A Grade Apart

[Jonathan Lighter]

To _curve_ grades has been in my vocabulary since at least 1970.

  Not in OED. Nor is the less-than-transparent "grade on the [or a] curve."

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: A Grade Apart
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Yes, Jonathan, I've noticed that too! A disappointed student will plaintively inquire, "Are you going to curve the grades?"--by which she will mean, invariably, RAISE the grades. After it's pointed out that "curving" would entail adjusting the grades so that, in a class of 30 (for example), there might be 3 A's, 6 B's, 12 C's, 6 D's, and 3 F's, the enthusiasm for "curving" usually subsides.

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 06:49:50 -0700
>From: Jonathan Lighter
>
>In my experience, few high-school pupils and college underclassmen know exactly what "grade on _the_ curve" means. They think it means "give everybody a higher grade." (In fact, this misapprehension is so frequent that it is probably the most common meaning of the phrase.)
>
> "_A_ curve" follows since the assumption is that you're just boosting grades in some arbitrary way and not according to some specific statistical "curve."
>
> That's my theory.
>
> As for "hitting _a_ wall," that just gives you more walls to choose from.
>
> JL

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