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Why Grade Distribution Is Often Multi-modal: An Uncertainty-Based Explanation

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Fuzzy Techniques: Theory and Applications (IFSA/NAFIPS 2019 2019)

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Abstract

There are many different independent factors that affect student grades. There are many physical situations like this, in which many different independent factors affect a phenomenon, and in most such situations, we encounter normal distribution – in full accordance with the Central Limit Theorem, which explains that in such situations, distribution should be close to normal. However, the grade distribution is definitely not normal – it is multi-modal. In this paper, we explain this strange phenomenon, and, moreover, we explain several observed features of this multi-modal distribution.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the US National Science Foundation via grant HRD-1242122 (Cyber-ShARE Center of Excellence).

The authors are thankful to the anonymous referees for valuable suggestions.

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Correspondence to Vladik Kreinovich .

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Kosheleva, O., Servin, C., Kreinovich, V. (2019). Why Grade Distribution Is Often Multi-modal: An Uncertainty-Based Explanation. In: Kearfott, R., Batyrshin, I., Reformat, M., Ceberio, M., Kreinovich, V. (eds) Fuzzy Techniques: Theory and Applications. IFSA/NAFIPS 2019 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1000. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21920-8_10

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