Square Root Curve Calculator and the math formula behind it (2024)

This calculator is also available over at Webby.tools where I’m going to be building more online tools.

A square root curve, or Texas curve, is designed to be easy to use and has the advantage of helping the lower scores more than the higher scores, if that’s an advantage to you. It’s also dead simple to do.

Let’s look at a couple of examples. Jimmy gets a raw score of 75% on a test.

Sue does very poorly and makes a raw score of 25.

You’ll notice that Jimmy’s score went up 12 points but Sue’s score went up 25 points. While Sue still has a poor grade, her grade did go up more than Jimmy’s.

Square Root Curve Calculator

If you have a set of grades to calculate, and don’t want to do it by hand, you can use the following form to calculate the grades of your students on a square root curve by entering their grades in the box below. You only need to enter one of each grades if there are multiples of the same score. Duplicates are stripped out.

Should you use it?

Using the square root curve, or any curve, is a question you have to answer for yourself.

One of my favorite administrator lines ever is “grades are totally at the teacher’s purview.” Of course it was to a student that went in to dispute their grade, so not a fun situation. But it did tell me that even though the student earns their points, a teacher has the option of working the numbers as they see fit. If you see fit to curve a set of grades, or not, that’s your decision.

Personally, I’ve used a square root curve a couple of times. I prefer to use a linear grade distribution instead, scaling the top grade up to a 100 and the low grade to a 50; assuming that there are grades under a 50.

And Thanks

Thanks goes out to Dave Richeson at DivisByZero.com for the start for this calculator. His post goes over several curve types, including my personal favorite the gravity curve, and also discusses why you would curve an exam.

Square Root Curve Calculator and the math formula behind it (2024)

FAQs

How is a square root curve calculated? ›

The instructor uses a square root of the raw score, and multiplies that number by 10. If a student gets a 90 percent, the instructor divides that by the square root of 90, about 9.5 e, for a result of 9.47. Once that number is multiplied by 10, the student's score becomes 94.7 percent.

What is the formula to find square root? ›

What is the Formula for Calculating the Square Root of a Number? The square root of any number can be expressed using the formula: √y = y½. In other words, if a number has 1/2 as its exponent, it means we need to find the square root of the number.

What is the square root method calculator? ›

The square root calculator finds the square root of the given radical expression. If a given number is a perfect square, you will get a final answer in exact form. If a given number is not a perfect square, you will get a final answer in exact form and decimal form.

What is the general equation for a root curve? ›

Standard form of a square root equation is y = a x − h + k .

How do you calculate a curve? ›

A common method: Find the difference between the highest grade in the class and the highest possible score and add that many points. If the highest percentage grade in the class was 88%, the difference is 12%. You can add 12 percentage points to each student's test score.

What are the formulas in mathematics? ›

Basic Algebra Formulas
  • a2 – b2 = (a – b)(a + b)
  • (a + b)2 = a2 + 2ab + b2.
  • a2 + b2 = (a + b)2 – 2ab.
  • (a – b)2 = a2 – 2ab + b2.
  • (a + b + c)2 = a2 + b2 + c2 + 2ab + 2bc + 2ca.
  • (a – b – c)2 = a2 + b2 + c2 – 2ab + 2bc – 2ca.
  • (a + b)3 = a3 + 3a2b + 3ab2 + b3 ; (a + b)3 = a3 + b3 + 3ab(a + b)

How to simplify a square root? ›

Step 1: Find the prime factors of the number inside the radical sign. Step 2: Group the factors into pairs. Step 3: Pull out one integer outside the radical sign for each pair. Leave the other integers that could not be paired inside the radical sign.

Is the square root of 2 infinite? ›

Root 2 is an irrational number as it cannot be expressed as a fraction and has an infinite number of decimals. So, the exact value of the root of 2 cannot be determined.

Can a square root be negative? ›

In general, when someone is asking for a square root, they are seeking the positive value. This is called the principal square root. However, square roots can also be negative. Thus, the number -6 can be a square root of the number 36, just not a principal square root.

Is 481 a perfect square? ›

Is the number 481 a Perfect Square? The prime factorization of 481 = 131 × 371. Here, the prime factor 13 is not in the pair. Therefore, 481 is not a perfect square.

How to find mean? ›

To calculate the mean, you first add all the numbers together (3 + 11 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 9 + 6 = 47). Then you divide the total sum by the number of scores used (47 / 7 = 6.7). In this example, the mean or average of the number set is 6.7.

What is the shortcut for square root? ›

To use the Mac keyboard shortcut, click the location where you want to insert the square root symbol, then press “Option” + “V.” To use the Windows keyboard shortcut, press and hold “Alt,” then hit “2,” “5,” and “1” on the numeric keypad—it won't work with the numbers at the top of the keyboard.

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