In grade school, I remember my teachers always seemed to say "this year's class is behind where the other classes were on this." Maybe they were trying to boost our egos?
I usually post the distribution. When it's a nice bell shaped distribution centered on a reasonable score, it discourages people from complaining that the exam itself was flawed somehow, and that's why they did poorly.
You just print out a copy of the bell curve or you make a new one for each test?
AIHMHB, Heebie U students are the least whiny students I've ever encountered. It's common for me to go the entire year without having someone complain about their grade. They'll want to understand their mistakes, sometimes, but unless it's a cut-and-dried grading mistake, they never question my judgment.
It's tempting to attribute it to being a red state or something, I have no idea. Partly it's attributable to being math, where right answers and wrong answers are clean and identifiable.
You were pregnant for like six years in a row. Maybe they knew enough not to whine at the pregnant woman?
3: I suppose if I just printed out an ideal bell curve every time, the way off the curve outliers wouldn't feel so bad.* Not that it would help with their actual grades.
*Not that there are names on the graph, of course. But still...
When I was in school, people would ask the teacher "Is this being graded on the curve?" Invariably the teacher would respond, "You really wouldn't want that."
Eventually I took statistics and was enlightened.
7
I was in a class actually graded on a curve, and I remember how upset everyone was in the lower half of the distribution when their grades were all bumped down half a letter grade.
But I would just stand in silence for a good minute at the front of the class, and then say "you all disappoint me," before handing the tests back in silence. The students who get above a C will feel pleasantly surprised.
Also, I was at a colloquium, and an Austrian professor started her question with, "I did not enjoy this talk."
Later, I was talking about it with some friends, and an Austrian friend interjected that it was probably meant as a compliment, meaning the talk was on a serious and weighty, i.e. unenjoyable, topic.
I always post the actual grade distribution, and describe it factually. If the class has been in a stable form for a while, I will post the grade distribution for this year and compare it to the cumulative distribution for the past several years. The latter is generally a nice smooth bell curve. The exception is the formal logic courses, which often tend to a U shaped distribution.
In part I do this for the reasons given in 2: it is evidence that the test is fair. Also it is just useful for students to have objective data in assessing their performance. I try to say chipper things about moving your grade from one part of the distribution to the other, especially with the U shaped distributions. But basically we are all adults, and should be able to handle data about ourselves.
I try to say chipper things about moving your grade from one part of the distribution to the other...
"If 50% of the class suddenly becomes completely stupid, you'll be in the middle of the distribution."
Gah. Is this true? I always tells my students when the class does well -- mostly, true, because I'm so happy (I love it when students learn), but also because I think (well, I *did* think!) students would want to know.
I always give a breakdown of the grades, this many A's, this many Bs, top grade, and so on.
But yeah, if this is actually hurting class morale, maybe I should quit.
an Austrian professor started her question with, "I did not enjoy this talk."
My hero. From now on, I'm calling my grumpy-after-sitting-through-a-shitty-talk persona "Austrian Professor." I choose to disregard the more charitable interpretation offered by your spoilsport friend.
I was just that austrian prof in a review for a journal. refereeing a very sloppy article on a beautiful saturday morning makes me grumpy.