>tests on the general concepts and approaches you should have learned.
The difference is that top US universities will ask questions that there is no reason you should possibly know the answer, and questions that only a person obsessed with the subject matter would possibly know. Grading on a curve allows the professors to ask really hard questions. Both knowledgeable students and exceptional students get the same grade, but the exceptional students get recommendations.
You probably think the US is very unfair. It is.
In the US, it is common that half the class gets a 50%, 10 people get a 70%, and one person gets a 90%. That one person is not lumped in with the rest. She is tracked to win a future Nobel prize.
Top US university exams are not the same as Microsoft certifications.
In the US, it is common that half the class gets a 50%, 10 people get a 70%, and one person gets a 90%.
And that is precisely the same in Germany; I've seen my share of exams where anything above 70% was the equivalent to an A, because nobody could realistically be expected to get 90%, let alone 100%; with questions where "there is no reason you should possibly know the answer, and questions that only a person obsessed with the subject matter would possibly know". I've seen courses where four out of five students failed the exam.
I have absolutely no idea where you get the idea that it's like a Microsoft certification. The difference in Germany is that if nobody gets an A, then nobody gets an A, period [1]. If everybody fails the course, then, well, everybody fails the course.
Part of the reason is that German universities traditionally have had pretty open admission policies; which meant that there never was much room for a C for effort. Grades had to mean something, namely that the student was deserving of a degree. And that meant that students had to be graded relative to the degree requirements, not relative to the rest of the class. And they ask really hard questions so that they can differentiate between the good and the brilliant.
For what it's worth, I've taken graduate math courses both in Germany and in the US; I think I have a pretty good idea what it's like in either country.
[1] Actually, Germany doesn't have an alphabetic system for grades, but you get the idea.
>novel applications of the material you learned
>tests on the general concepts and approaches you should have learned.
The difference is that top US universities will ask questions that there is no reason you should possibly know the answer, and questions that only a person obsessed with the subject matter would possibly know. Grading on a curve allows the professors to ask really hard questions. Both knowledgeable students and exceptional students get the same grade, but the exceptional students get recommendations.
You probably think the US is very unfair. It is.
In the US, it is common that half the class gets a 50%, 10 people get a 70%, and one person gets a 90%. That one person is not lumped in with the rest. She is tracked to win a future Nobel prize.
Top US university exams are not the same as Microsoft certifications.