Exam Curve Calculator
Feeds the highest-to-100 and scale-to-top rows.
| Curve | Your curved score | How it works |
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Reading the five rows
A 72 with the defaults above lands at 84.9 under the square root curve, 77 under a five-point flat add, 84 when the top score of 88 is raised to 100, 81.8 when scores are scaled so 88 becomes 100, and 79 when a 68 class mean is shifted to 75. Five defensible conventions, five different outcomes from one raw score — which is the honest argument for knowing the method before counting the points. The additive curves move everyone the same distance; the multiplicative one pays more to higher scores; the square root pays more to lower ones.
Questions
Which curve will my instructor use?
This page cannot know. Curving is entirely the instructor's policy — some never curve, some pick a method per exam, and the syllabus may or may not say. The tool shows your score under five published conventions so a claimed curve has checkable arithmetic, not so you can assume one is coming.
What is the square root curve?
Curved score = 10 times the square root of the raw score, sometimes called the Texas curve. A 25 becomes 50, a 75 becomes about 86.6, and 100 stays 100. It never lowers a score, never produces more than 100, and gives its biggest boosts to the lowest scores.
Why does the flat add show results above 100?
Because instructors genuinely differ on capping. The tool shows the uncapped sum and flags anything past 100 with a note, since whether those points pay out or stop at 100 is a syllabus decision the arithmetic cannot make for you.
What inputs do the class-based rows need?
Highest-to-100 and scale-to-top need the top score in the class; the mean-shift row needs the class mean and the target mean. Rows without their inputs show a dash instead of a guess. Your raw score cannot exceed the class top score — the tool flags that combination as an input error.
Can this apply a curve to my whole class list?
No. This page prices one student's score under each convention. Applying a curve across a roster — choosing the method, handling ties and caps, publishing the result — is the instructor's job and out of scope here.