hunting and studying. My GPA was the highest my first and last semester most likely because that’s when I was paying attention to doing well without underestimating anything.

Senioritis happened to me. Not in academics, studying, or preparing for jobs, but through my organic decrease in activities. While I reasoned this to weaning out of organizations to make way for new members, it also represented my lack of motivation and the increased stress with graduation requirements and job hunting.

I went through college in periods, and the category I spent the most time in showcased where I was in my life. Gradually, I grew more excited to leave this university, and thus my productive time slowly decreased when that thought loomed overhead.

Academic Correlation: Are grades received correlated with time spent, units, test scores, and class sizes?

I wanted to determine once and for all whether or not these factors were related to each other in some way. Did more studying result in a higher score? Does going to class or office hours result in higher grades? What about units or class sizes? I tackle each piece in my project. The following are answers to big questions I was interested in.

Does the time spent on academics relate to the grade you get in the class? : Surprisingly, the time I spent studying, going to class, and going to office hours and the grade actually received did not exhibit any sort of pattern. However, this is likely because classes are bimodal: some classes require lots of studying (because I don’t get the material, and thus don’t do as well) and others don’t need studying (because I already get the material, and thus do well). This also applies to studying for tests. Check out the graph.

: Surprisingly, the time I spent studying, going to class, and going to office hours and the grade actually received did not exhibit any sort of pattern. However, this is likely because classes are bimodal: some classes require lots of studying (because I don’t get the material, and thus don’t do as well) and others don’t need studying (because I already get the material, and thus do well). This also applies to studying for tests. Check out the graph. Can you improve in the class if you do poorly in the beginning? : The good thing is that it appears the final test is a very strong influencer in the grade you get at the end. The bad thing is that there is a moderate positive correlation between the first and last test, which suggests that doing well on the final after doing poorly on the first test is very difficult to do (but still possible!). Check out the graph.

: The good thing is that it appears the final test is a very strong influencer in the grade you get at the end. The bad thing is that there is a moderate positive correlation between the first and last test, which suggests that doing well on the final after doing poorly on the first test is very difficult to do (but still possible!). Check out the graph. If a class has more units, does that mean I have to spend more time in the class? (e.g. 4 units requires 16 hours a week of time): There’s a moderate positive linear correlation, which does suggest that the more units a class is, the more time you’d need to spend on it. Since it’s only moderate, it really depends on the class and potentially your understanding of the material itself. Check out the graph.

(e.g. 4 units requires 16 hours a week of time): There’s a moderate positive linear correlation, which does suggest that the more units a class is, the more time you’d need to spend on it. Since it’s only moderate, it really depends on the class and potentially your understanding of the material itself. Check out the graph. Does class size have an impact on grade received?: There’s a moderate negative linear correlation between the two, which suggests that the more people in the class, the higher tendency it is to not do so well. Check out the graph.

Non-Academic Correlation: Are grades received correlated with fun, sleep, and activities?

Next, I tackled factors that were not related to the class itself, but factors that students could choose throughout the semester, such as how much they wanted to have fun, sleep, participate in extracurricular activities, plan, and job hunt. The following are answers to big questions I was interested in.

Does spending time unproductively result in lower results? : While correlation does not imply causation, it does appear that more time on fun does lower grades in some way. Check out the graph.

: While correlation does not imply causation, it does appear that more time on fun does lower grades in some way. Check out the graph. Does having a significant other lower productivity and grades? : Yes and no. When relationship data was removed, it appears to have strengthened the correlation between fun and academics and fun and GPA, but weakened in workload. This may be because my significant other was able to help me in some of my classes, and the time we spent hanging out were also times where we would work together as well. This also may be because I started dating near the end of my college career, in which I was already familiar with how to college. Check out the graphs.

: Yes and no. When relationship data was removed, it appears to have strengthened the correlation between fun and academics and fun and GPA, but weakened in workload. This may be because my significant other was able to help me in some of my classes, and the time we spent hanging out were also times where we would work together as well. This also may be because I started dating near the end of my college career, in which I was already familiar with how to college. Check out the graphs. Does “work hard, play hard” actually hold true? : Yes, and no. It appears that I took fewer units when I had more fun, but I also spent more time on fun while also spending more time on academics. Again, these are all moderate correlations, and only when I did not have my relationship. With my relationship, these numbers were stronger mostly. Check out the graphs.

: Yes, and no. It appears that I took fewer units when I had more fun, but I also spent more time on fun while also spending more time on academics. Again, these are all moderate correlations, and only when I did not have my relationship. With my relationship, these numbers were stronger mostly. Check out the graphs. Does the amount of sleep you get have a relationship on the grade received, productivity, and workload? : There’s no linear correlation between sleep and workload, or sleep and productivity. However, there does appear to be a moderate positive correlation between sleep and the grade received! Check out the graphs.

: There’s no linear correlation between sleep and workload, or sleep and productivity. However, there does appear to be a moderate positive correlation between sleep and the grade received! Check out the graphs. Are activities a good use of my time? : Definitely. Despite the fact that activities and workload, productivity, and grades are all strongly negatively correlated, activities made me feel better and have more fun. Check out the graphs.

: Definitely. Despite the fact that activities and workload, productivity, and grades are all strongly negatively correlated, activities made me feel better and have more fun. Check out the graphs. Is planning a good use of my time? : There doesn’t appear to be a linear correlation between the amount I planned and my GPA, so it didn’t hinder me in any way. Check out the graph.

: There doesn’t appear to be a linear correlation between the amount I planned and my GPA, so it didn’t hinder me in any way. Check out the graph. Is job hunting hindering my grades?: There’s a strange weak positive linear correlation between job hunting and the grade received. I don’t really know what this means, but it is what it is. Check out the graph.

Note: I also recorded categories such as exercise, cooking, eating, and moving, but exercise was such an embarrassing small category, and everything after was clumped into one, and thus all were ignored in this analysis.

Grade Deflation: Does it exist?

At UC Berkeley in particular, grade deflation is a major worry. After seeing the Daily Cal‘s data on the higher average grades over other schools, it appears that Berkeley frequently gives lower grades than other schools across the nation. I sought to study this by comparing my grades received to the percentages that I actually received at the end of the semester, and compared predicted raw scores to that grade. For example, I assumed that a 3.0 (B)’s percentage range would be between 80% and 85.9%, while a 3.7 (A-) would be between 90% and 91.9%.

After plotting the data, the majority of my grades received were frequently higher than the percentages awarded, not lower. This suggests that professors reward higher grades depending on the averages of the class, which seems to suggest that there is no grade deflation. Check out the graph on my project’s “deflation” section.

What helped me stay on track in terms of where I was in the class was to record my grades and averages of the class, while keeping in mind my position near the mean. If the average was a B+ according to ScheduleBuilder and I was close, then I figured I’d get a B+, even if my raw percentage was a 70%. As a result, I was rarely surprised at the grade that I received.

Something to keep in mind is that we’ve also discovered that class size and grade have a moderate negative linear correlation. In the grade deflation article, UC Berkeley is compared with the likes of Harvard and Stanford, both of which boast low faculty to student ratios. Perhaps the reason for their higher grades is because they have consistently lower class sizes than UC Berkeley’s.