COLUMN: Get past the curve

From Siona Litokin's, "Think Different," Fall '00 From Siona Litokin's, "Think Different," Fall '00Receiving a graded exam in college is a singular experience. The instructor hands out what amounts to somewhere between 30 and 100 percent of a student's grade and watches young brainiacs squirm.From Siona Litokin's, "Think Different," Fall '00Receiving a graded exam in college is a singular experience. The instructor hands out what amounts to somewhere between 30 and 100 percent of a student's grade and watches young brainiacs squirm. 93, 72, 48. Regardless of what number appears on the inside cover of your blue book, you turn your face expectantly to the blackboard. What does this grade mean?From Siona Litokin's, "Think Different," Fall '00Receiving a graded exam in college is a singular experience. The instructor hands out what amounts to somewhere between 30 and 100 percent of a student's grade and watches young brainiacs squirm. 93, 72, 48. Regardless of what number appears on the inside cover of your blue book, you turn your face expectantly to the blackboard. What does this grade mean? Two magic numbers answer the question -- the mean and standard deviation. The real evaluation of your ability becomes clear and the mighty curve tells you how smart you really are. The inflation-type curve can be initially enjoyable; most of us have known the sensation of jumping from despair to delight upon receiving a miserably failing grade and hearing that the mean was 32. Do teachers like these scenarios? Grade distributions like these prove that they are very smart, that 80 million years of schooling has given them an advantage over college dilettantes. Congratulations, professors. Of course, it also means that they failed to teach the average student half of what they presumably wanted them to know. Premeds rejoice in their science classes with grades that sound like the daily winter weather forecast, exultant that they escaped relatively unscathed from the professor's absurd test of God-knows-what. The upshot of these killer exams is overwhelming confusion: bewilderment while studying, frustration after taking the test and relief when hearing that the mean was abysmally low. The other type of curve is also painful. Introductory classes are notorious for their miniscule grade differentials and strict adherence to a tight curve. Young freshmen, beware the premature celebration upon seeing that 90 on your econ exam. If your small class averaged a 95 with a standard deviation of 2, then you are very, very stupid. No good comes from assigning grades based on previously defined percentages. Professors hate when nagging students arrive at office hours to debate a few measly deductions. But when the difference between five minutes of humiliation and stoic grade fatalism means a better GPA come May, it is almost crazy not to peddle for points. Professors say they are chained to the curve system, that a voice from on high commanded them that no more than 10 percent of a class can get an A. It is unfair, they say with a shrug, but not our fault. It is a shame that these professors do not properly voice these complaints to their superiors. Then there are those with the larger view: The world is based on a curve. Our performance in life will always be measured relative to our peers, so we might as well get used to it in Physical Chemistry. These burgeoning philosophers are quite right. But the college curve is too exact a science. Merit is awarded for the miniscule, while knowledge is relegated to the sidelines. The world at large seems equitable and forgiving by comparison. If policy demands that there be a statistically normal curve for class grades, let the exams speak for themselves. Tests should neither be so easy nor so difficult that all of the students are lumped together. A good exam will produce a wide grade distribution on its own -- don't impose it after the fact. In other words, students should feel able to satisfactorily prepare for tests if they so choose without worrying about their neighbor. Academic departments that have a policy of allocating grades by a strict curve should re-evaluate the issue. Ask what benefit is gained when a teacher consistently administers disproportionately difficult exams and then renders the nominal grades useless -- or how effective a point allocation can be when small standard deviations separate the achievers from the failures. Admittedly, I only write this now because I am currently at risk of being curved into failure in what could very well be the most moronic class in this school. Which means, by obvious extension, that I am currently the most moronic person in this school. But only relative to mean 94, standard deviation 3.