What is the mean in an standard exam? (For grading on a curve) Suppose a grading system is used in which grades vary between 1 and 100. Grades below 50 are failing grades. If I want to grade the students on the normal curve, which grade should I choose as the mean of the distribution? In other words, what should be the mean of the new grades? The number 50 is somehow counter-intuitive, as it results in half of the students failing the exam.

Note: This question was previously posted to stats.SE, but was voted as off-topic there.
“Grading on a curve” means that you select what percentage of grades you want to correspond to a given final grade. It’s entirely up to you how you choose the resulting mean grade using that system. If you want to make the mean a 60 or an 80 or anything else, that’s your call. Ultimately, though, the point of the curve is to avoid having “grades less than 50 are failing.”