"... grades on _a_ curve."

[Eric Nielsen]

At first, in high school, I remember "are you (the teacher) going to
grade on a curve?" to essentially mean "give better grades than our raw
score indicates". But later,  I found that scores could be lifted "curved
up" or degraded "curved down" to fit some statistical model like a bell
curve. As these teachers informed us, curves can go both ways.

Then there were the "curve breakers". Students who did so well
that--unless their scores were treated as outliers and thrown out--their
performance would spoil other students' chances for grade enhancement.

En



On Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 11:37 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "... grades on _a_ curve."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Dec 26, 2013, at 11:24 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> > In my recollection (mid '60s), "grade on *a* curve" did effectively mean
> > "raise our grades according to some theory that we don't really
> understand
> > but which is obviously fairer than giving us what we deserve."
>
> Perfect gloss for the usage with which I'm familiar.  Except for the
> implication that we/they don't *deserve* a higher grade than the one
> assigned based on the answers submitted.  Different definitions of merit, I
> guess.
>
> >  It was much
> > more common than _on *the* curve_, which implies that the speaker has a
> > some notion of what sort of curve is involved.
> >
> whence the recent Clint Eastwood movie "Trouble with the Curve"
>
> LH
>
>
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 25, 2013 at 9:15 PM, Dave Hause <dwhause at cablemo.net> wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Dave Hause <dwhause at CABLEMO.NET>
> >> Subject:      Re: "... grades on _a_ curve."
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> I remember it as a request of instructors in the 60s and 70s, although
> the
> >> request actually meant something like "give us better grades than we
> >> earned"
> >> and not "give most of us Cs and flunk the same number as get As."
> >> Dave Hause
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at ALUM.MIT.EDU>
> >>
> >> Remember that bygone era when the expression was,
> >>
> >> "grade on _the_ [bell] curve"?
> >>
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> >
> >
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> truth."
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