Grading curve calculator
Grading curve calculator
Apply one of four stated curves to a set of marks and see the average, highest and lowest afterwards.
How this is calculated
Add: new mark = mark + points. Multiply: new mark = mark x factor. Square root: new mark = 10 x square root of mark, which is defined for a 100-mark paper. Set top to: new mark = mark + ( target top - highest mark ), so the highest mark lands on the target. The page reports the mean and the range after the curve and does not round the marks.
- A curve changes the marks, not the work. Whether one is allowed, which curve a board permits and whether a moderated mark has to be reported on the original paper are rules of the examining body, and this page does not know them.
- The square-root curve is shown because it appears in many handbooks, but it assumes a paper marked out of 100. On a paper with a different maximum it will produce a scale that does not match the paper, which is why the maximum is a field and the result is checked against it.
Four stated curves applied to a set of marks, with the before and after means and the range afterwards.
A curve is a rule applied to every mark, and the rule is on the page
Add points shifts every mark by the same amount. Multiply scales every mark by a factor. The square-root curve maps a mark out of 100 through ten times its square root, which lifts low marks more than high ones. Set top to places the highest mark on a target and shifts the rest by the same amount. Each is arithmetic on the rows you enter, and each is printed in full so the scale can be checked rather than trusted.
The paper maximum is what makes the check meaningful. If any curved mark exceeds the maximum you enter, the page says so, because a curve that takes a paper past its own maximum produces a mark the result rule may not accept. Whether a board permits a curve, which one it permits and how a moderated mark is reported are rules of the examining body, not of the arithmetic.
Questions readers ask
Is a curve fair?
That is a policy question. The page can tell you what each curve does to the marks; it cannot tell you whether raising every score, or lifting the lowest more than the highest, is the right response to a paper. That decision belongs to a board or a department, and its rule decides which curve, if any, applies.
Why does the square-root curve assume a paper out of 100?
Because ten times the square root of 100 is 100, which is what makes it a curve on a percentage scale. Applied to a paper out of 50 it produces marks that do not match the paper’s maximum, which is why the maximum is a field and is checked.
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