Is it hard to get an A if a teacher grades on a curve rather than the traditional grading scale?

Question

Im going to be in college next year. Some people are telling that college teachers grade on a curve. From what I have found out about it, it sounds impossible to get an A in the class.

Answer 1

I am not sure why that would be impossible. Grading on a curve means that you credit EVERY student with a certain amount of points. Usually, it means if the best paper had- for example- 5 questions wrong, then the teacher gives everyone an extra 5 points. So it should be easier to get an A.

There are other ways to grade on a curve, but they all basically have the same result. Students end up with a better score than they would have if the assignment were graded on a straight 100 scale.

Answer 2

Not all college professors grade on a curve.  In fact, very few do use a real curve.  In fact, if a professor were to use a curve, it could either help or hurt a student get an A, depending on how tough the assignments were.  It would ensure that SOMEONE would get an A, even if no one in the class had a score above a 70 or 80, so if the individual grades were tough, it could make it easier to get an A than it would be otherwise.  On the other hand, if the assignments were easy, and everyone had high scores on individual assignments, a curve would make it harder to get an A, since only a limited percentage of students, rather than everyone with a score above 90 or so, would get an A.  It might mean that instead of half the class getting As, only one or two would get one.

Answer 3

With the bell curve, only 10% of the students get an A (20% B, 50% C, 20% D and 10% F).  The only times I've ever used a curve, I've only curved enough that the top one or two students got an A.  

On a regularly graded test, if the students are well prepared (shared responsibility of the teacher and students), then an unlimited number of students *could* get an A.

I don't think I had any college professors who always graded on a curve, although some might have on occasion if the test was particularly difficult.  

Just keep in mind that there are always a lot of rumors out there - take them all with a grain of salt.  Half the people telling you this stuff probably haven't ever taken a college class themselves, right?  So ignore them! lol

Answer 4

If you're referring to the Bell Curve, then yeah. It's pretty freaking tough to get an A in a class with a Bell Curve. Honestly, if you know the teacher grades like that, take a different professor.