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.
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3 comments:
It would have also been interesting to find out how many students actually knew about the bell curve system before your survey. I'm sure a sizeable proportion of the student population never even consider the system by which marks are allocated, particularly the Freshmen. Certainly, that was the case in my day but then perhaps students are less passive,trusting recipients of education and more questioning, a quality which is more necessary in the 2008 world.
Teacher-Fiona
Hi Yu Yin!
The bell curve system has been a controversial issue for years and NUSSU has sent emails or announcements explaining the bell curve.
I feel that the bell curve has placed many students at a disadvantage, since the top-ranking students are usually the scholars who have studied the topics before in their home country, which is unfair for students who are exposed to the topics for the first time. Furthermore, to do well no longer means obtaining a high score for the tests and examinations. In a class of elites, students have to score near to 100 percent to ensure a good grade.
On the other hand, the system prevents one from failing when the examination paper is very difficult and the average mark is very low.
The bell curve system has its pros and cons and hopefully, NUS will be able to come up with a system that benefits all students.
Hello Yu Yin,
I fully empathise with your sentiments about the bell shape grading curve. I have found myself many a time looking frantically for the 'mean' of the bell shape curve (even when i scored near to full mearks) when the results of my tests were released hoping that i was at the 75th percentile. Indeed the rat race to be at the 'right side of the curve'(upper 50%) , as many NUS students put it, has lead to alot of unnecessary stress and pressure to perform extremely well. This is especially so when the class group is very large as a difference of 1 mark can equate to a difference in 1 grade.
However, the bell curve has also protected many students from unreasonably hard exam papers when more than 50% of the students score below 50% of the total grade. I remember during my freshman year, there was a test for Organic Chemistry (CM1121) and the mean grade was 36.9%! Thus i was much releaved when i scored 42%.
Thus, I believe this research topic would be of much help to the student population in NUS.
Hui Ming
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