Grading on a curve

Okay kiddo, today we’ll learn about grading on a curve. Imagine that you and your friends take a test and you all get different scores. If your teacher gave everyone a grade based on their actual score, the smartest student in the class would get an A and the less smart students would get Bs, Cs, Ds or even Fs. But, grading on a curve is like making it fair for everyone.

You see, instead of using the actual score, the teacher uses the overall performance of the whole class to grade everyone. The teacher looks at all the scores, adds them up, and then calculates the average score. Let's say the average score is a C, which means the majority of the class got that grade.

The teacher then looks at the performance of the students and assigns grades based on how they compare to the average. For example, a student who got a score that is much higher than the average may get an A while a student who got a score lower than the average will get a D, even if it didn't really affect his actual score. That way, it’s more fair because everyone will be graded based on the same standard.

Grading on a curve is often used in college because it can be a more accurate way of measuring a student's performance, but it can make things a little unpredictable because you won't know what grade you'll get until the teacher calculates the results. Does that make sense? Good job!