Grading on a Curve

Discussions center on controversies around grading practices in university classes, particularly curving grades to adjust for low averages or cheating, fairness issues, grade inflation, and alternatives like pass/fail or separating teaching from grading.

📉 Falling 0.3x Politics & Society
4,954
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#3357
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
17
2008
44
2009
139
2010
193
2011
276
2012
145
2013
271
2014
143
2015
289
2016
196
2017
238
2018
279
2019
368
2020
349
2021
363
2022
603
2023
392
2024
317
2025
308
2026
24

Keywords

CS e.g jseliger.com US GP HN HMC GPA NO WITHDRAW grades grading students grade curve class student prof teacher homework

Sample Comments

karmakaze Aug 22, 2024 View on HN

Metagame it. Instead of ensuring that the largest number of students get credit, ensure that none do for fairness. Bell curve adjustment of grades will nullify the question.

lainga Sep 14, 2023 View on HN

Ah... I had professors who graded like that

serf Dec 15, 2025 View on HN

something still changed; i've been in classes where the bulk of the students got bad grades and that never stopped the instructor from handing them out.if we use grades as a yardstick for elementary progress and efficacy then you'd think it would be a bigger deal if a single cog in the system decided to systematically add inaccuracy to the measure simply because a failing student irks them.

tonymet Feb 15, 2024 View on HN

i would hire a student to do a regression on your grading over the past few years and see if that's true

jedberg Mar 11, 2020 View on HN

Hopefully everything is graded on a curve to at least minimize the performance effects

engineer_22 Oct 3, 2022 View on HN

It seems to be a pervasive attitude.Today a group of my colleagues received their grades on a linear algebra test. The class average was below the failing mark. One of my acquaintances remarked: "The professor is going to have to do something about these grades, they can't fail the whole class!"Maybe it's the class that should do something about the grades...

hackernewds May 29, 2022 View on HN

Students will cheat. the solve is to get rid of curving classes in this manner

xmodem Nov 21, 2022 View on HN

I would caution against grading on a curve

timcederman Nov 6, 2012 View on HN

You're suggesting folks should grade on a curve?

quickben Dec 29, 2018 View on HN

Whats the point of grading if there are repeats only for some?