<p>If so, is it simply a curve? I wouldn't want to study a ton and have my grade dropped simply because there NEEDS to be that one person who doesn't pass the class or something.</p>
<p>It’s usually a curve…and in all of the classes I’ve taken, the curve has never HURT anyone. usually the averages on tests are around 50%.</p>
<p>So this means basically they curve upward and there’s no downward part of the bell curve?</p>
<p>The “downward part of the bell curve” part doesn’t make any sense. A bell curve will always have 50% lower than the median and 50% higher than the median. If the median was the lowest score, then the bell curve is definitely epic fail. </p>
<p>What reticulum is trying to say is that usually the class grades result in grade cutoffs being adjusted downwards so that professors can actually give A’s and B’s. Instead of all C’s, D’s, and F’s. </p>
<p>I’ve run into the occasional class where an A is 95+ but that’s extremely rare. Usually a curve leads to good news not bad.</p>
<p>Oh, I’m sorry, because my math teacher at my high school somehow thought it was good to reward those who got good grades and then allow the ones who got lower grades a lower grade, which made no sense to me, but it was explained it was a bell curve so we all assumed it was.</p>
<p>In most of my classes, curving leads to lower grade cutoffs and perhaps a left skewed distribution in that a majority of the grades are in the upper half. One reason for this is that many students who are in danger of failing will withdraw. Frequently, rather than punish the students who are left, these students’ grades will be prorated and factored into curve calculations by the professor, leading to the majority of grades ending up higher than the median and many “phantom grades” populating the lower half.</p>