First week tales - good, bad, ugly?

[pslaw2011]

ok so he studies art law... moving on guys, lets be friendly

[Julie Fern]

I could be studying paint drying on a wall, if it's on a curve the same principals apply regardless of the subject matter.

maybe better ask your principal.

[Julie Fern]

I could be studying paint drying on a wall, if it's on a curve the same principals apply regardless of the subject matter.

I find it easy to believe you're studying paint drying on a wall.

What I'm finding difficult to believe is that you've actually attended a college class somewhere.

For instance, first test I ever took in college was a Chemistry exam where I got a 57.  Nearly crapped my pants.  Then, the distribution was put up on the board and it was an A.  The professor simply used a loose curve and natural breaks to determine grades.  If memory serves, about a quarter of the class got As.

That's a world away from a forced curve where only 10% of the class gets an A.

If your class had to use a curve in undergrad, you all deserved to fail. How the hell can a school justify passing someone in CHEMISTRY with a 57 just because everyone else just happened to be dumber? Gotta love America, we fall behind the rest of the world, but it's ok since we give ourselves A's compared to our invalid neighbors...

you only showing ignorance.  this particular 57% appear be one of relatively few grading  curves not arbitrarily constructed.

everyone grades on curve.  only questions are how constructed and what look like.

[FalconJimmy]

If your class had to use a curve in undergrad, you all deserved to fail. How the hell can a school justify passing someone in CHEMISTRY with a 57 just because everyone else just happened to be dumber? Gotta love America, we fall behind the rest of the world, but it's ok since we give ourselves A's compared to our invalid neighbors...

 

Okay, if you say so. 

Not sure if you ever set foot in a science classroom, but I literally don't remember a single class in undegrad that wasn't graded on a curve when the subjects were things like math and science.

We dumb Americans did okay, and oddly, those classes seemed to have a higher proportion of the ass-kicking foreign students in there as well.  Apparently they went to the trouble and expense of studying here so they could get firsthand experience on how to be invalids.

[lawyerintraining]

Anyone who believes that "everyone" grades on a curve hasn't been to an undergrad college that expect you to learn then. In a lot of them, a 70% would still be a C-.

[Julie Fern]

Anyone who believes that "everyone" grades on a curve hasn't been to an undergrad college that expect you to learn then. In a lot of them, a 70% would still be a C-.

sorry, numbnuts, you not understand what "curve."  you think it only "curve" when it depart from arbitrary 90% = A, 80% = B, etc.  curve based on arbitrariness of people having 10 fingers not exactly well-considered.  proferssors virtually never normalize test questions, which why different approach necessary unless te3achers be putzes (which 99% are when come to "objective" grading).  professors give tests all time as though their tests  normalized (like lsat, by way--which mostly why raw score not only score), but they not.

giving A for 57% suggests professor admit not know difficulty level of test so decide award so many As, Bs, etc.  that just different kind of curve--one based on student percentiles, which make much more sense.

maybe you see this easier if less intent on promoting what you see as your oh-so-serious undergrad institution.  (by way, business curricula usually one easiest at any college or university.  sorry.)

got it, sport?

[FalconJimmy]

Anyone who believes that "everyone" grades on a curve hasn't been to an undergrad college that expect you to learn then. In a lot of them, a 70% would still be a C-.

You have no idea how far in the right Julie has to be for me to agree with her, but she's right.

College tests aren't given to a statistically signficant population to determine a normal distribution.

It's highly unlikely that a professor would possess the superhuman intellect required to come up with a fair distribution simply by having arbitrary 90/80/70 cutoffs.

As such, the possibilities are:

1.  They just give grades based on the arbitrary cutoffs.  If 90% of the class gets As, so be it.  They made the cutoff.  If 90% of the class gets Ds, so be it.  They didn't make the cutoff to get a higher score.  Either result is grossly unfair or patently ridiculous.   I can see why less rigorous schools would do this.  They just give a lot of As.  Makes for happy students.

2.  They give a test that results in a normal distribution of scores, then they assign, roughly, a C to the mean or median score and measure out up and down to give the other letter grades.

The odds of a teacher devising a test where the mean score naturally fell at 75% are infinitessimally small. 

Julie is right on this one.  Though your experience seems to indicate a greater experience with teachers who graded using option 1.

[Julie Fern]

watch yourself, bub.