“At the end of the semester, the total scores for all students will be arranged in numerical order, the score that corresponds to the 99th percentile (S99) will be determined, and then letter grades will be
assigned based on this percentile score as follows:
A: Total Score ≥ 0.90 x S99
B: 0.80 x S99 ≤ Total Score < 0.90 x S99
C: 0.70 x S99 ≤ Total Score < 0.80 x S99
D: 0.60 x S99 ≤ Total Score < 0.70 x S99
F: Total Score < 0.60 x S99 or if you fail to complete 10 of the 12 lab
projects”
This is the explanation the department of chemistry for my college gives. But I don’t understand, so please explain it to me like I’m five.
In: Mathematics
This seems like a weird version of curved grading. Basically, the cut points for grades depend on what the 99th percentile is- to make this easy, if there are 100 people in the class, the 99th percentile is highest grade. If there are 300 people, the 99th percentile is the average of the top three grades.
Cut points are determined from this grade. For example, if the 99th percentile is a 100, then an A= 100 *0.9= 90%, a B=100 *0.8=80%, and so on.
If the 99th percentile is a 93, then an A=93 * 0.9=83.7, a B=93 * 0.8=74.4, and so on.
Realistically, in a college class, there’s probably at least one or two people who will get 98-100 percent on everything, so it’s likely the grading scale will be the common intervals, but in case the class is super difficult, this will adjust everyone’s grades up a bit.
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