Systems and methods for determining characteristic transition values such as elbow values in sigmoid or growth-type curves, such as the cycle threshold (Ct) value in PCR amplification curves. A double sigmoid function with parameters determined by a Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) regression process is used to find an approximation to a curve that fits a PCR dataset. Once the parameters have been determined, the curve can be normalized using one or more of the determined parameters. Normalization is advantageous for determining the Ct value if one chooses the arbitrary fluorescence level (AFL) approach to calculating Ct values for amplification curves. After normalization, the normalized curve is processed by applying a root-finding algorithm to determine the root of the function representing the normalized curve, which root corresponds to the Ct value. The Ct value is then returned and may be displayed or otherwise used for further processing.