#BELL CURVE PERCENTAGES HOW TO#

Of 'curving' you can do for yourself with each examination. Adding 20 to each number would make the class averageĪ traditional 72% and give you a very respectable 92%. To the class mean? For example, if you have a 72% average, but theĬlass average is 52%, you are doing better than your score might Standing in terms of what your class is doing.

#BELL CURVE PERCENTAGES HOW TO#

How to deal with the anxietyĭo not expect to be graded solely in comparison to yourĬlassmates, but you can use the class data to infer your general Me, so I offer some suggestions for dealing with these anxieties. This can undermine class morale, and lowĬlass morale can undermine student ability. To worry conscientious students who are conditioned to think in terms I am not alarmed by apparently low numbers, but these scores do tend Of achievement rather than analysis carved in stone.Īverages in my classes may be in the 60% range. Wise students will begin to look at scores as a place on a continuum Of 90%, it does not mean they know 90% of everything in the subject. Successfully, but what test is so perfect that it could completelyĭetermine extent of knowledge or ability? If a student gets a grade Individual's rise to a challenge when I assign final grades.Ī percentage shows how much of a particular exam was dealt with

I try to recognize student improvement and an If a student fails toĬomplete the work there is little choice in evaluation of that work.įortunately, most Hamilton students are good workers who use their I resist distorting class perceptions by 'curving' each test scoreĭuring the term, but the final assignment of grades suggests they areĮffectively 'curved'.

What do you see? Final Letter Grades Assigned to 422 Most students wouldĬompare the chart of grades below to the chart of cumulative Suggest that results should fit 'the curve', and in this case that Skewed toward the higher end of the curve, but then Hamilton studentsĪre intelligent, and they are good workers. Notice that the distribution of students is That I am indeed a hard grader (or that I am living up to my goal ofĬhallenging students). Absence of individual averages in the 90's suggests This sample is large enough to describe a fairly even curve. The line shows the infamous normal distribution, the 'bell' curve. Also, students,Ĭourses, exams, even the teaching of one professor vary with each These are self-selected students in a course at a selectiveĬollege they do not represent a general population. Graphics summarize data from 422 students who finished the course, Biol 222 Vertebrate Organization over a 15-year period. Understand the vagaries of performance and rewards. Look at some data, then consider all theĪ sample can provide perspective for students who are trying to Normalization also requires that overly high scores be adjustedĭownward for conformity.

Makes sense to 'normalize' them so they fit under a normal curve. If you assume that scores should fit a normal curve, then it Of low test scores, but the basis of the practice derives fromĪssumptions about statistical distributions of scores (bell curve). Students generally assume that curving means an upward adjustment Do you really want that grade 'curved'? Whatĭoes it mean to curve grades? Professor S.A.

Bell curve percentages