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As we've tried to emphasize -- over and over again, seriously -- this is but one example of a curve. Curves vary hugely from school to school to school and within schools from professor to professor to professor and even class to class to class.</p>
<p>A very "hard" curve at Duke was generally considered one where 25% of students were each given A's, B's, C's, and D's.
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<p>I think a far better question is why do grade curves have to vary so much? By having grades vary to such a degree, you're degrading the value of the grade as a signal to the med-school adcoms. I'm sure that some people who got C's in a particular class at a particularly difficult class with a particularly difficult prof actually know more and worked harder than others who got A's in the same subject, but at different schools and with easier profs. Heck, this is probably true even within the SAME school, but with different profs. </p>
<p>What I think med-school adcoms should do is to simply stop using grades at all, and just weight the MCAT more heavily. If nothing else, at least the MCAT is fair. You don't have to worry about different profs grading you with different curves. Granted, the current MCAT is not as comprehensive as it needs to be, so then the answer would be to just design a better (probably longer) MCAT. If nothing else, it would be better than the current system where students are justifiably concerned that they may lose a med-school seat to somebody else who is worse than they are, but just happened to benefit from easier grading.</p>