But section leaders say the distribution is notso much a rule as a suggestion that is notfollowed to the letter.

"It would be wrong to interpret it as a strictgrade distribution because there was a lot offlexibility," teaching fellow Allen Ferrell says.

And others say they were flexible indetermining the students' final exam grades.

"I think the percentage for all final gradeswas raised by all section leaders," teachingfellow Craig Lerner says.

Sandel is certainly not alone in predetermininga target grading scale. For example, BakerProfessor of Economics Martin S. Feldstein '61follows a similar scheme in Social Analysis 10,which followed Justice last semester as the secondmost popular course.

But Ec 10's distribution is skewed more towardshigher grades. Between 30 and 35 percent of theclass receives an A- or A, and only 10 percentreceive a C or less, according to head sectionleader Brian J. Hall '86.

Hall says that Ec 10's distribution is based onthe average grades that students receive in theirother classes. Before each semester, theinstructors determine what students' averagegrades were throughout the College and establishthe Ec 10 curve accordingly.

"We do have a specific distribution because wehave so many students," Hall says. "We arereluctant to publicize the curve."

Justice's grade distribution is part of a morecomplex system of evaluation that has evolved overthe years to ensure fair grading to the increasingnumber of students, Sandel and teaching fellowssay.

"While I enjoy teaching the course enormously,at the same time it is a massiveundertaking...both administratively andacademically," Sandel says.

For the nearly 1000 papers that are submittedtwice during the semester, grading is a three-partprocess, which begins when all the TFs meet todiscuss standard papers.

Head teaching fellow J. Russel Muirhead '87says he distributes papers that "illustrate thingsthat are common in students' papers... theyshouldn't be outliers."

The TFs then pair off into "grading buddies" toexchange papers and compare grades before the headTF checks the distribution for each section.

Muirhead says that by the second stage, mostTFs are grading according to the same standard.But if one section's distribution is significantlyskewed, he or she reads several papers anddiscusses them with the section leader.

Although it is often difficult in a class thesize of Justice, Sandel is also involved in theclass's overall grading, holding weekly meetingswith TF's to supervise corrections and the contentof sections.