HBS Grading System

i wish i had known more about the grading system before starting at HBS.  no, it would not have changed my decision to come here over stanford and wharton (where i was also accepted), but it is always helpful to have more color on academic performance issues.

at HBS, you get 1's, 2's, and 3's.  if you're beyond terrible then there's a place for you in the "4" category (described more below)

HBS Grading

Note: Required curriculum means "first year classes" and elective curriculum means "second year classes"

At the conclusion of each course, the instructor assigns to each student in his/her section who completes the course, one of four grades designated as Category I, II, III, and IV, and reports these grades to the Registrar.

• Category I -- given to the top 15-20% of students in a required curriculum section or the top 15-25% of students in an elective curriculum course section.
• Category II -- given to the next 70-75% of students in a required curriculum section or the next 65-75% in an elective curriculum course section. The actual number of Category II grades is subject to the number of Category I grades assigned.
• Category III -- given to the lowest-performing 10% of students in a required curriculum section or an elective curriculum course section.
• Category IV -- seldom assigned; designates failure of achievement and/or commitment and, therefore, failure to meet minimum standards of the course. If Category IV is used in a course, the combined number of students who receive Categories III and IV must equal the lowest 10% of the section or elective course section.

While grading varies considerably among courses, class participation typically accounts for 30 to 50 percent of a course grade, with the balance taken from written mid-term exams (roughly 5 to 15 percent) and written final exams (approximately 30 to 60 percent).
If a student receives a Category III or IV in a required curriculum course, his/her instructor submits to the Registrar an Instructor Evaluation of Student Performance Form that provides more detailed information about the student's total performance.

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So what does this mean if you want to "get by" at harvard business school.  The key is to avoid "hitting the screen" or getting 5 or more 3's over the course of your first year.  Any student who receives 5 or more “3”s in the first year RC year (i.e. in more than half of your courses) will be reviewed by the Academic Performance Committee (APC) at the end of the year to determine whether they should continue on to the second EC year or withdraw and take some time off (the vast majority eventually return and graduate).  There is no quota or percentage here – it is purely a case-by-case basis.  In that scenario, the APC will see all your grades, input from all 10 professors who will focus on whether or not they believe you had a “fundamental understanding” of the material, and a personal note telling “your side of the story”.  Extenuating circumstances (e.g. family illness), general strength of the section (e.g. the student got the material but was a “victim of the curve”), attendance, and general level of engagement during class all come into play.  No one repeats the RC year; the question is whether the student is ready for the EC year.

finals prep: HBS Women's Student Association Rocks !!

at the end of every semester, every HBS student faces the task of preparing for final exams.  case-based exams are very different from the types of tests many of us took in high school and college - multiple-choice options are pretty much non-existent.  rather, these tests challenge students to examine a case from the vantage point of a business manager and answer key questions about the problems the manager faces, how can he/she address the issue, etc - all in a matter of 4-5 hours.

the best performers on hbs exams blend content and stylistic writing well together.  while no one can help you with writing skills, the HBS women's student association (the WSA) does an excellent job of hosting review sessions at the end of each semester.

these sessions are well-attended, so get to spangler auditorium early.  they feature some of the top-performing ladies in the rc/ec classes at HBS, who present the key learnings over the semester in a consolidated powerpoint presentation.  in many cases, these slides are made available after the sessions are over, but the best learning happens by physically going to the review session (especially for exams like finance where problems and calculations are reviewed in detail beyond the content of the slides). 

the HBS WSA has done an amazing job over the years of hosting these sessions, and the entire community is better off for it!