Comments on Profile Post by spwath

  1. spwath
    spwath
    Because I just had one of the most bullshitly graded and curved tests ever
    Mar 5, 2019
  2. MrTeaRex
    MrTeaRex
    Isn't that exactly what grading on a curve is?
    Mar 5, 2019
    famish99 and Case like this.
  3. spwath
    spwath
    Isn't the curve supposed to work the other way, where the lower grade gets more points added and the higher grade gets less points added?
    Mar 5, 2019
  4. MrTeaRex
    MrTeaRex
    No, a curve guarantees the grade distribution meets a particular curve (generally a bell curve) which can easily result in lower grades being farther from higher grades than without the curve. What you're talking about sounds like scaling so everyone gets a better grade.
    Mar 5, 2019
    Cryptowolf and famish99 like this.
  5. spwath
    spwath
    Ok, well maybe the curve is ok then, but the grading of the test was bullshit. If one little mistake was made on a problem, over half the points were taken off. The professor admitted the grading was bad, and said he had a grad student do it.
    Mar 5, 2019
  6. spwath
    spwath
    To fix the bad grading, he added the curve, but that didn't really fix the issue, as it ended up being if you got one problem completely correct, you got a great grade, but if you made small mistakes on all 3 problems, you failed.
    Mar 5, 2019
  7. spwath
    spwath
    And it ended up with like half the class failing the test
    Mar 5, 2019
  8. Case
    Case
    That sucks, how frustrating
    Mar 5, 2019
  9. SoupRKnowva
    SoupRKnowva
    Yeah, what you might be thinking of is a skew, a curve is where you set the average to a particular score and then the rest of the scores are determined by math and the standard deviation of the scores. Every class here at UW is graded on a curve, it doesn’t really matter how you do in absolute terms, just how far ahead of most people you are
    Mar 5, 2019
  10. Griffon
    Griffon
    In UBC in theory all 100 and 200 levels are graded as-is, so it's easy to see more than half of a class fail.
    Mar 5, 2019
  11. spwath
    spwath
    The curve isn't really the main issue I guess then. The main issue was his way of grading. I guess Ill just study harder for the next one.
    Mar 5, 2019
    Friday, Case and MrTeaRex like this.
  12. Skyline
    Skyline
    As a professional educator, my opinion is that grading curves are always shit. All of them. All of the time.
    Mar 6, 2019
    Cryptowolf likes this.
  13. spwath
    spwath
    Turns out it went well, see my latest status
    Mar 14, 2019