Why not fix and publish the cutoffs of the curve beforehand?
In other words, why not skip the “curve” at all? It would be possible but a bit risky, especially with a resurrection policy. It is very reasonable in courses, where the outcome of exams can be precicely predicted (courses with a lot of memorizing material or routine problems like in early calculus courses), but not in courses, where the material is more complex and the exams are more conceptual. It can be even less predicted when projects are included. In multivariable calculus, it is more difficult to write exams with a predicted outcome than in a course like 1a. I aim for a 75 average score. For an over 80 percent average, the exam was too easy or too close to practice exams or exams from the previous years (which are assumed to be known) for an average below 70 percent, the exam was too hard, confusing or there were time constraints during the exam. Since our HW scores usually high, we end up with an over 80-85% average final score. In this course, we had quite a typical distributi
