Norm-Referenced Grading

indeed promotes competition to

the extent that students would rather
not help fellow students because by
doing so, the mean of the class would
be raised and consequently it would be
more difficult to get higher grades.
 ADVANTAGES
ADVANTAGES
AND
AND
DISADVANTAGES OF
DISADVANTAGES OF
NORM-REFERENCED
NORM-REFERENCED
 ADVANTAGES:

• They easy for instructors to use

• They work well in situations requiring
rigid differentiation among students
• They are generally appropriate in large
courses
DISADVANTAGE:

• An individual's grade is determined not

only by his/her achievements, but also
by the achievements of others.
A more subtle problem with norm-referenced
grading is that a strict correspondence between
the evaluation methods used and the course
instructional goals is not necessary to yield the
required grade distribution.

The specific learning objectives of norm-

referenced classes are often kept hidden.

Since, norm-referenced grading is replete with

problems, what alternatives have been
devised for grading the students?