30/10/2025
JUST SO YOU KNOW: A Special Segment..
We all have been in a discussion where someone says it's tougher to get a Distinction at UNZA than at CBU? Or wondered why you seem to see more A grades coming from CBU? And why many would end up posting their results with As?
The perception is very real. It's not just about the difficulty of the exams, it's about the entire philosophy of how grades are awarded. it boils down to two different academic philosophies that I learned when I was doing My Post graduate Diploma in Teaching Methodology : The Fixed Standard vs. The Bell Curve.
The CBU Model: The "Fixed Standard" (Criterion-Referenced)
In many of its schools, CBU operates on what education Philosophy calls a criterion-referenced system.
The Philosophy: This system says, If you achieve this specific standard, you will earn this grade. Period ! You are competing only against the material.
How it Works: The university sets a fixed standard (a criterion). If the standard for an 'A' is 75%, anyone who gets 75% or higher gets an 'A'. If the entire class gets 80%, then the entire class gets an 'A'. The target for the top grade is very wide (a 25 point range ).This system is designed to reward everyone who successfully masters the content to that level.
The UNZA Model: The "Bell Curve" (Norm-Referenced)
UNZA, especially in its large, foundational quota schools (like Natural Sciences, Engineering, Law or Medicine), is famous for its norm-referenced system.
The Philosophy: This system is designed not just to test what you know, but to rank you against your peers. You are competing against the material and against everyone else in that lecture hall.
How it Works: This system assumes that grades should fall on a bell curve. Only a fixed percentage of students (a "quota") can be at the top. For example, a department might decree: Only the top 5% of this class can get an A+, the next 10% get an A, the next 20% get a B+... and so on.
You could get 92% on an exam, but if 6% of your class got 93% or higher, you would not get an A+. The system intentionally makes top grades rare to identify the absolute outliers.
So, What Does This Mean?
When you see a lot of 'A' and 'A+' grades from CBU circulating Online Upon publishing their results, it doesn't mean the work was easier cause you have others that actually would have failed. But It means many students successfully met the fixed standard.
When you see fewer A and 'A+' grades from UNZA, it doesn't mean the students aren't smart. It means the system is designed to be a ruthless pyramid, a filter, that allows only a handful to the very top.
Getting an 'A' at CBU means you mastered the content. Getting an 'A+' at UNZA means you mastered the content... and you out-performed hundreds of other brilliant people who also mastered it. That is why a B at UNZA is literally An A at CBU
This is exactly why you will rarely, if ever, see UNZA students posting their results on social media the way CBU students post results with all "Straight As." In the UNZA system, "Straight As" are a mathematical near-impossibility to a large number of students.
A Final Point: The "40% vs. 50%" Pass Mark Myth
This is the most common argument students use to "prove" CBU is better:
The Claim: At CBU, our pass mark is 50%. At UNZA, you pass with 40% or 45%. Our Pass is a Fail at UNZA! We are held to a higher standard.
The Reality: This argument is flawed because it compares apples to oranges. A pass mark is meaningless unless you know the difficulty of the test..
CBU's 50% Pass is tied to its "fixed standard" system. The exam is designed to be a straightforward test of competence, and 50% is the line of defined mastery you must cross.
UNZA's 40% Pass is not a sign of a lower standard; it is a direct consequence of a harder test. The "bell curve" system requires exams to be so difficult that the class average is pushed DANGEROUSLY LOW. The system is designed to fail a large portion of the class.
Let's be clear: Getting a 45% on a UNZA exam where the class average was 38% and 40% of your peers failed is mathematically harder than getting a 51% on a CBU exam designed to test a 50% standard.
The 40% at UNZA is not a "low pass"; it's the survival line in a highly competitive ranking system.
Schools at Ridgeway Campus, UNZA.
Ridgeway operates on a different BEAST entirely (that I should believe CBU -SOM follows suit as well). In medicine and other schools at Ridgeway, the standard isn't about "how well you did"; it's about "are you safe to treat patients? how safe you could prescribe an appropriate drug to a patient? or how safe you would nurse a burns patient?
How it Works: Unlike Great East road campus, The pass mark is dangerously set at 50%. This isn't like CBU's 50% "Pass" (C grade). At Ridgeway, 50% is the absolute minimum required to prove competence. There is no bell curve to save you. If you get 49.9%, you have failed.
This model is tougher because it combines a high pass mark with no grade inflation and no scaling. You can't be "curved" to a pass; you either meet the high standard or you are out or lest you end up killing patients at some point.
..And that is Just So You Know for today ! 😊
Postgrad in Teaching Methodology
: Frank
