A professor shouldn't have to curve an exam, amirite?

Sometimes professors are good, but have no concept of what a "reasonable" exam is. Students might have a 100% homework average, but being able to solve problems over a week with help doesn't mean they can do the same hard problems in a 1 hour time span alone

by Next_Gap 1 week ago

Yup. I used to teach high school science and math, and it took me a while to calibrate my tests. When you already know how to do something, especially if you had it in your mind as you were setting up the paper, you can't realistically judge how long it will take kids.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Grading curves usually do a good job of evening out the disparity in teaching styles, experience and ability either evolving curriculums

by Anonymous 1 week ago

this just isn't a reasonable opinion to have if you've taken any harder math/physics classes imo

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I don't understand why curving a test is bad. You get the greatest dynamic range if the test grades follow a normal distribution centered around 50%. If you design your test around that and curve the resulting grades then you get the most information out of the test grades and then compress it for the purposes of course grading. If you design the test so that the average student gets a 75% then it's harder to separate out the understanding of the upper half of the students since they're all getting the vast majority of the test correct.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

that's*

by maximilliandurg 1 week ago

ha, missed one of his errors

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Don't know if that's unpopular, but I agree

by river38 1 week ago

I appreciate you explaining! I can see how it can be taken that way. Thank you for explaining your view point on this! :)

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I'm not sure OP understands the concept of a normal distribution. Weird take.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

In higher education, when you're learning complex concepts in quick succession, it's not a bad thing necessarily to only get half of the questions right. It pushes your learning and provides feedback on what students miss. In order not to penalize students for rigorous work, the test grades are often normalized around a designated average. This is fair. If you're in university and most students get B's and A's unaided, you're not pushing their learning. It should be hard to get your degree with an A average.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Completely in agreement. The grade you get is the grade you earned no matter what grades anyone else in the class received.

by Lori58 1 week ago

I agree but I was always happy to benefit from the curve. Nah professor, you just suck at either teaching or making exams. Don't put your failures on the students.

by Intelligent_Newt 1 week ago