Combining absolute and curve grading? I know some advantages and disadvantages of using absolute grading as well as curve grading. Next semester, I plan to combine both by first grading absolutely, and then use curve grading to add points to the students.

For example, if one gets 80% (usually an A) absolutely, but when curved he gets a B, then I will use only the absolute letter which is the A. However, if one gets 70% (B) absolutely but when curved he gets an A, then I will use the A.

My reasoning is just like those who support curve grading. I might prepare too difficult exam tests or some things might not go according to plan during my course. While I actually support absolute grading, I think this might be a good idea. (?) I don't like the idea of just purely using curve grading that can lower high grades, or purely using absolute grading which is not always appropriate as university students' and instructors' performance are not absolute.

Of course, evaluating each course will always be the top priority, but this grading I hope can provide some small "healing" to error-prone college courses each semester.

ADDED:


The curve I use is the usual bell curve for distributing A, B, C, D, and F..
I am teaching mathematics for undergraduate.
There are less than 30 students each batch.
This is a new program in this university..and there are only 2 batches..so "past grades" are not recorded just yet unless I take data from other universities..which might not be a good idea?


All the inputs are very helpful. I do not plan to strictly use curve grading as I mentioned. I also believe the longer this program goes the better we can get..
You have assumed that students' performance follows a normal distribution, with a grade of C in the middle of that bell curve and very few grades of A or F at the tails.  My own experience, and that of my peers, is that a typical college class has a cohort of good students who will mainly earn grades of A or B, some number of poor students who will earn unsatisfactory grades, and a few "in the middle" students.  That gives a bimodal distribution, with the valley just about where the peak is in that bell curve.

I urge you to look at past classes and check the grade distributions when you have used absolute grading.  If you don't already have something very like a normal distribution, forcing one will distort the assessment results badly.

Your question says your goal is to help students, and the problem is that assessments may be too difficult or the course didn't go as planned.

I'd like to suggest a different approach that's a little more work than artificially distorting the grade distribution, but is much easier to explain to students.  (Um, and to department chairs, if it comes to that.)  You haven't mentioned your field, nor whether your students are undergraduates, but if your examinations can have a reasonable number of questions, measure the performance on every question and then exclude from the computed grade any where performance of the class as a whole is below some cutoff you establish heuristically.  Almost everyone's grade will go up, and you can easily explain that you excluded those questions or problems that were "too hard."  (In the rare case where a student gets only the "hard" problems right, you can make an independent adjustment; that never happened to me.)  I do this with a spreadsheet that has student names in the left column, then one column for each question.

Once you've evaluated an assessment, you must look at the questions you excluded as "too hard" and If the difficulty was with the question, fix it.  If you believe the question is reasonable, then you need to review the material with the class again.  When that happened to me, I'd warn the students that they would see that question or problem again, and so they should prepare for it.

If you do this for every assessment, you will find that your exam questions and your coverage of the material converge, and after a very few semesters, you will no longer have questions that are "too hard" and you'll be comfortable with absolute grading.