Sounds like a German-style professor. Some courses in my time used to have a very high failure rate (>70%). If he can get away with that in the department, perhaps they want him to reduce numbers. I would think that such a filtering is fairer early in the studies rather than later, as people can change topics, so any recourse you seek via the school should probably be focused on the unfairness of being trapped that late in your studies rather than the habits of the particular prof.

What are other students saying? Did anyone attempt to organise a group protest? Are students represented, e.g., in the departmental committees and councils? Are they organised somehow? Where I am and was in the past, such a thing would be brought up by student representatives or in organised feedback, and the department would want to deal with it (unless the department is behind this professor, in which case the department would hold as much responsibility as the professor himself, and maybe have good reasons). My impression is that this is not an issue for one student alone to deal with.

@Lewian edited to question.

That partly addresses my question but not fully. Do you have representatives? What about bringing this to the departmental council as a big group? When I was a student (long ago;-) we would go to council meetings and make a proper noise, and we were heard.

We don't have any representatives and I do not know If it is brought to department council as a big group or not but everybody in the department is "aware" of this situation for years. And some other professors condemn him during their own lectures.

I'd recommend to put a group together and go to the council or department leader, and speak to people personally and make them feel that the situation is unacceptable. Writing emails doesn't make much noise.

There is something discouraging people. The rector of the university is "friend" of him. So he is some sort of "untouchable". And people are scared to get stigmatized by him.

I kind of admire the Professor. Sometimes it is imperative to stick to a certain standard of perfection without paying attention to how many pass or fail. It takes courage to stick to it when you are the only one doing it. And I see nothing wrong in setting a mid sem criterion.

@curious_cat: Or it is just lazyness (which also often happens).

The very fact that he continues be in demand despite the screening test should motivate you to work harder to get through next time.. if there is one.

Is your issue really that the professor requires you to be at 30% level to take an exam? That sounds pretty low. Do you learn less than 30% of the material on other courses?

It might seem so low but since he is doing all-or-nothing grading it becomes very difficult to obtain it. Also he only asks 3 questions. Each question is approximately 30 pts. He only looks at the result. So If you have a mistake like a minus mistake in somewhere you get 0 points. This is why it is so much difficult to obtain "30". This is not due to lack of knowledge on course.

Less than 25% of the students passed this course last year? That's beneath his own 30% success rate requirement. How does he justify a threshold he can't even meet himself?

@curious_cat given the extremely low pass rate, this course cannot possibly be appropriate for students at this stage. Therefore the professor is doing something wrong (whether that's setting the standard higher than is required for the material, or offering the course too early in people's academic career would require more information to tell)

Doesn't seem like a habbit, seems like it is his view on the best way to educate on this topic. If he is wrong that is a different matter.

Also seem like system have nothing to do with it, it's the material either students aren't studying or they are and the professor is not coherently teaching or providing resource to learn it.

Could be either one and there no way to tell, a lot of students are lazy, and a lot of teachers are stupid, it's neither here or there which one is the issue here.

@Tristan: How can one tell? So support I teach a new course this year and 75% students fail. Does that automatically mean I did something wrong with my teaching?

Ah man, this is exactly my first year physics course in uni. We just needed to study like crazy, I guess....

@curious_cat sure, not the first year, but the lecturer in the OP has done this multiple years. You'd have thought anyone in academia would be able to spot the pattern

@Tristan Maybe the faculty wants this behaviour? Is it always him teaching this mandatory class? In a German Stem course usually it doesnt matter who teaches a certain module, 70% fail for this specific module, it is a method to weed out the student 'who dont have it'

At my university its very common that you have to get 50% of the exercises during the semester right or get 50% on a midterm to be allowed to take the final exam. 30% is very lenient. If people fail this course, its not because of that 30% requirement in the midterm.

Could you please edit the question to include your country? Does your university use an open admission model (like much of Europe) or a competitive admission model (like most of the US)? Does failing a course create significant monetary cost and/or a permanent F on the transcript, or does it only mean that the student can't progress through the major?

Oh no, why did you edit the title? I guess you will get a lot of unfriendly commens and "it's your own fault" comments now:(

If this pattern has been going on for many years then it's a reasonable assumption that the institution is Ok with it.

How many percent to you need to pass the final exam? Where I come from 50% is the norm. Whats the needed percentage for your final exam?

So far, any argument that is against the professor is ill founded in my humble opinion. There is some basic standard that can not be lowered to sastify the want of students. For example, do you really permit a medical school give doctor certificate to students that cannot even pass 30% of their midterm points?

this is also sofar an onesided story from OP, there are more factors to consider, which school is he in? which country? which major? which course? is that professor a top notch professor in his expertise?

@ParesseuxNguyen: First, it is not relevant if the prof is top notch. Also, it is always the case in this forum that we only have one side and should work with what OP gives us. We do not judge, but give advice based on OP's situation. Next, it seems by this question that the prof has a very high fail rate compared to other profs in this institution and also unusual grading policies without good justification. Sure, there may be other explanations - maybe someone sabotages the prof's course for example, but we have to work wirh OP's infos. Why should the school be relevant?

I totally agree with @user111388. My goal is not to set a court here. So it is irrevelant to hear professor's side. I just asked for advices nothing more. There no need to lynch professor or to support me. I edited it to my question If it is misunderstood.

@user111388: Maybe you haven't read my comment entirely. I also gave an example of medical school, I guess you don't disagree with that point. That's why school is an important factor to consider, I don't know many tend to downplay that part.

Secondly, we are not a court here but many people want to give their judgement, so I'm not sure did you really mean it when you say "we do not judge" ?, so if you don't like any judgement, why don't first tell the post the judge the practice given by the professor is bad?

@ParesseuxNguyen: I have read your comment. And even in medical school, it would be weird and questionable (but it could have good reasons) to filter out in such a strange way and only in one course. (And OP seems to indicate the course is not so.important as medical knowledge.) And even if somebody wants to give judgement, this is not the goal of the site and is impossible - the user can not tell us the prof's thoughts. And I don't understand your last line.

I'm not sure if this is just "one course" what if OP is just first year undergraduate? what if this course is important? I don't see any part of this question which clearly states that this course is not important.

No one can tell others' thoughts but with more information, we can deduce a better understanding of the situation. And as I have written, many people tend to judge the professor, so naturally, someone should speak out and tell them not playing judge and that if they want to play, play it right.

looks like the bold part of your question is something that is the least relevant for us to read and is best to be omitted. Strange way of using bold face. ;-)