I’m super confused how grades are calculated in University. I have a sim who did all of his homework, turned in outstanding term papers, always attended class, and studied and yet he got an F and a C+?! Maybe I’m wrong here but I feel we don’t have enough control over what grades Sims recieve.

I'm confused too.I just had 2 sims going through together, they both did everything they should. When emailing professors they even got the response of 'nobody has such a high grade as you' or whatever the wording is.But I guess they must have missed something cos the gal got A+, A+, B and the guy got A, A, F. I was really shocked at the F.

Make sure your sims have a decent level skill for the course they are taking. When doing my biology degree he had a course which focused on gardening, ended up getting an F because his gardening skill was quite low, I think maybe 1 or 2.

You should improve your skill too, Like if you are learning culinary be sure to cook, a lot. When I didn't do that my sim was like kept getting D, now she is an A+ student! Good Luck!

I also have issues with homework at university. I always do all homework but sometimes even with the homework done the message says the sim only did the minimum in class and I'm like? why?

"damncookies;c-17397118" wrote:You should improve your skill too, Like if you are learning culinary be sure to cook, a lot. When I didn't do that my sim was like kept getting D, now she is an A+ student! Good Luck!^ In my experience with three students so far, this is the key! You need to increase the skill listed for each class. Or if they've already maxed the skill, your Sim needs to still do things related to that skill. Doing homework, writing term papers/doing presentations and editing both until they get the message nothing else can be done to improve them before turning them in, and getting to class on time are all things that should be done too. But, if they're not increasing their class skills or using that skill consistently, they'll get a lower grade. My Sims didn't even study, not even once and they all got A+ in every class. Two graduated earning Distinguished degrees with Honors and the other got a regular degree with Honors. Don't bother buying those expensive study books, they're not needed in my opinion. Also, always choose the 'take notes' option while your Sim is in class. One last tip, look at the degree description to see which skills are recommended for it. Sometimes your Sim won't have a class that requires a particular skill mentioned during their entire time at university. Have your Sims do that skill anyway. For instance, my Sim going for a degree in Biology, never had a class that required Logic, but I still had him increase that skill since it was mentioned in the description.If it's difficult or seems almost impossible to get/increase a skill while living on campus, for instance the Rocket Science or Gardening skill, use the Research and Debate machines to increase the skill or buy skill books from a bookcase to read. I think the particular level they are at matters as well. For each skill I tried to have my students get them up to at least level 5 for the 1st term, 6-7 for 2nd-3rd terms and the last term level 8-10 or whatever number would max the skill. They didn't always max the skills, but got them up to at least 8 before the final term ended.I hope this helps! :)Happy Simming! <3

Grades in University | EA Forums

44 Replies

elliebreton
Legend
6 years ago
I'm confused too.

I just had 2 sims going through together, they both did everything they should. When emailing professors they even got the response of 'nobody has such a high grade as you' or whatever the wording is.

But I guess they must have missed something cos the gal got A+, A+, B and the guy got A, A, F. I was really shocked at the F.
kiwiboy18
6 years ago
Make sure your sims have a decent level skill for the course they are taking. When doing my biology degree he had a course which focused on gardening, ended up getting an F because his gardening skill was quite low, I think maybe 1 or 2.
damncookies2
6 years ago
You should improve your skill too, Like if you are learning culinary be sure to cook, a lot. When I didn't do that my sim was like kept getting D, now she is an A+ student! Good Luck!
nadysophie
6 years ago
I also have issues with homework at university. I always do all homework but sometimes even with the homework done the message says the sim only did the minimum in class and I'm like? why?
Karababy52
Legend
6 years ago
"damncookies;c-17397118" wrote:
You should improve your skill too, Like if you are learning culinary be sure to cook, a lot. When I didn't do that my sim was like kept getting D, now she is an A+ student! Good Luck!

^ In my experience with three students so far, this is the key! You need to increase the skill listed for each class. Or if they've already maxed the skill, your Sim needs to still do things related to that skill.

Doing homework, writing term papers/doing presentations and editing both until they get the message nothing else can be done to improve them before turning them in, and getting to class on time are all things that should be done too. But, if they're not increasing their class skills or using that skill consistently, they'll get a lower grade.

My Sims didn't even study, not even once and they all got A+ in every class. Two graduated earning Distinguished degrees with Honors and the other got a regular degree with Honors. Don't bother buying those expensive study books, they're not needed in my opinion. Also, always choose the 'take notes' option while your Sim is in class.

One last tip, look at the degree description to see which skills are recommended for it. Sometimes your Sim won't have a class that requires a particular skill mentioned during their entire time at university. Have your Sims do that skill anyway. For instance, my Sim going for a degree in Biology, never had a class that required Logic, but I still had him increase that skill since it was mentioned in the description.

If it's difficult or seems almost impossible to get/increase a skill while living on campus, for instance the Rocket Science or Gardening skill, use the Research and Debate machines to increase the skill or buy skill books from a bookcase to read. I think the particular level they are at matters as well. For each skill I tried to have my students get them up to at least level 5 for the 1st term, 6-7 for 2nd-3rd terms and the last term level 8-10 or whatever number would max the skill. They didn't always max the skills, but got them up to at least 8 before the final term ended.

I hope this helps! :)

Happy Simming! <3
EnkiSchmidt
Hero
6 years ago
For mod users this one shows your sims' exact course performance: http://modthesims.info/d/637945/quickly-check-course-performance.html

The mod is incredibly helpful, but also left me confused, because skills didn't seem to have an impact at all during my testing. So, exactly the opposite of what my experience so far was.

Details under the spoiler:

Spoiler

- Turned out I was wrong about skills weighing in more than study effort, after all. In fact, during the first semester the skills didn’t seem to have an impact AT ALL. (I still have a hard time believing this, despite seeing the numbers)

Here are a few observations:

- Grades seem to follow real life scales, meaning at least 50% are required for a D (Numbers from my game: 61,9 = D-, 64,2 = D, 72,1 = C-).
That comes with downside of sims lingering in the F range for a long time and then shooting through the rest within a single lecture. As a result the grades are skewed towards the low or the high end, either Fs or A+s. This lines up with my experiences from playing blind.

- Sims can never lose study progress from not attending lectures, only gain it. That explains why missing the finals didn’t have an effect that one sims of mine who missed several lectures as well as the finals but finished with all A+s.

- I haven’t tested cheating yet. Getting caught at cheating SHOULD bring down the grade.

Studying from home, anybody? It’s possible:

- Homework is factored into course performance even if the sim does not attend the lecture.

- Term papers and presentations already add a small amount of course performance (2 pts. per quality stage) while being worked on, even if the paper never gets turned in.

- A single hour of study adds about 5 points to the performance.

- For presentations/term papers the quality levels add ~16/24/32 points regardless of skill. Variations from mood or traits may apply, but not from skills.

- Attending lecture base performance gain: ~16 pts.

- Homework done before lecture: + ~14 pts.

- Taking notes during lecture: + ~8 pts.

- Not attending lecture at all: +0 pts.

- In general performance during lectures can vary. I believe there is a random factor involved besides modifiers for mood and traits. The variance is greater for sims taking notes than for sims attending lectures normally, but not significant (+/- 5 points for taking notes compared +/- 1 point for attending normally).

- Not grades related, but perhaps of note: Sims in the same household with exactly the same major and classes have different schedules. That made my test semester a nightmare when two sims had their C2 class 8:00-9:25, but the other two had the exact same class 11:00-12:45.

- Those numbers apply to first semester students, all copies of the same sim.

- I didn’t finish a semester with my test group so far. Might be that skill rank gets factored in at the very end, after all.

Maybe this is helpful to some of you. Add or correct as needed, please!
Bearpal64
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
Interesting! I noticed my Sim at least practicing their skills and taking notes or actively listening definitely seemed to help.

My Sims grades went up each semester and I'm interested in how she will finish. I do like that it's a challenge. It's definitely a change ^^
atreya33
Legend
6 years ago
"EnkiSchmidt;c-17399811" wrote:
For mod users this one shows your sims' exact course performance: http://modthesims.info/d/637945/quickly-check-course-performance.html

The mod is incredibly helpful, but also left me confused, because skills didn't seem to have an impact at all during my testing. So, exactly the opposite of what my experience so far was.

Details under the spoiler:

Spoiler

- Turned out I was wrong about skills weighing in more than study effort, after all. In fact, during the first semester the skills didn’t seem to have an impact AT ALL. (I still have a hard time believing this, despite seeing the numbers)

Here are a few observations:

- Grades seem to follow real life scales, meaning at least 50% are required for a D (Numbers from my game: 61,9 = D-, 64,2 = D, 72,1 = C-).
That comes with downside of sims lingering in the F range for a long time and then shooting through the rest within a single lecture. As a result the grades are skewed towards the low or the high end, either Fs or A+s. This lines up with my experiences from playing blind.

- Sims can never lose study progress from not attending lectures, only gain it. That explains why missing the finals didn’t have an effect that one sims of mine who missed several lectures as well as the finals but finished with all A+s.

- I haven’t tested cheating yet. Getting caught at cheating SHOULD bring down the grade.

Studying from home, anybody? It’s possible:

- Homework is factored into course performance even if the sim does not attend the lecture.

- Term papers and presentations already add a small amount of course performance (2 pts. per quality stage) while being worked on, even if the paper never gets turned in.

- A single hour of study adds about 5 points to the performance.

- For presentations/term papers the quality levels add ~16/24/32 points regardless of skill. Variations from mood or traits may apply, but not from skills.

- Attending lecture base performance gain: ~16 pts.

- Homework done before lecture: + ~14 pts.

- Taking notes during lecture: + ~8 pts.

- Not attending lecture at all: +0 pts.

- In general performance during lectures can vary. I believe there is a random factor involved besides modifiers for mood and traits. The variance is greater for sims taking notes than for sims attending lectures normally, but not significant (+/- 5 points for taking notes compared +/- 1 point for attending normally).

- Not grades related, but perhaps of note: Sims in the same household with exactly the same major and classes have different schedules. That made my test semester a nightmare when two sims had their C2 class 8:00-9:25, but the other two had the exact same class 11:00-12:45.

- Those numbers apply to first semester students, all copies of the same sim.

- I didn’t finish a semester with my test group so far. Might be that skill rank gets factored in at the very end, after all.

Maybe this is helpful to some of you. Add or correct as needed, please!

Thank you for the link. I will definitely try this mod.
atreya33
Legend
6 years ago
I have been wondering if the mood of my sims during classes or exams matters.
Does it help when they go to class focused? What about being tense for the final? Does that make a difference?
atreya33
Legend
6 years ago
"Sindocat;c-17402407" wrote:
Emotions matter only in regard to skill gain from class time. But it certainly can't hurt. The last Art History course I took in game, for instance, was "Sculpture as Expression", which improved Charisma. I made sure my Sim went to class in a Confident mood to make the most of that.

OK. So that would mean being tense for an exam makes no difference to the grades. Interesting.