Grading system and curves

[Gabby]

Do you guys have curved exams/low averages? We've had two exams so far with the average a 70% and 71% respectively. We just took another exam yesterday and based on talking to my classmates, I'm guessing the average will be comparable. It's kind of weird that the average is so low (<70 is failing).

So our school curves the average to 80%. But a few of my MS1 friends at other schools don't have curves and their averages usually hover in the mid-80s. Just trying to get a feel for how things work at other schools.

What are your exam averages and do your schools curve?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[ChiDO]

The only thing that will happen with our exams is that some questions may get double keyed or dropped if there were problems with the question/answers. Usually 1-2 questions for every 100 questions on a test.

As for "curving" a 72% avg to 80%....ya right. Wish I went to your school. Our class averages have been as low as 71 to as high as 90. Both I would say majority are low 80s high 70s.

Think our Cardio avgs were like 80-85; while our neuro avgs were like 70-75.

 

[Gabby]

The only thing that will happen with our exams is that some questions may get double keyed or dropped if there were problems with the question/answers. Usually 1-2 questions for every 100 questions on a test.

As for "curving" a 72% avg to 80%....ya right. Wish I went to your school. Our class averages have been as low as 71 to as high as 90. Both I would say majority are low 80s high 70s.

Think our Cardio avgs were like 80-85; while our neuro avgs were like 70-75.

Yeah but if we had an average of 90% that would be curved down to 80% I think. I'd rather have a curve going up than down.

 

[ChiDO]

Yeah but if we had an average of 90% that would be curved down to 80% I think. I'd rather have a curve going up than down.

The 90 avg happens in "blow-off" classes. Our main system classes, cardio has been our highest avg...the rest have been around 80 or below.

 

[greatnt249]

Do you guys have curved exams/low averages? We've had two exams so far with the average a 70% and 71% respectively. We just took another exam yesterday and based on talking to my classmates, I'm guessing the average will be comparable. It's kind of weird that the average is so low (<70 is failing).

So our school curves the average to 80%. But a few of my MS1 friends at other schools don't have curves and their averages usually hover in the mid-80s. Just trying to get a feel for how things work at other schools.

What are your exam averages and do your schools curve?

Ha, I wish we even had much of a curve to speak of. We just finished our anatomy block and the (about a 2-point curve) grade cutoff was as follows:

Honors: 95-99
High Pass: 92-94
Pass: above 69

It's pretty interesting to note that the distribution for HP is narrower than the distribution for H.

Kind of wondering what I was missing out on when the midterm average was an ~89 (uncurved) and the final average was ~88 (curved up about 2 points), because by no means did I think our anatomy block was "easy."

 

[Gabby]

This is helpful. If the average is in the mid or upper 80s, a curve isn't necessary, is it? I think that might be a better system than having an average of 70 and then curving.

 

[xanthomondo]

Honors: 95-99
High Pass: 92-94
Pass: above 69

It's pretty interesting to note that the distribution for HP is narrower than the distribution for H.

That's how it always is: the top 10% of the class = honors and the next 10% = HP. If you think about a bell curve is shaped it makes sense (more people within that 3 point margin as there are in the 6 point margin)

 

[greatnt249]

That's how it always is: the top 10% of the class = honors and the next 10% = HP. If you think about a bell curve is shaped it makes sense (more people within that 3 point margin as there are in the 6 point margin)

Fact of the matter is that the class averages (unweighted) for our anatomy block were WAY higher than any average I had seen coming out of undergrad. When you're used to seeing an average between high 70s to low 80s, seeing that the class average was an 89 (in a class of almost 200), it throws you back a bit.