Rescale

R

Rappy

I need to rescale student scores to reduce the fail rate, for example if our
exam failure rate exceeds 25% (ie 25% of students receive exam score of less
than 50%) then I need to amend the pass score so that at least 75% of
students have passed. How can I acheive this using Excel? Any help would be
appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Tomai
 
R

Ragdyer

If your systems were in force for my generation, you'd probably never
receive an answer here.
Nobody would be smart enough to populate this type of forum!
 
M

Max

Please do not multi-post

I've given a suggestion to your post in:
microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions
 
C

CLR

Hear hear RD,...............I read the post but decided not to offer a
solution........."just the old man in me", I guess..........

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3
 
R

Rappy

If your attitudes were in force for my generation, you'd probably never
receive a question here.

Nobody would be considerate enough to populate this type of forum!



Btw, are you and chuck the two old guys that used to sit in the gallery in
The Muppet Show?



Regards.
 
H

Harlan Grove

Rappy said:
If your attitudes were in force for my generation, you'd probably
never receive a question here.
Click to expand...
....

PRECISELY!! If you pampered slackers had been trained (forced) to learn how
to think for yourselves (as we were) and failed (as you'd deserve) if you
couldn't manage to do so, you wouldn't need to keep asking us curmudgeons
how to do simple things like figure out percentiles from a list of scores.

There'd still be some questions asked, but, refreshingly, they'd tend to be
intelligent ones that demonstrated that the persons asking the questions had
already given their problems some thought.
 
S

Sandy Mann

I don't understand why Tomai is receiving such vitriol. I could understand
it if the skewing of the exam results was the OP's own idea but the OP said:
"I *need* to rescale student scores" not I *want* to rescale student scores.
I assume therefore that the school/college/service has a policy of having a
minimum of a 75% pass rate and the OP is just trying to comply with it.

Not that I agree or understand the reason for it - surely a constant 75%
pass rate would be suspicious.

I experienced skewing in the reverse sense when I was in the RAF. You
qualified for Technician ranks by passing exams and time served in the
present rank. This resulted in many people racing up the ranks, which
became top heavy. Their answer was not to have a set pass mark but to
adjust the pass mark to give the promotion numbers that they wanted.

This is the second time recently people have rounded on a poster, I hope
that it is not a growing trend. Many newcomers venturing into the NG's for
the first time say things like, "I am sorry if this is a stupid question,"
how many would dare to ask a question if they thought that they would be
vilified for it?

Sandy
 
R

RagDyer

If you would read my post again, I'm sure you would see that the target of
my comment, and it was only a comment, not a vitriolic attack, was the
"system".
Harlan's post was not directed at the OP, but to his (OP's) *reply* to me,
which was much more provoking than anything directed at him (OP).

Rudeness begets a return of other then a polite retort.

So, tell me, where does the fault lay?
--


Regards,

RD
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please keep all correspondence within the Group, so all may benefit!
-------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't understand why Tomai is receiving such vitriol. I could understand
it if the skewing of the exam results was the OP's own idea but the OP said:
"I *need* to rescale student scores" not I *want* to rescale student scores.
I assume therefore that the school/college/service has a policy of having a
minimum of a 75% pass rate and the OP is just trying to comply with it.

Not that I agree or understand the reason for it - surely a constant 75%
pass rate would be suspicious.

I experienced skewing in the reverse sense when I was in the RAF. You
qualified for Technician ranks by passing exams and time served in the
present rank. This resulted in many people racing up the ranks, which
became top heavy. Their answer was not to have a set pass mark but to
adjust the pass mark to give the promotion numbers that they wanted.

This is the second time recently people have rounded on a poster, I hope
that it is not a growing trend. Many newcomers venturing into the NG's for
the first time say things like, "I am sorry if this is a stupid question,"
how many would dare to ask a question if they thought that they would be
vilified for it?

Sandy
 
S

Sandy Mann

I am not saying that the OP is faultless, I am simply saying that I found
the tone of many of the posts in this NG to be hostile. I do not believe
that your assertion
Rudeness begets a return of other then a polite retort.
Click to expand...

is necessarily true for people with real character. One of the things that
I have always liked about the Excel Newsgroups is the lack of flaming. I
see returning like for like as being the start of a slippery slope that
would inevitably lead to new posters being afraid to ask questions for fear
of the response that they may get. If that were to happen then we would all
lose.


Regards

Sandy
 
R

RagDyer

Then Sandy, you must be of a much higher character then I.

I never believed in turning the other cheek ... never!

Where is it written that a knowledge of Microsoft Excel makes one a better
person of a higher character then anyone else, to be held to a much loftier
plane then the rest of society.

We are not priests, or rabbis, or even policemen.

I never felt that logging on to these forums placed me in a more
sanctimonious environment then when I, say, connected to Google!

We are (hopefully) normal people, some with feelings that can withstand the
ire of some comment, and we are also people with not as resilient a
temperment, who are more easily affected by assaults to our ilk.

In fact, I must say that most of the people here *are* on a slightly higher
plane then most, donating their time and efforts to aid any who might
solicit assistance.

And the OP *did* get assistance, didn't he?
And with even a positive, helpful comment from Harlan!

Which just goes to show that what I said is true.
We are normal, which can be defined as the average of the masses, which
means we are a mix.
Some like me ... and some like you ... !

You may say that I, or the likes of me, might chase them away.
But not to worry ... you, and the likes of you, will keep bringing them
back.

--


Regards,

RD
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please keep all correspondence within the Group, so all may benefit!
-------------------------------------------------------------------

I am not saying that the OP is faultless, I am simply saying that I found
the tone of many of the posts in this NG to be hostile. I do not believe
that your assertion
Rudeness begets a return of other then a polite retort.
Click to expand...

is necessarily true for people with real character. One of the things that
I have always liked about the Excel Newsgroups is the lack of flaming. I
see returning like for like as being the start of a slippery slope that
would inevitably lead to new posters being afraid to ask questions for fear
of the response that they may get. If that were to happen then we would all
lose.


Regards

Sandy
 
H

Harlan Grove

Sandy Mann said:
I don't understand why Tomai is receiving such vitriol. . . .
Click to expand...

0. Some 'vitriol' was actually tongue in cheek.

1. OP multiposted. That in & of itself deserves retribution. [See previous
comment about tongue in cheek.]

2. Presumably OP is a teacher or instructor of some sort. I seem to recall
that teachers were grading exams and setting pass marks back before there
were PCs. How did they manage?! It's almost always the case that considering
how to perform a given task manually but methodically can easily be adapted
to automation. In this case, count all the test scores, then sort them, then
count 1/4 of the total exams up from the lowest score. Voila! The pass mark
given the OP's specs.

3. I really hate arbitrary pass marks. That fewer than 75% of exam takers
score above 50 out of 100 isn't necessarily a sign that the exam was too
hard. It can as likely indicate than fewer than 75% of exam takers are
competent in the subject matter.

In my own perverse Weltanschauung, floating pass marks are worse for the
human condition than tax evasion. In case it's unclear, I most definitely
don't believe all things are relative.
 
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