This work investigates whether the class-average normalized gain score is a useful measure of individual student learning on the Force Concept Inventory. Average normalized gain emerges as a poor description of the learning of students who enter the author's mechanics classes with pretest scores less than 20, but a reasonable description of the learning of those with pretest scores of 20 or more. This pretest threshold prompted a study of the impact of misconceptions on gain. Among the author's students, it appears that those exhibiting certain key misconceptions or failing to exhibit certain core skills on the pretest will have average normalized gains lower than the average among students who do not exhibit the misconceptions or do exhibit the skills. A future study will investigate whether early intervention explicitly addressing key misconceptions and core skills makes the class-average normalized gain score a better description of individual gains.