05-07-2011, 02:52 AM
I knew my educational experience was different from a lot of other folks, but the grades as points was pretty much standard for me in most of my high school classes, and a lot of my college courses as well. There generally weren't "levels" but I knew there would be a total of 1750 points available in my English class, tests would account for 800 of those, there were some extra credit opportunities, etc. There were group and class projects that generated points. You needed 93% of the total points for an A (so I needed to get 1645 points somehow in that English class). Though in college it was generally the 90-80-70-60 scale. High school was 93-86-78-70.
Curves happened only in a few classes where it made sense to grade competitively. In a class like algebra, it is in fact possible for everyone in the class to demonstrate perfect understanding of the material, and everyone should get an A. Most of the other times I ran into a curve were actually more of a normalization. Though I did have a calculus class, that had a common final pulled from questions written by each professor, that got graded on a curve, but that was after the final. The regular tests were not common, they were written by each teacher. My section had harder tests. Pretty much everyone in my 30 student section believed this, without a curve the highest grade anyone in our class had was a B (a low B at that). The final was worth 200 points. 210 students took the final. The top 15 scores were students in my section (I was 10th with a score of 190, I carried a sign wrong on one problem, and made a stupid mistake on another). 20 of the top 30 scores were from my section, the lowest anyone from our section got was a 150. We convinced the professor that, yes we did indeed know the material, and that his tests had been harder. The questions from my professor on the final were also the most missed questions on the final. I went into the final with a C, I left with an A. That was still a bizarre class.
Curves happened only in a few classes where it made sense to grade competitively. In a class like algebra, it is in fact possible for everyone in the class to demonstrate perfect understanding of the material, and everyone should get an A. Most of the other times I ran into a curve were actually more of a normalization. Though I did have a calculus class, that had a common final pulled from questions written by each professor, that got graded on a curve, but that was after the final. The regular tests were not common, they were written by each teacher. My section had harder tests. Pretty much everyone in my 30 student section believed this, without a curve the highest grade anyone in our class had was a B (a low B at that). The final was worth 200 points. 210 students took the final. The top 15 scores were students in my section (I was 10th with a score of 190, I carried a sign wrong on one problem, and made a stupid mistake on another). 20 of the top 30 scores were from my section, the lowest anyone from our section got was a 150. We convinced the professor that, yes we did indeed know the material, and that his tests had been harder. The questions from my professor on the final were also the most missed questions on the final. I went into the final with a C, I left with an A. That was still a bizarre class.
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.