grading bell curve

Posted by Bill on November 17, 2000 7:59 PM

I'm sure that this is a newbie question, but I can't do it! How do I take my students grades and convert them into 1. how many in each grade category (A,B+,B, etc.) and then turn that into a bell curve. I was able to do it, but with a ridiculous number of columns.

Thanks,

Bill

Posted by Baki on November 20, 2000 1:49 PM

Try the NORMDIST function, which returns the normal cumulative distribution for the specified mean and standard deviation

example:
paste the grades in the C column and use the following formula in the D column.

+NORMDIST(C1,+AVERAGE(C:C),+STDEV(C:C),TRUE)

The A, B+, B, C+,..... grades can be generated using the following equation in the E column.
=IF(D2="","", IF(D2>=0.85,"A", IF(D2>=0.75,"B+", IF(D2>=0.55,"B", IF(D2>=0.5,"C+", IF(D2>=0.3,"C", IF(D2>=0.15,"D","F")))))))

obviously the grade limits in the last equation can be adjusted to your own needs.

Baki