Grading Curves: Why Do They Exist?

College is Quite Diverse

The United States of America is one of the most diverse nations in the world. The country recognizes approximately 337 languages that are spoken or written by the population of the United States. There is a reason that many people refer to the United States as the melting pot. Hundreds of cultures from different areas are amalgamated into one country here and it leads to a beautiful mix of diversity. Colleges and universities generally reflect this trend and you can find students from various backgrounds walking college campuses across the nation. Not only are there diverse students from America on college campuses; there are also exchange students from other countries who add to the culture of diversity and acceptance in colleges and universities.

Some People Learn and Test in Different Ways

The diversity in colleges and universities is not only limited to race, sexual orientation, or gender. The wide variety of students that attend different colleges and universities all have different personality traits which cause them to act in different ways and like many different things. This fact applies to their college experience and the way in which they interpret the information that professors present. Certain people are pictorial learners, meaning they retain information better from seeing graphs and pictures, while others are auditory learners and need to hear information to remember it well. Extending from their learning methods, some people can demonstrate their knowledge better in different ways. While multiple choice examinations may be the optimal way for some people to show their knowledge, others may prefer other methods that are not provided at colleges and universities.

Grading Curves in Colleges and Universities

Some courses at colleges and universities apply grading curves to the tests they administer. This means that professors adjust the grades of everyone taking exams to make the class average a certain score. Some reasons for this include:

• Maintaining a bell curve – The term ‘curving’ grades originates from the concept of a bell curve. This is the name for the graphical display of a normal distribution. A normal distribution is one commonly seen in nature, where a certain percentage of results (~68%) are within one standard deviation of the data and a certain percentage (95%) are within two standard deviations etc. Professors may curve tests in order to achieve a normal distribution where a certain percentage of students achieve an A, B, and the other grades.
• Compensating for testing error – The instructor may create an examination that is too easy or too difficult for his or her students. By curving the exam the professor can adjust for his or her error in creating the test. This is commonly seen in science courses where class averages are often in the D or F range and the professor simply curves the exam to account for this.

Are Grading Curves Fair?

There have been many debates regarding the fairness behind grading curves and their effectiveness. Many people state that simply creating exams that achieve an average grade of a C or above eliminates the need for curves and that they are just ‘covers’ for poor professors. Others state that it is difficult to create a perfect exam and curves allow professors to compensate for this. It is still an opinion-based argument which cannot have definitive conclusions.