At the high school & college level, the grading structure is a major part of the problem in the US. If a student needs to answer 90-100% of a test correctly to

At the high school & college level, the grading structure is a major part of the problem in the US. If a student needs to answer 90-100% of a test correctly to get an A, there must be a serious lack of rigor and choice to the material he/she is studying. I studied abroad in London at the LSE for a year of college. The grading system at the LSE made so much more sense to me. An "A" in the UK system is >70%. LSE exams reserve a full 30% range for the recognition of genius and/or mastery of the subject. A common joke at LSE is that “any paper scoring above 90% is basically ready to be published in a journal”. This is not to say that students attempt create new economic models during their exams, but it does imply that a 90% answer will require an extremely thorough understanding of the theory behind the subject, above and beyond the class slides and lecture material. A solid understanding of the material (70%) is still rewarded with the highest distinction; thus impossibly high expectations do not cause grade disinflation or penalties. The UK system presents you with a buffet of knowledge, pushing you to sample that one extra topic that lies just beyond what you think you can comfortably retain. The US system forces predetermined topics down your throat, deducting points if you find one topic unbearably boring, overly complex, or simply flawed. I discussed the experience in more depth here: http://roymurdock.com/essays/2014/06/the-difference-between-uk-and-us-universities/ http://roymurdock.com/essays/2014/06/the-difference-between-...