Potential Research Project topics

During the recent discussions in class about the potential research project topics, I decided to pursue the topic "Bell curve grading system in NUS : Good or bad?".

Why so? It's simply because it is the most important issue to any NUS student. It is close to heart and I am sure that any student has got something to say about it. Be it good or bad, we have to face it that the bell curve grading system can make or break your academic career. Now ask me again why I will like to do a research on that :)

The bell shaped curve grading system has always been a pretty controversial topic among students. Why so? Because sometimes students may feel that it is unfair that getting a 18/20 may warrant them just a B+ instead of an A. Or sometimes if the class has many many scholars, you will have to compete (being just an average singaporean student) against the best in the region, under the same bell curve. On the other hand, students may find it very useful because the bell curve prevents them from failing, or helps to to get their As. Hence, I personally feel that it will be useful to investigate further to find out about the sentiments of students.

First thing first, the aim of the project is to firstly, find out how students feel about the bell curve grading system. We will do so by selecting a random sample of 30 students from the 4 biggest faculties in NUS (namely Science, Engineering, Arts and social sciences and Business). There will be a series of about 15 questions that will aim at finding the most conclusive results to determine the sentiments of students. There will certainly be biasness in the results because of the small sample size. However, we will try to make sure that these errors will not compromise with the quality of our results.

Next, the objective of the project will be to inform the respective Deans of the faculties about our findings. In doing so, we hope to encourage certain changes to be implemented so that the welfare of our students can be improved.

An attitudinal survey is essential because we are researching a topic that deals with feelings and sentiments. Hence, we need students to write statements as to how they feel. It is not constructive to give multiple choice questions because not every student will have a feeling that fits into one of the choices.