Of course, night students often bristle at the idea that their curve is easier. But unless and until someone can offer me a decent explanation of why competing against a) lower average scores, b) people working full-time, and c) having a reduced work load would not lead to an easier competitive landscape, I will continue to maintain that an A in section 3 is simply not equal to an A in section 1 or 2.

By a), I assume you mean lower average entrance scores. The differences in averages are small. More importantly, many of the people comprising the evening section when starting have a bit more experience doing real things than your average 22 year old student. As for c), it's utter nonsense to even suggest there's a reduced workload when you follow talking about people working full-time. Boo hoo, you had one more class than I did, yet I was working 40 hours each week, commuting during rush hour, and still keeping up with my studies.

But the real failure in this idea comes from some implication that evening students remain a segregated lot throughout, which simply isn't the case. Of my original evening section, there were maybe 15 to 18 students left who were strictly evening students when I started. You want to know where my best grades came from? When I started taking classes with full-time day students.

The beauty of the curve is that an A in section 3 means exactly the same thing as an A in section 1 or 2.

Anecdotally, from my observations tutoring evening K's, that is the case... people simply did not bring the same level of vigor to their studies as I observed (albeit as a participant) in first-year day classes.

Where vigor means what, exactly? Participation? (I can't imagine you could have seen anything else during your time as a participant.) Maybe, us older students who exist in higher, though far from overwhelming, numbers in the evening section have simply learned how to keep their mouths shut sometimes.

Other than that, there's the simple fact that night classes are longer. Students grow weary and professors often wind down.