> Funny how whenever school exam results are better than the year before,
> it is due to the teachers, schools and children getting better. If they
> get worse, it's because the exams are harder than last year.
>
> Surely the obvious solution would be to award the top grade (A or A* or
> 1 or 10 or whatever) to the top 5% of those taking the exam. But then
> these are the same people who are vigorously against performance related
> pay.

The problem with distributing grades along a bell curve, like that, is 
that in years where the class is full of genies, someone who has an 
otherwise good grasp of the theory ends up with a C, and years when the 
class is full of morons, you give an A to someone who doesn't merit one.

As one of my engineering teachers used to say: "would like to know that 
the "A student" who is designing the bridge (or plane, or whatever) only 
got her A because the rest of the class flunked?"

On the other hand, he was a bit extreme and if he was allowed to, would 
only give As and Fs.  In his own words, you either master the theory, or 
you're a menace to society.

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