Students say Literature and Arts C-14 was more difficult this year than last.

Wayne G. Marshall '98 says many students grumbled that the class was harder than they thought it would be.

"I heard that it was a lot harder this year," says Benjamin J. Sommers '99, who found the class more difficult than he had expected. "They were trying to make it seem less of a gut."

Calling the title "Heroes for Zeros" a misnomer, Nagy says that any increase in difficulty was not intentional.

Professors of some courses say the material covered by their classes often alters from year to year.

"I change [the class] very much from year to year to reflect my research interests," Nagy says.

He says he was surprised some students said that the class was more difficult this year.

"It's not me who makes the class difficult," Nagy says. "It's the literature itself that's difficult."

Some professors say there is no stigma attached to teaching a class that is considered a gut.

"I can make it difficult if I want," says Tornell, who teaches Economics 1470: "Privatization."

"I think that the trick is to make people interested," Tornell says. "You want them to enjoy the class. I think that he purpose is to get people interested and remember a few of the concepts after they leave college."

Tornell says that certain questions on his exams are good indicators of the amount of work that students have done.

"If you didn't read, you won't get those questions right," Tornell says. "You can get a B without reading."

Tornell says the grade distribution for his course is not set beforehand, but that the distribution tends to be the same each year.

"Very few students are extremely good," he says. "The majority is good but not extremely good. It's always easy to tell."