Grade Deflation

[63dot]

We all know about schools who give higher grades than deserved. But what about the opposite?

Right now I am in a law school that has never had a graduating student with a 90 average in decades, actually ever. In undergrad school, some professors didn't give an A to 97s or 98s. I don't know if I chose poorly, or if it is/was a backlash to the grade inflation of the '70s and '80s (and maybe some in the '90s).

What are your stories?

But I have heard that if you get into a really top college/university, there is still grade inflation. Either the students are all naturally 95s or the school, almost always a premiere private institution, does not want to lose out on huge tuition. I once walked into a hall at Stanford and looked at a posted list of that semester's MBA students in one of their classes. Every freaking student had an A. That being said, they are one of the best business schools in the universe.

 

[YouArentJ]

I got an A- (+/- only help the not so "A" students!) once in grad school and was pretty annoyed for a while ... I would go crazy if a had a 97 on something and didn't get an A. Yeah, I'd freak out.

 

[63dot]

I got an A- (+/- only help the not so "A" students!) once in grad school and was pretty annoyed for a while ... I would go crazy if a had a 97 on something and didn't get an A. Yeah, I'd freak out.

grad school grading sucks

A, B, and do it over again

 

[atszyman]

grad school grading sucks

A, B, and do it over again

Depends on where you go.

My grad school required a B or better in the "core" classes (4 classes you had to take) and then a B average overall. Which means you could get worse grades in some elective classes but had to balance them with As in the remaining classes.

That being said, I did notice that grad school grades were almost as much about politics as they were about performance. Not that I didn't do my work, but I also made sure that the professors knew who I was and that I got along with them well, for the most part. I got a straight 4.0 GPA through grad school despite performing poorly on many of my midterms and downright failing one of them. Of course I would work by butt off on the projects and show grand improvement over my midterms by the final combined with the professor's knowing who I was I'm sure that a borderline grade got bumped more than once in my favor.

Of course they are also not going to do anything to irk the students who's employers are paying tuition since it's real money coming in, rather than relying on scholarships and grants for students who are struggling with making tuition.

 

[63dot]

Depends on where you go.

I had the feeling that grad school, at least for me, was a place they didn't give a C unless somebody really blew it. To make up for not giving a C easily, they would make an A as hard as mid-90s at the very least. If a person got a C, they would have to retake the entire class and hope they got a B or B-. While a B- would put you on academic probation, you could still not have to retake any of those classes above a C+. If somebody ends up getting all the classes done and has a lower than standard GPA, they would have to load up on electives and get As and Bs to graduate with a middle B, or 3.0. But I have never heard of this happening though it was a hypothetical situation.

If one got all A's, hypothecially, except for the last class, then getting a C+, that person would still have to retake that class since overall grad school average below a B or any class below a B- was not accepted.

In high school an A was a 90, B was and 80, C a 70, and so forth.

In law school, the average California Bar passing grade last year was 63.8, or D, where 55 was the score you get by just showing up. There are a possible 45 points for all sections, each on the bar to attain. But the average passer only attained 8.8 points out of those 45 possible points. And an average score of 80, or B-, on the California Bar, is almost unheard of.

So there are different scales for sure.

In any class a 50 really sucks, but in baseball, even one year with .500 would install you into the hall of fame. Fail 60% percent of the time on plate, and you are at least a legend.

 

[TEG]

This is why I love my Universities grading system. It is a straightforward 100 point scale. Each class get a maximum value of 100 point times the number of credits (max of 4, used to be a max of 6). These are then all added together and divided by total credits to get a grade that makes sense. That is the beauty of the WAG, no having to guess what a letter actually mean, as it is different in different places. The only drawback is that 4.0 systems don't understand it at all, so it is hard to transfer credits in either direction.

TEG

 

[63dot]

This is why I love my Universities grading system. It is a straightforward 100 point scale. Each class get a maximum value of 100 point times the number of credits (max of 4, used to be a max of 6). These are then all added together and divided by total credits to get a grade that makes sense. That is the beauty of the WAG, no having to guess what a letter actually mean, as it is different in different places. The only drawback is that 4.0 systems don't understand it at all, so it is hard to transfer credits in either direction.

TEG

Basically an A is at least 94 or 95,
93/92/91/90 is an A-,
B+ is 89/88/87, and so forth.

Mostly, in middle school, high school and junior college, this is what I saw.

And some would give 100 an A+, where some just call a 100 an A. Of course extra credit giving you more than a 100 should be an A+. And yes, there are those teachers who would give anything over 100 just an A.

In my college, in years three and four, where they somtimes were stingy with the A, one person, for the first time ever, got five or six A+ grades. But we are talking about a super genius who rarely scored under 99 on anything, ever.

 

[TEG]

Basically an A is at least 94 or 95,
93/92/91/90 is an A-,
B+ is 89/88/87, and so forth.

Mostly, in middle school, high school and junior college, this is what I saw.

And some would give 100 an A+, where some just call a 100 an A. Of course extra credit giving you more than a 100 should be an A+.

While this is true, the 4.0 institutions can't figure it out.

TEG

 

[63dot]

While this is true, the 4.0 institutions can't figure it out.

TEG

What killed me was after I got out of HS, then some schools instituted a 5.0 system.

And the older 1600 point SAT of the 60s and 70s, and before, got remade to be considerably easier since many struggled to get a 1000 (which was respectable).

So to make this happen the bar on the 1600 SAT was lowered and suddenly, more 1000 point SAT scores per capita showed up. The Cal State university system had most of its average students score under 1000. Years later, some of the same caliber students were claiming 1200 out of 1600. That 1200 used to mean Ivy or Baby Ivy and 1300 was Harvard or Yale, always. But that shows how old I am.

 

[dukebound85]

my university had traditional or +/- grading

the same course but different sections could grade the class differently. this lack of consistency is what annoyed me


i personally disliked the +/- system as a

A+= 97-100 and worth 4.0
A= 94-96 and a 4.0
A-= was 90-93 and worth 3.67

B+ was 87-89 and was 3.33
B was 84-86 and a 3.0 and so on

whereas a different section of same course was

A= 90-100 and a 4.0
B=80-89 and 3.0
etc

I always got the low end of the stick aka a B when if it were +/- it would have been a B+ and ive gotten an A- when it would have been an A traditional

the fact i got many A+'s but theres nothing higher than a 4.0 was also a reason why i didnt like the +/- system

in short in like traditional by far and feel that the grading scheme should be the same university wide

 

[YouArentJ]

I think the +/- should start with the B's - and leave us A students alone.

 

[it5five]

i personally disliked the +/- system as a

A+= 97-100 and worth 4.0
A= 94-96 and a 4.0
A-= was 90-93 and worth 3.67

It's a little different where I go (ASU). On our +/- system, an A+ is a little more than a 4.0 (can't recall the exact number off the top of my head), but you can't graduate with more than a 4.0. So that means if you get an A+ in every class, you still only graduate with a 4.0, but if you get A-'s, B's, or whatever, plus some A+'s, you will get a nice GPA boost from them.

I like the +/- system, actually. It benefits us students that put in the extra work to get A+'s. In my experience, it's usually the students who want to put in less work that don't like it (the people who want to get a 4.0 from the least minimal work to reach an A).

 

[63dot]

I think the +/- should start with the B's - and leave us A students alone.

In junior high and high school, I saw the A+/A/A-/B+/B/B-, etc. grading but in junior college, it was harsh with A/B/C/D/F, and an 89.9 was simply a B, but that prepared me for real life in the working world which I entered at that time at age 16, and on a limited basis with afternoon classes at the junior college in junior and senior years of high school on an exchange program for AP students.

 

[nanofrog]

What killed me was after I got out of HS, then some schools instituted a 5.0 system.

And the older 1600 point SAT of the 60s and 70s, and before, got remade to be considerably easier since many struggled to get a 1000 (which was respectable).

So to make this happen the bar on the 1600 SAT was lowered and suddenly, more 1000 point SAT scores per capita showed up. The Cal State university system had most of its average students score under 1000. Years later, some of the same caliber students were claiming 1200 out of 1600. That 1200 used to mean Ivy or Baby Ivy and 1300 was Harvard or Yale, always. But that shows how old I am.

Now I feel old too. Thanks.

 

[exabytes18]

At my high school, the departments could choose their grading scale. Everyone except the Honors English classes used the 10 pt/grade system. The honors english teachers used the 7pt/grade system. Wasn't fun, but it was tolerable.

The fun part: the administration pretty much decided on it's own that it would apply the 7pt/grade system to all honors classes. That didn't go over well to say the least. Teachers and students were both pissed off since it wasn't a pleasant surprise when they returned from summer break. So with everyone sulking around, teachers were starting to console students with promises of easier grading to offset the 7pt/system. <- Shady but appreciated.

After threats of mass walk-outs, mutiny, etc, the administration finally caved and things reverted back to the old system. They also implemented a more strict policy for dropping classes, but that stuck. Probably the most exciting first week of school I've ever experienced. lol