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Comment by bpyne | Hacker News Reader

I've never understood the use of "curves". Secondary ed doesn't use them as far as my experience goes. Intuitively, it seems like they're harmful because they leave students off-kilter, not knowing whether or not they understand the material. Confidence, or at least not being nervous, is such a key in learning.

What purpose are they perceived to serve?

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Curves make your grade less dependent upon the difficulty of the tests, but more dependent upon the academic ability of your cohort.

The first thing it does is make it easier on a teacher. Making a test where most people won't get 100% and then curving is much easier than making a test where most people fall into the 60-100% range.

I had a midterm on which the second highest grade was in the 40s. The very junior professor certainly would not have been allowed to fail all but 1 student.

Curves sound like a tool for damage control while professors learn how to teach. It seems like it would be better to require professors to have a basic certification in Education so they'd know how to teach better. Teaching well is something you just can't pick up easily on the fly.

On every 55% average exam I've had, there would still be 1 or two students with near perfect scores. A bell curve is better to grade vs. one where you let everyone get an 85-90% and chop off the tail to the right of your curve. An ochem prof's job isn't to make you into a walking ochem textbook, it's to challenge you to think about problem solving using what you've learned from studying ochem, it should be hard. It really doesn't matter if you got a 55% anyway if the curve puts you at a B.

Professors not knowing how to teach is common for research universities in the US. Their main job is research, and teaching is just something they do on the side.

Yes, my understanding is the same except that professors are usually required to teach. My best professor in grad school, in terms of teaching ability, had a wife who was a high school teacher. He was head and shoulders above everyone else in the department. He clearly learned methods of teaching from her. He also had active research projects.

I'm a software engineer. I also coach girls basketball at the youth level in my after-work time. I read about teaching methods, how people learn, and I talk with teachers whenever I can. Often they can help me get difficult lessons across to the girls.

It's fine for professors to be great researchers. But, if they have to teach as part of it, they should strive to be good at it.

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