# Inflation of Problem Ratings

Okay, so I have noticed that some problems have become overly inflated in terms of their rating. Problems that I would consider to have a rating of 400-500 have a rating of 1800-2000. This just does not make sense to me. For example, consider the following problem that Calvin shared:

https://brilliant.org/community-problem/santas-elves/?group=7sOgFLxrHVrF

It seems harmless enough, something that they teach you to do in maybe third or fourth grade. However, upon closer inspection you see that the problem's rating is, as of the time of writing this, 1820. To put this in perspective, 1820 is a LEVEL 4 problem. A problem that is ALMOST Brilliant Blue difficulty worthy.

If we could receive some input from the developers on this it would be very nice. Is this just an algorithm problem or are the brilliant crew changing the way that problem ratings are created?

Thank you for your attention to this issue, I hope you have a wonderful day.

Note by Alexander Sludds
4 years, 4 months ago

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We have not changed the algorithm (yet). The rating changes has resulted entirely from attempts. Recall that problem ratings rose on the first day (Sunday/Monday) as many people viewed it, and then dropped down over the rest of the week as answers are entered. We are seeing a similar effect here.

Also, while the problem sounds simple, there were numerous wrong attempts which are possibly due to not understanding how overtime pay works.

Staff - 4 years, 4 months ago

Thank you for the clarification Calvin, the system sounds better if you explain it in that respect.

- 4 years, 4 months ago

In your note, I think you meant 1400-1500? We don't really have problems at 400-500 rating as yet.

I seeded this problem at 1550, and I believe that the true rating is much closer to that level. I tried to reduce the ambiguity of overtime pay by choosing $$8 \times 1.5 \times 7 = 1008 > 1000$$ and hence it is to be rejected, but I have also received clarifications which indicate that some people believe that overtime rate applies to the entire time period.

Staff - 4 years, 4 months ago

Why do the ratings not correspond with the level of the student? 2000 is the normal cutoff for level 5 so it makes sense for these two systems to correspond.

- 4 years, 4 months ago

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