Replies

I pointed out that, with the fixed scale, it was possible for everyone to get an A. Without exception, they still always opted for the curve.

Whether this was a bad choice or not depends on the nature of the class. I had a statistics class in university (the hardcore, calculus-based one, not the dumbed-down one for business majors) with a professor who was obviously a brilliant mathematician but was an absolutely horrible teacher. We started out with, maybe, fifteen people in the class and by the end only had perhaps six, two of whom I believe failed the class, and the only reason the rest of passed was because he graded on a curve. Often, the highest score on a given test would be around 40%.

The guy was such a horrible teacher that I went to his office hours out of desperation a couple of times (normally I was very good at all math and never had to seek extra help) and I ended up more confused about the subject after talking to him than I was before.

Even the textbook he chose was horrible. I will never forget a particular problem that I had trouble with. I was determined to read and re-read the chapter until I got it, and the section that explained the problem read like this:

Begin the problem with terms X,Y,Z
Set the terms up thusly [insert ridiculously complicated equation here]
"and after much tedious calculation, we arrive at this answer:"

The part in quotes was the literal text of the chapter, and the "much tedious calculation" part was the part I couldn't figure out. That was the moment when I realized I would learn nothing from that class and went strictly into survival mode. Of course, I felt much more secure in my survival when I realized that everyone else was as bad off or worse than me, and, as I said, he graded on a curve. It's like the old saying: "I don't have to outrun the bear - I just have to outrun you."

Well, I didn’t say it was the wrong choice. I’m saying they picked on based on expectations of how they thought they would do in the course. It was often the case that several students would “wreck the curve” by scoring in the 90’s anyway. In a few instances, the curve actually ended up worse than a strict numerical scale would have.