Why are Jews so rich?

[Anomalocaris]

We have a large Asian population here in southern California, most of which appear to have a real focus on education- at least the ones I met at the university. One guy I knew at uni was always bitching about the Asian kids being "curve busters" because they typically got good grades on tests. I had no sympathy; I told him he'd have to study harder, like they did.

Veering off topic, I know, but . . . unless the course is strictly competitive and the ranking of the students is what matters (I can't think of a relevant example), I despise teachers who grade on curves. You either understand the material or you don't. The grade should reflect that understanding or lack thereof.

Not grading on a curve provides an additional perverse incentive for students to only take the easy classes where the material is relatively trivial to learn, and penalize the adventurous ones who explore the really difficult subjects by failing the lot of them.

Courses at university level is not strictly about whether you know it. It is also about how able you are to come somewhat close to knowing compared to the general candidate pool at the university level.