Curved grading

GBJoker

GBJoker

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Has to be, far and away, the dumbest thing I've ever heard out of the 90s, possibly 80s.

Yes, let us reward those who failed, and punish those who succeeded.

Thus far, in all of my COLLEGE classes, the grades have been curved, and 90% of the time, based off my test. I feel great knowing I dominated the exam or class, only to have the teacher say that some one else only did essentially .1% worse than me. That looks real great when I transfer to another college for a Bachelor's degree, because now, I have to compete with roughly 5 times more people than normal.

So, are you against curved grading or......... for..... it?
 
Well, when I was in school and had a class that I wasn't that great at, I did like it, as it helped my grade. I was never much of a school person anyways, so for the most part, a grading curve would help me.

But with that said, I did have a major problem with grading curves. Well, I suppose it's a grading scale the bothered me more. Typically when I was in a class that was graded this way, the professor was handing out failing grades to probably 75% of the class and would have to grade on a scale. Then it just became a typical theme for this particular professor or particular class, so those who came into the class weren't intimidated by failing grades. But the problem I have with that is that simply, the professor doesn't have to hand out exams that are unrealistically hard. So long as the students have an understanding of the material, that's all that matters, no reason to over complicate things. So even though the grade typically worked in my favor, I didn't like the concept behind it.

So overall, I don't support the grading curve.
 
I really don't know how to feel about grading curves.

It benefited me in highschool because I took honors classes so my final grades were adjusted by 10 points (65 into a 75, 92 into a 102).

But in college it seems pretty unfair. You have some students who study their butts off and then you have slackers who are begging for mercy instead of studying.

And then you have schools that don't have a policy on grading curves.
I had a professor that used the curve in all classes (10 points) and I've had a professor that said if any student scored over a 90 then he would not issue a curve. So basically the entire class ended up hating the 4.0 nerds.

In the end, it's not really fair.
 
I'm in favor of curving. It's probably not appropriate for all classes, but there are some where a curve is essential. For example, I knew a guy who was an absolute Physics genius who made failing without curve, and A with curve. To give you an idea of how hard the class was, the average was in the 40s. I think it's important, especially when you take a class with a very researched professor.
 
I have to say, I didn't have a problem with curving grades when I was in high school. It really helped me a great deal when I was attending my classes as a Senior. I curved certain grades from 78.7% to an 80.0% or a 92.5% to a 93.0% and just that one percentage or five percentage of a difference can mean the essential division between failing a course and just hinging on the cusp of passing it with a 70.0% average or a 67.0% as opposed to a 69.0% or a 66.9% average respectively.

For some kids in my school, they'd rather keep their grade unchanged because compared to another student who has one or five points higher than them, it looks comparatively weaker when it's modified. For me personally, I could care less about how someone else is doing academically compared to me. At the end of the day, if I've put in my best effort and the teacher has rounded the grade to its solid limit then why should I gripe? If I put in a 70.0% quality of a work then I earn that grade, all I have to do is hand in work on time, stay for extra help, and make that teacher remember not just my face but my full name. Likewise, if I earn a 100.0% for my courses, great for me, then I should maintain it.

To me, I don't sweat it. It's not the teacher or the other students' faults if I get a lower grade, even after rounding it substantially, it's my responsibility to lower it further or improve it. That's the way I see it.

Then again, every grading system is different. My school was pretty fair. Tests were worth about 50% of your total marking period grade, homework was a mere 10% since we didn't get much, projects were 30%, and then quizzes were about 15% so really you relied heavily on scoring a perfect A on a test to fall back on as a "cushion" for your grade. Even if you turned in a bulk of homework for make-up work and redid some quizzes you could pull up a grade at least by 20 points, which when you have a 60 means all the difference. So all in all, I want to point out, that my high school's grading school was pretty fair in my opinion.
 
Curving is a horrible idea that allows students to slip through classes without actually knowing the material. If you get a failing grade in a class, you don't know the material. If nobody can get a passing grade in the class, it isn't taught well enough. Curving does nothing to fix these problems.
 
I like it. It's helped me get great grades in math and english classes when I was down grade-wise. Of course, I'm always on the top half of the class so when the curve goes high I'm rarely affected negatively, to be honest.
 
I guess as a teacher (masters level stats course), I am ok with curving. More specifically I think curving is appropriate if you give an exam and the class average was pretty poor sometimes it makes sense to make the average grade to a C+.
 
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