<p>I'm asking this here because I'm majoring in engineering.</p>
<p>So, I completely understand how normal distribution works. My question is: do professors curve down if most grades are above average? I can understand curving up, especially is 90% of the class is averaging 40% and everyone would fail otherwise. I can't, however, understand why one would curve the grades down. Does this happen at most schools if it even happens? Or just top schools? Or what?</p>
<p>I haven't had a professor do this yet, but then again I'm at the CC still, right now, so that may make a difference.</p>
<p>At community college almost all of my professors straight-graded, but they usually build in some opportunities for extra credit. This semester our Physics 2 professor added a fixed bonus to a few exams to bring the average up.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of a professor that would curve down, but its possible. If they were to do that, it would almost certainly be in the syllabus.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of a professor curving down. I am sure there are some jerks somewhere, but I have never experienced it or heard from anyone who has.</p>
<p>It’s never happened to me, but it very well can happen if the professor takes pleasure in failing most of the class.
Usually the point of a curve is to fail only part of a very large class because the material is very difficult to get an A in by the normal scale.</p>
<p>It’s happened in several of my classes.
For example, I had one where by the end of the semester we learned that you needed a 96 to get an A-. And there was no extra credit.</p>