I think this campus is too reliant on curved grades, including both students and professors. I believe every professor’s goal should be to grade their students without a curve, instead of readily or intentionally curving their students’ grades each semester. At the college I transferred from, there was only one class that I took where the professor curved the grades. At UW-Platteville, almost 50 percent of my classes have curved grades or components of my grades curved.

There are reasons professors curve grades. I speculate the main reasons include that the professor doesn’t cover basic concepts very well to prepare students for exams; the professor tests on difficult concepts when only basic concepts were covered in class; a large portion of the class is slacking off and are lax in studying and completing homework; the course curriculum is particularly difficult; or basically the professor thinks the class understands foundational concepts and progresses to more difficult ones, leaving the class behind. Ideally, the only reason grades should be curved is if the curriculum is particularly difficult.

If professors and students alike make it a goal to mostly get rid of the curve, then I feel that grading will be more accurate. More importantly, we, the students, would understand course material better and become more effective in our careers. Professors should do their best to make sure that the class understands the topics being covered, and attempt to test their students on the required curriculum that’s covered during class. Students, including myself need to participate more in class discussions and lectures and need to talk to professors outside of class when an assignment is not understood. Then our professors will understand how much class as a whole understands, therefore lecturing and testing us more effectively.

Phred Schunke
Civil Engineering