Question for anyone who has taught a math class before

[Daniel_Feldman]

Did you curve tests? If so, what sort of curve was it?



Note to mods: I'm not sure whether this is the correct forum. If it's not, please move it. Thanks.

 

[stapel]

That depends on what you mean by "curving"....

Students usually mean "giving us a bump if we do badly, so the class average is never under [insert really high number here]". But the technical definition, to my understanding, is adjusting the scores so that the distribution is "even", with half of the students passing and half of them flunking, no matter how well they performed relative to what I'd asked them to do.

When my students ask if I'll curve, I assume they're asking for the former, but I explain the latter, and ask if they're really sure they want me to do that. They have always declined. :wink:

That's not to say, however, that I've never "bumped" a test. Sometimes I just don't write 'em as well as I'd like to have. If even the good students do poorly, or if a certain question turns out to have been unclear, I will generally add points or adjust the scale to account for my clumsiness.

But if they did poorly because they just didn't bother studying, then they're on their own. :twisted:

Eliz.

 

[Daniel_Feldman]

Yeah. The reason I asked was because a friend and I were having a discussion today regarding our Calc BC and Physics AP classes. In BC, the teacher takes the average (out of 60 possible points) and scales it up to an 89, and scales all other grades relative to the average. In other words, on a test earlier this year, I got a 48.5/60, but the average was a 35, so I ended up getting scaled to a 101.5%.


In Physics AP, however, the curve is much tougher. The average is generally a 40-43 (out of 60) and is scaled to around an 86%-87%. In an earlier test, the highest score (56) became a 97%, whereas the lowest (26) became a 76%. Supposedly this range is stretched or shrunk based on the teacher's preference. Blech.


Anyway, curves are fun.

 

[stapel]

Anyway, curves are fun.

They can be. I was in a partial-differential-equations course where nobody had a clue what the instructor was talking about. We were all lost, and sure we were going to flunk our, um, keisters off.

But there was this one guy in the front row. His tuition was being paid by his employer. The only condition of his tuition reimbursment was that he not drop a class. If he dropped, he'd have to pay his boss back. He couldn't afford that, so he could not drop, no matter what.

Then we found out that the instructor would be grading on a curve, and that the guy in front was doing worse than the rest of us. At which point, the rest of us all relaxed considerably. :twisted: :wink:

Eliz.

 

[pka]

The is a wonderful article written is the ’80’s in the College Mathematics Journal (I wish that I could give you the exact reference, but cannot). It showed the inherent injustice in using a linear model in curving grades. The author(s) gave an exponential model curving minimum raw score into a desired passing score. I will try to look it and post the formula.

 

[soroban]

Every class has asked me "Do you curve your grades?"

This launches me into a lecture about the inherent <u>unfairness</u> of a "curve".


My understanding is that a "curve" works like this:

A professor may decides that:
. . the bottom 2% will get F,
. . the next 14% will get D,
. . the middle 68% will get C,
. . the next 14% will get B,
. . and the top 2% will get A.

Note that this relieves him of any responsibiity for quality teaching.
No matter how incompetant he his, he will always have an acceptable distribution of grades.
Note further that this system pits the students against each other.

So with a "pure curve", you could have a 91% average and flunk
. . simply because you had the lowest grade in your class.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There is the urban legend of the professor who announced that
. . the bottom 2% of the class will automatically get F's.

The 98 students promptly pooled their money and hired two students
. . to take the course and flunk.