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Grading on a Curve

 
Old 10-21-2010 at 06:57 PM   #1
Cliu91
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Grading on a Curve
Hi guys, to those who've got a better understanding on how the grading works.
I've seen, and been told that sometimes the professor will grade on a "curve".
What does this mean? Obviously it's beneficial to the students, but why, and how...?

Moreso, I know that they may do this when a class is doing "poor", what is considered "poor"? Below 70%? Below 60%? Below 50%?
Old 10-21-2010 at 07:00 PM   #2
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The classes marks graphed as a frequency will look something like this

So let's say the peak occurs at 60% for a certain test that was pretty tough. The prof will shift everyone's marks up 10% so the bellcurve fits the expected marks (peak occurs @ roughly 70%). So If you do really well on a test that the class did poorly on it'll boost your marks. However if everyone does well your mark will drop.
Old 10-21-2010 at 07:01 PM   #3
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Curving has always helped me.................:f rown:
Old 10-21-2010 at 07:07 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Replekia View Post
The classes marks graphed as a frequency will look something like this

So let's say the peak occurs at 60% for a certain test that was pretty tough. The prof will shift everyone's marks up 10% so the bellcurve fits the expected marks (peak occurs @ roughly 70%). So If you do really well on a test that the class did poorly on it'll boost your marks. However if everyone does well your mark will drop.



That is actually pretty neat, all my classmates need to do poorly, and all my proffs need to use this curve grading system
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Old 10-21-2010 at 07:17 PM   #5
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http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea...t=bell+curving

taunton does a good job of explaining the little things in his 2nd post, take a look.

Marlowe likes this.
Old 10-21-2010 at 08:36 PM   #6
britb
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cliu91 View Post
Hi guys, to those who've got a better understanding on how the grading works.
I've seen, and been told that sometimes the professor will grade on a "curve".
What does this mean? Obviously it's beneficial to the students, but why, and how...?

Moreso, I know that they may do this when a class is doing "poor", what is considered "poor"? Below 70%? Below 60%? Below 50%?
-rolls eyes- People have to learn this does not happen here.

The best you can hope for is for the denominator to be reduced (ie adding 10% to everyone's grade). They don't do bell curves. That's an American policy, where your mark is dependent on how well everyone else does compared to you, as opposed to your raw score. True curving is only beneficial to those below average, and hurts those above it. True curving forces a mean by adding to the low scores and subtracting from the high scores.

Last edited by britb : 10-21-2010 at 08:40 PM.
Old 10-21-2010 at 08:52 PM   #7
mcmastergcdb
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Here's the deal, for my physics 1B03, the first test avg. was 55%. Ofcourse the 2nd test would be way lower than that since we are learning much harder stuff. Is there any possibility that I would end up with a higher mark than what I'm anticipating. If the class avg. is 2, it doesn't mean that all of the ppl are stupid, may be the teacher is throwing out a hard test.

Last year, first test avg. was 82%, so they knew they had to make it harder. But, not this hard that almost half of the class would fail?!?
Old 10-21-2010 at 08:56 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mcmastergcdb View Post
Here's the deal, for my physics 1B03, the first test avg. was 55%. Ofcourse the 2nd test would be way lower than that since we are learning much harder stuff. Is there any possibility that I would end up with a higher mark than what I'm anticipating. If the class avg. is 2, it doesn't mean that all of the ppl are stupid, may be the teacher is throwing out a hard test.

Last year, first test avg. was 82%, so they knew they had to make it harder. But, not this hard that almost half of the class would fail?!?
there is no way Hughes is gonna curve

actually, afaik, the Science dept isn't allowed to curve
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Old 10-21-2010 at 09:05 PM   #9
mcmastergcdb
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Afzal View Post
there is no way Hughes is gonna curve

actually, afaik, the Science dept isn't allowed to curve
really! I'm pretty sure the chem 1aa3 overall marks were hugely bumped up
Old 10-21-2010 at 09:10 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mcmastergcdb View Post
Here's the deal, for my physics 1B03, the first test avg. was 55%. Ofcourse the 2nd test would be way lower than that since we are learning much harder stuff. Is there any possibility that I would end up with a higher mark than what I'm anticipating. If the class avg. is 2, it doesn't mean that all of the ppl are stupid, may be the teacher is throwing out a hard test.

Last year, first test avg. was 82%, so they knew they had to make it harder. But, not this hard that almost half of the class would fail?!?
The second test won't necessarily be harder. That assumption is completely false. You're learning different material, not necessarily harder, and the profs might deliberately make the test easier if everyone did poorly on the first one.
Old 10-21-2010 at 09:12 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nerual View Post
The second test won't necessarily be harder. That assumption is completely false. You're learning different material, not necessarily harder, and the profs might deliberately make the test easier if everyone did poorly on the first one.
No, I'm not making an assumption, last year both semesters, the 2nd test avg. was a failing avg. But, both time the 1st test avg was in 80s. But this year even the 1st test wasn't well done.
Old 10-21-2010 at 09:15 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mcmastergcdb View Post
No, I'm not making an assumption, last year both semesters, the 2nd test avg. was a failing avg. But, both time the 1st test avg was in 80s. But this year even the 1st test wasn't well done.
But last year, the first test average was higher. Also, the average doesn't really tell you much about how YOU will do. You might be better at stuff on the second test, which other people might find harder. Don't write it off as a definite fail before you've even learned the material!
Old 10-21-2010 at 09:20 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nerual View Post
But last year, the first test average was higher. Also, the average doesn't really tell you much about how YOU will do. You might be better at stuff on the second test, which other people might find harder. Don't write it off as a definite fail before you've even learned the material!
I hope I do good lol.
Old 10-21-2010 at 09:25 PM   #14
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You hope you do well?

And you don't always get the same as other people, I did poorly on that test where the average was 80ish, but the one where the average was closer to 50 I got almost perfect, because it wasn't so stupid that I just left my midterm out of boredom.
Old 10-21-2010 at 09:25 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mcmastergcdb View Post
No, I'm not making an assumption, last year both semesters, the 2nd test avg. was a failing avg. But, both time the 1st test avg was in 80s. But this year even the 1st test wasn't well done.

No. I was in the first semester, the class average for first midterm was in 60s. Second was in 30s. Hughes says all the years before that the class average on the first midterm was in the 50s. So it's actually normal, she also said that our class average of 60 was very. very good.

The reason why the second semester had a 80 average on the first midterm was because of the second midterm of the previous semester. They gave everyone 30min more AND made it easier. Apparently, both prof agreed the first midterm was wayyyy to easy.



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