Explain to a 0L how the law school curve works? Forum

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Nagster5

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Re: Explain to a 0L how the law school curve works?

Post by Nagster5 » Wed Jun 15, 2016 2:30 am

IWantT6 wrote:I'm confused as to how this works into class rank. Let's say there are 5 sections. Does each section have its own curve? If so, how is rank determined? If the top student in each section got an A, how would it be determined who is #1 v. #5?
Generally people take more than one class

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Clearly

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Re: Explain to a 0L how the law school curve works?

Post by Clearly » Wed Jun 15, 2016 2:35 am

Nagster5 wrote:
IWantT6 wrote:I'm confused as to how this works into class rank. Let's say there are 5 sections. Does each section have its own curve? If so, how is rank determined? If the top student in each section got an A, how would it be determined who is #1 v. #5?
Generally people take more than one class
:lol:

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cavalier1138

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Re: Explain to a 0L how the law school curve works?

Post by cavalier1138 » Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:14 am

Nagster5 wrote:
IWantT6 wrote:I'm confused as to how this works into class rank. Let's say there are 5 sections. Does each section have its own curve? If so, how is rank determined? If the top student in each section got an A, how would it be determined who is #1 v. #5?
Generally people take more than one class
Cute, but their question actually makes more sense than that.

If I'm at a school with five sections, and each section takes the same core classes (some with different teachers, etc.), how does the overall class curve work out? Are class grades curved to the section and are all the data aggregated into a larger class curve? Or is there just a class-wide curve?

People taking more than one class is irrelevant if the top students in each section are all getting A's in each of their classes.

GreenEggs

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Re: Explain to a 0L how the law school curve works?

Post by GreenEggs » Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:41 am

IWantT6 wrote:I'm confused as to how this works into class rank. Let's say there are 5 sections. Does each section have its own curve? If so, how is rank determined? If the top student in each section got an A, how would it be determined who is #1 v. #5?
Each section is graded independently, but they all apply the same curve (10% As, 20% A-s, etc.) for the individual section.

with the curve I just gave, let's say there's 100 kids in each section, and let's say 10 people in each section got an A in all their classes, then getting all As would put you in the top 10%
Last edited by GreenEggs on Fri Jan 26, 2018 9:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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lymenheimer

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Re: Explain to a 0L how the law school curve works?

Post by lymenheimer » Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:26 am

DCfilterDC wrote:
IWantT6 wrote:I'm confused as to how this works into class rank. Let's say there are 5 sections. Does each section have its own curve? If so, how is rank determined? If the top student in each section got an A, how would it be determined who is #1 v. #5?
Each section is graded independently, but they all apply the same curve (10% As, 20% A-s, etc.) for the individual section.

with the curve I just gave, let's say there's 100 kids in each section, and let's say 10 people in each section got an A in all their classes, then getting all As would put you in the top 10%
Obviously you didn't read the question. In that scenario, the most important question is: "who would be number 1?" :roll:

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IWantT6

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Re: Explain to a 0L how the law school curve works?

Post by IWantT6 » Fri Jun 17, 2016 12:58 am

cavalier1138 wrote:
Nagster5 wrote:
IWantT6 wrote:I'm confused as to how this works into class rank. Let's say there are 5 sections. Does each section have its own curve? If so, how is rank determined? If the top student in each section got an A, how would it be determined who is #1 v. #5?
Generally people take more than one class
Cute, but their question actually makes more sense than that.

If I'm at a school with five sections, and each section takes the same core classes (some with different teachers, etc.), how does the overall class curve work out? Are class grades curved to the section and are all the data aggregated into a larger class curve? Or is there just a class-wide curve?

People taking more than one class is irrelevant if the top students in each section are all getting A's in each of their classes.
Exactly.
lymenheimer wrote:
DCfilterDC wrote:
IWantT6 wrote:I'm confused as to how this works into class rank. Let's say there are 5 sections. Does each section have its own curve? If so, how is rank determined? If the top student in each section got an A, how would it be determined who is #1 v. #5?
Each section is graded independently, but they all apply the same curve (10% As, 20% A-s, etc.) for the individual section.

with the curve I just gave, let's say there's 100 kids in each section, and let's say 10 people in each section got an A in all their classes, then getting all As would put you in the top 10%
Obviously you didn't read the question. In that scenario, the most important question is: "who would be number 1?" :roll:
+1

So I'm guessing that there is no way to differentiate between 1-5 if everyone has all A's, you would just be classified as top X%?

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KD35

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Re: Explain to a 0L how the law school curve works?

Post by KD35 » Fri Jun 17, 2016 1:05 am

IWantT6 wrote:
cavalier1138 wrote:
Nagster5 wrote:
IWantT6 wrote:I'm confused as to how this works into class rank. Let's say there are 5 sections. Does each section have its own curve? If so, how is rank determined? If the top student in each section got an A, how would it be determined who is #1 v. #5?
Generally people take more than one class
Cute, but their question actually makes more sense than that.

If I'm at a school with five sections, and each section takes the same core classes (some with different teachers, etc.), how does the overall class curve work out? Are class grades curved to the section and are all the data aggregated into a larger class curve? Or is there just a class-wide curve?

People taking more than one class is irrelevant if the top students in each section are all getting A's in each of their classes.
Exactly.
lymenheimer wrote:
DCfilterDC wrote:
IWantT6 wrote:I'm confused as to how this works into class rank. Let's say there are 5 sections. Does each section have its own curve? If so, how is rank determined? If the top student in each section got an A, how would it be determined who is #1 v. #5?
Each section is graded independently, but they all apply the same curve (10% As, 20% A-s, etc.) for the individual section.

with the curve I just gave, let's say there's 100 kids in each section, and let's say 10 people in each section got an A in all their classes, then getting all As would put you in the top 10%
Obviously you didn't read the question. In that scenario, the most important question is: "who would be number 1?" :roll:
+1

So I'm guessing that there is no way to differentiate between 1-5 if everyone has all A's, you would just be classified as top X%?
At least at the schools I know, if you are tied then you do it like law school rankings. So if the first three people are tied, they are all listed as #1. Then the 4th person is 4. This is also a huge assumption that the same people will get universally the same grade in each class. There's definitely a chance, but the odds of this happening is lower than 0Ls tend to think.

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star fox

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Re: Explain to a 0L how the law school curve works?

Post by star fox » Wed Jun 29, 2016 1:24 am

The person with the highest GPA is #1

Hope this helps!

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thesealocust

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Re: Explain to a 0L how the law school curve works?

Post by thesealocust » Fri Jul 01, 2016 1:07 pm

KD35 wrote:At least at the schools I know, if you are tied then you do it like law school rankings. So if the first three people are tied, they are all listed as #1. Then the 4th person is 4. This is also a huge assumption that the same people will get universally the same grade in each class. There's definitely a chance, but the odds of this happening is lower than 0Ls tend to think.
Exactly this. There is enough randomness in people's grades for there to not be many ties, but it definitely happens (amusingly, I was exactly tied for GPA with another student after my first year).

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