@fallenchemist : Actually, hat you describe in STEM is kind of a typical curve honestly. For difficult courses, the professor or department has a target average or median course GPA in mind (I usually see B-/B in elite schools so like 2.6-3.0 is normal) and since exam and assignment means are on the low end, the grades are fit to some distribution leading to that. By default since means in such courses typically range from 50-70, the 90 is going to get an A grade (more precise teachers will do it based on standard deviation). The problem with these grading curves is:http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1101&context=ij-sotl
Performance will often be determined by luck and raw talent in the particular subject perhaps even more so than hard work. However, I notice that studying for a difficult STEM (or any course giving exams and assignments on the higher ends of cognitive complexity) course usually requires different study habits that are efficient and conducive to higher levels of thinking. Many students do not get this and think that studying longer to simply memorize more is sufficient (like you would for an extremely content heavy course that requires little deep level problem solving or analysis) so waste lots of time doing things that do not develop skills to tackle difficult problems.
Business school curves are stupid IMHO in the sense that they often do cause scores to be adjusted downward versus a normal scale because many courses consistently have high averages. They are full of non-quiz and exam assessments and unlike a difficult STEM course, the quiz and exam assessments are usually not the types where students must truly “guess” and derive answers for stuff they have not been directly exposed to before. They are typically straight forward factual recall, basic understanding, and algorithmic problem solving. The times where you will see major distributions occur is when exams require a decent level of mathematical reasoning and logic (and maybe long reading passages will challenge students like they do on many harder STEM exams). Instead of putting grades on such curves, they should maybe adjust the level of the course so it automatically fits the desired distribution (which on most b-school and econ. curves at top schools is like B/B+ in a core class and consistently B+ in a non) or courses that are by nature just bound to be simple should not be graded on the curve. Easier courses should not warrant competition especially when group work is involve. Then the positive dynamics of a group are hampered in such an environment.
*Don’t ask why I’m up now lol. Gotta go grade lots of papers soon 