What is a curve? In terms of exam grading.

The grade is based your rank among the class or whatever group is used for the calculation.

For example, in a group of 100:
10 will get get an E
20 will get a D
40 will get a C
20 will get a B
10 will get an A

If you graph it, it is a curve, with more people in the middle than on the extremes.

http://www.toddseal.com/rodin/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/bell_curve.gif

I never fully understood how it works, but in my experience, it’s generally a good thing because it often can mean extra points over your actual score, so it can bump your grade up.

I would reverse the order of Jaytkay’s grades with A at the top, but this raised another question with me. If more than 10 people have the same top grade which one doesn’t get the A? I’m looking forward to more answers!

When one of my teachers used this term, she meant it as in the grades are shifted upwards, so the highest scoring person gets a 100. Lets say that the highest scoring person got a 95. Grading on a curve make this person receive a 100, and everyone else’s score gets bumped up five points. Unlike what @jaytkay said, grading on a curve does not mean that the grade frequencies are altered to form a curve, it means that the bell curve is shifted upwards. The bell curve is the probability curve of the chance that a person will receive a certian score- most people are average, while some are smarter and some are dumber.

I think @PhiNotPi is right, I was mistaken.

Am I incorrectly mixing up bell curve distribution, which is often found when you find values, with a grading curve where you assign values?

Some do a curve basing the highest grade actually scored as the highest possible score…..therefore if the highest score is a 92 out of a 100 the rest of the class will be scored as if the highest possible score were a 92….im sure there are other ways this is done but this was the way I saw it done in the past