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The only instance where the separation is clear is an issue spotter, where the A+ answer has a paragraph talking about something an A answer doesn't even flag.

But other than that, it's hard to tell. Yet profs still presumably grade exams by awarding/deducting points, where the top exam in the class gets say 75pts/100. Then all the 70-73s get As, w/ just 1 or 2 A+s.

Would it be too uncouth to just ask the prof how she awards the extra 2pts that separates an A+ from the As?

The difference is whatever keeps you up at night.

They'll just look at you funny. An A+ got either (1) the most points on the exam, or (2) was among a small number of exams that all got more points than all of the other exams.

It's curved. Points are awarded for analysis. Do more analysis. There is no objective difference, no perfect answer, and usually a theoretically unlimited number of points. The A+ exam may have missed points that the A exams got, but just picked up more elsewhere.

To give you one real - but admittedly extreme - example, from a real exam:

Receiving 22 points was enough for an A-. The second highest scoring exam received 45 points. The highest score was 63 points.

thesealocust wrote:They'll just look at you funny. An A+ got either (1) the most points on the exam, or (2) was among a small number of exams that all got more points than all of the other exams.

It's curved. Points are awarded for analysis. Do more analysis. There is no objective difference, no perfect answer, and usually a theoretically unlimited number of points. The A+ exam may have missed points that the A exams got, but just picked up more elsewhere.

To give you one real - but admittedly extreme - example, from a real exam:

Receiving 22 points was enough for an A-. The second highest scoring exam received 45 points. The highest score was 63 points.

This is why longer is generally better right

Yep. You can do plenty good with density though, there's hardly a 1-to-1 correlation of length and grade. And sometimes you have word limits, so you're actually better off making sure your writing is nimble but concise than you are mastering typeracer.

A while back, a professor posted data that showed basically no correlation between length and grade once you got past a very low/very short threshold (truly short exams correlated with poor performance)

DreamShake94 wrote:The only instance where the separation is clear is an issue spotter, where the A+ answer has a paragraph talking about something an A answer doesn't even flag.

But other than that, it's hard to tell. Yet profs still presumably grade exams by awarding/deducting points, where the top exam in the class gets say 75pts/100. Then all the 70-73s get As, w/ just 1 or 2 A+s.

Would it be too uncouth to just ask the prof how she awards the extra 2pts that separates an A+ from the As?

She'd probably just tell you that the A+ earned 2 more points. You'd probably have better luck asking what kind of answer earns a top grade in her class. Or just listening to thesealocust.

(For another perverse example, I know someone who got 95 out of 100 on a multiple choice final, which, placed on the curve, translated into a B.)

Had a 1L professor who scored the class's lone A+ exam at 151/150 because the student spotted an issue the professor didn't even spot.