I know it’s not just me because I remember seeing it in college based sitcoms too.
But I remember there was a first year Earth Science or something similar class that was a prerequisite for something else important so a lot of people I know took it. The thing EVERYBODY told me (including my Advisor) was “Don’t expect to pass your first time in” because the teacher was so dry and boring everybody wound up either falling asleep or mind wandering off during class. That and REALLY complicated tests where even if you listened were hard to pass. So of course I didn’t pass, took it again and passed the second time mainly because I already had my notes from last time.
In retrospect it seems really dumb to have a class that almost everybody failed the first time, but apparently it made the college money I’m guessing?
It always seemed like an absurd concept to me, since financial aid depended on you getting at least a 2.0 average and scholarships would be even higher. And who would want to pay for a class like that?
I did have a teacher where no one could pass his tests. But he of course would grade on a curve to fix that.
For engineering students in the early 1980s at UCSB it was known as a weed-out class: Statics, from the Mechanical Engineering department, known as ME-10.
My university had some weed-out classes too but I can’t remember what they were now (to be fair it was some 40 years ago but still…I am surprised I don’t remember what they were). To be sure though they were meant to only let those serious about that particular degree to move forward. It was not a perfect system but mostly did its job.
I remember my first Organic Chemistry lecture in 2nd year. The prof announced that anyone taking the class for the 3rd time but who had previously passed the lab portion of the course could apply for an exemption so they didn’t have to do it again.
The difference is that in “weed-out” classes, the folks who flunk change majors away from that area. In “everybody flunks” classes, some do, but most just retake the class and go on with their degree in that area.
ISTM “everybody flunks” classes are for more apocryphal than real. And even then “everybody” isn’t 100%. I also suspect that of the few such classes out there across the country, almost all of them represent failures of management by the department heads responsible. And as such are transitory. e.g. Prof Ahole’s XYZ-101 may be a sure flunk from 1990 to 1994, then the department finally gets its shit together and puts a stop to that nonsense.
The first Electrical; Engineering class at UW-Plattevillewas definitely weed-out. I actually think there were few failures, but lots of folks dropping out. I took it in the “off” semester which had fewer initial folks so may have been not as bad. I was warned by people in my dorm that there was stuff due on day 1. And forget about “3 hours of lab” a week - more like 15. Not to mention (technically optional but recommended) Saturday classes.
I was a chemical engineering major as an undergrad and struggled with organic chemistry at a highly selective university* known for extremely tough grading back then.
The average grade for first semester organic chemistry was a C, and I worked my butt off to get a C. I had a chemical engineering classmate who got a 3% (not a typo) on the final exam and flunked the class (and switched his major).
The second semester was far worse. After failing the first two exams, I dropped the class. But fortunately second semester organic chem was offered the following summer for some reason. By putting in superhuman effort I managed to get a B that summer. We had a cross-town enrollee in that summer school class who said it was the hardest class he’d ever taken (right before he dropped it).
So definitely a weed-out class from what I could see.
*In retrospect this is not actually a compliment—at least not then. The school philosophy seemed more oriented to be difficult for its own sake than actually teaching its students. This was exacerbated by having many immature students like myself who had coasted on their smarts for most of their academic careers up to that point.
The engineering department at my school got tired of students taking classes multiple times so they set a policy that classes could only be repeated once and the grade for the second time counted, even if you did worse.
There were a lot of students who thought they wanted to be engineers but had different skills. (I did well in the classes but wouldn’t have made a good engineer.)
I went to Rensselaer, a noted nerd school which offered plenty of majors in the sciences and engineering but not much else. A lot of people who went there were the type who were good at math and science in high school so they were pushed to these majors. But plenty of kids at the ages of 16-18 really have no idea if that’s really what they want to do or are truly good at it, so they end up doing poorly in these majors. But because the school had few other majors, there were not a lot of other programs to which one could switch. We called that status “failing in” because you probably were not going to be able to switch to another highly competitive university so your choice was to either stay there or switch to a lesser school like the nearby Hudson Valley Community College. For that reason, I always advised people when considering a college to choose one with a wide selection of degree programs so you had some choices within the university if you found that your first selection just wasn’t for you.
Possibly partly because of the different system in England, I don’t think they really exist here- I’ve never even heard anyone claim that they took a class ‘everyone failed the first time’. In the English system, you typically don’t get a lot of elective subjects, you sign up for a whole programme built around your chosen subject right from the start. At most you may get to specialise a little, but in most courses your options are tightly restricted.
This means having a lot of students failing a specific class will cause a whole lot of admin issues. There’s typically one chance to resit the exam, but you won’t always be allowed to retake the class, and you won’t be allowed to re-take a module twice unless you have an exceptional reason. If too many students fail, they may even get someone else to re-grade the class to increase the pass rate, rather than requiring the students to resit.
It is worth noting that we put more stock into the final grade- unless a company just wants ‘a degree’ to tick a box, it makes a big difference to your initial job prospects if you pass with a 3rd class degree compared to a 1st. Many graduate programmes will only accept students who passed with the two highest categories.
The ‘weed-out’ classes may be commoner in Scotland, where there’s more options to choose unrelated classes and potentially switch routes in the first year, but I did’t go through that system.
On the opposite end of the scale, I have a good friend who did a notoriously difficult undergrad course in Uruguay, which was apparently terrible for this. He assured me that he was the first student to pass one maths class in four years- most of the other students enrolled at a different university simply to complete their approved ‘equivalent’ class, then transferred the credits back to dodge the requirement after failing a few times. He didn’t pass first time either.
I have seen his transcript and met a few of his former classmates on a visit there (one of whom is still trying to complete her degree after something like 15 years), so I don’t actually doubt this story. He then went on to teach at the same place and got an official complaint from above for allowing 60% of students to pass, because that was far too high.
No such classes at my college. None in the colleges of the universities where I taught. Certainly some “weed out” classes in some majors, but no “everybody fails” classes. The latter wouldn’t have been tolerated by administration or students.
At my urging on a college road trip with my daughter she had an appointment at Michigan Tech for technical writing degree. The counselor noted that not too many incoming freshman were there for TW, it was the major that scooped up the failing engineer students.
Rensselaer also had technical writing as a degree program though I don’t know if that’s where the failed engineering and science majors ended up. I know of one computer science student who switched to, I think, management, and then went to law school.
Surprising to see that organic chemistry was so tough at some places that many failed.
Not that I was any whiz in it (if memory serves, I got through with a ‘B’). Might have done a bit better but the grade wasn’t helped any by a miserable time in lab. Whatever chemical I was supposed to synthesize gave a yield of something like 5% of what it was supposed to, as precursors mostly wound up down the drain.
I wonder if I know you! I was in the very first year of the UWP EE major (theoretical class of 1984). It was the most poorly run course I have ever seen..ever. The dept head (and also the primary instructor) seemed to think his was the only course you were taking. Saturday labs!
It almost caused me to drop out of college. “Maybe I can go back to farming?” It was quite a shock. Fortunately I recovered and switched to ME, where I graduated and got a great job and never looked back. until today. Although, I had to retake dynamics as a three-credit course. Now you want to talk “everyone fails” course! There were exams where the high score was 15 on a hundred point scale!
If you were later, than me, I’m sad to see it never changed!
Like LSLGuy, I expect many of the “100% fail” stories are greatly exaggerated, even apocryphal. It is the case that departments sometimes have “weeding out” courses. These are often designed to rope in large numbers of students and are taught by sessional (non-tenured, 1-term contract) instructors. That gives the department impressive enrollments at a low cost, which administrators love. The weeding out process then gives the tenured profs the luxury of teaching small upper level classes in their specialties.
The thread points to the issue with education systems that are designed to meet the needs of the system itself rather than people.
Or there are majors that are superficially attractive to students who don’t know what the major or field actually entails. There’s high demand by a high number of students who don’t have the prerequisites, skills, ability, or interest in the subject once they learn what it really is. A weeding out course is a way to be sure students don’t waste their funds on a bunch of classes, only to find two years in that the major is a poor match.