I will probably have a range of reactions, and this is my first.
Assuming most students are going to the review sessions and taking preparation seriously, it sounds like either the prof or the department are trying to communicate something with these marks. As in: “Physics is brutal, get used to it.”
I use a similar marking rubric in Calculus; it’s pretty straightforward to get middling credit, and full marks aren’t impossibly difficult to come by. Most of the time, the results are statistically what I’d expect: a few high and low marks, and a bunch in the C+ to B- range.
Some schools have sorting courses, which try to weed out students viewed as unprepared or unserious. I don’t like that idea. Lots of students are underprepared, and still more simply think in ways significantly different from the ways department members may have learned.
Sorry. Long winded answer...