Re: grading schemes

[Scott Goelzer <sgoelzer@EARTHLINK.NET>]

I prefer to give smaller exams (4-5 problems and essays), using a
traditional point system leaves the student with a poor grade if even one
problem does not go well.

Grading scheme I use to fix this is as follows:

test essays and problems are rated on a scaled of 0 - 5. Five is perfect,
Four is a B and so forth.

The formula I use is:

(raw points/#prob)*10+50

This rates a student's average performance per problem and allows a student
to do poorly on a problem without harsh penalty. This scheme has produced
nice distributions (it is difficult to get an A or an F).

My wife has used it successfully with her freshman classes. She counts 5
multiple choice questions as one problem.


Scott

PS:  Standing school policy is not to give a grade less than 50% without a
petition to the headmaster.




on 12/17/01 7:41 PM, Joe Heafner at heafnerj@VNET.NET wrote:

> Hi.
>
> How many of you assign (test) grades based on a "raw" score vs. some kind of
> "scaled" score? By "raw" score, I mean the ratio of points earned to total
> possible number of points. For example, if there are 60 possible points on a
> test and a students accumulates only 15 points, the raw score would be 25%,
> which is clearly a failing performance (isn't it?). How many of you take these
> raw scores and scale them somehow?
>
>
> Cheers,
> Joe
>
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