Question

In a section of an English 201 class, the professor decides to be “generous” with the students and will grade the next exam in a unique way. Grades will be assigned according to the following rule: The top 10% receive A’s, the next 20% receive B’s, the middle 40% receive C’s, the next 20% receive D’s, and the bottom 10% receive F’s. Some may refer to this type of grading as “curving” which gave rise to the phrase, “Professor, do you curve the grades?”

1. (a) Where did the term “curving” come from? (b) Which curve is this referring to? (c) What do you think is the purpose of grading exams on a “curve”.

2. Students usually like when professors grade on a curve even though it is likely they do not understand what that involves. (a) Who do you think benefits from grading exams in a curve? Do you think all students will like this method? Explain.

3. Do you think this method of grading is fair to all students? Under what circumstances would some students NOT like this method of grading? Explain.

4. Under pressure from the students to grade an exam on a curve a Math Professor proposes the following curving method: The top 5% receive A’s, the next 10% receive B’s, the middle 30% receive C’s, the next 35% receive D’s, and the bottom 20% receive F’s. (a) What is the difference between this curving method and the one from the method specified at outset? (b) Do you think the students will accept this “curving” approach? Explain.

Answer 1

SOLUTION:

Part 1)
The curving term refers to the normalization of the grades which is usually used in the large scale of sample. in this , normalization of the grades best on the normal curve and the calculation of the grades done by the mean scores of the mark obtained by the students and their standard deviation.

Part 2)
a) The curving sysem work for the when the population size is large and it will be more effectively work in that situation. in that scinario the mean and standard deviation is relavant.
b) As student point of view, the curving technique is not acceptable for all students because the population of the sudent as per data is very small and it is more likely to be discrete.

Part 3)    This grading system is not Fair because i) size of sample is very small. ii) The marks obtained by student is not going to reflect the desired results
iii) Mean and Standard deviation will change the feasible shape of the curve.

Part 4)
a) Since the size of population is small . The new grading sysem is based on their marks obtained not on the basis of curve . it reflects the proper results.
b) Yes, Students will accept this new curve because the grades are alloted their performance not on the normalizalizaton basis.

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