My music literature professor graded us on a bell curve when I took his class. He prided himself on failing a third of the class each semester. I remember on the first day of my freshman year in college sitting in his class and the smirk on his face when he told us that half the class would drop in the first five weeks, and that only a small handful of us would actually make it out with A's.

These days I wonder if maybe the speech itself was the point, because the next day our numbers had dropped from nearly seventy to forty-five. I went on to pass with an A, more out of spite than any zeal for the class itself, as much as I honestly did enjoy most of my major classes.

Anyway, I think it really depends on the professor. Some of them seem to think it engenders motivation and a competitive spirit in the classroom, and others (my dad included) have said that bell curves were never meant for use in a classroom setting, and use the more traditional point system.