Bummed out by the Class Test 4 scores, I decided to have a quick look at the overall score for the class tests (I take the best 2 of 4). This usually cheers me up. And indeed it did. The distribution is: A, 21; A-, 81; B+, 36; B, 68; B-, 35; C+, 24; C, 29, D, 12; Fails, 9.

So about a third of the class are on some type of A. That seems about right to me.

I wonder why that feels about right. There are no guidelines on this whatsoever. We professors set the bar as high as we want. How high to set the bar is the hardest problem in Higher Education and everyone avoids it like the plague. I suppose the reason it cheers me up to have a third of my students on an A is that no individual test turned up that many A’s. My take-the-top-two-test-grades-of-four algorithm allows improvement and fluctuating performance. So I get to challenge the students and many get well rewarded. No trade-off.

Another observation: four students got a overall class test score of 100%. None of those got 100% in all four tests. I think that is good. Even those attaining the very highest scores still have something to reach for. I feel better about that too.