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Some grade inflation comes down to faculty that have become increasingly apathetic. When I was a TA in Canada 11 years ago the professor(s) that ran that class
by gww 7y ago
Some grade inflation comes down to faculty that have become increasingly apathetic. When I was a TA in Canada 11 years ago the professor(s) that ran that class became so frustrated with students who needed a bump of X% (usually in the range of 3-10%) to keep their GPA average for medical school applications. One of the profs confided in me that he just gives them what they ask otherwise the students would waste a tremendous amount of the profs time going through assignments and exams to try to argue for extra marks.
- leethargo 7y agoTrue, witnessed the same in Germany in the CS department of a good university ("let them pass barely, rather than having to deal with them again next year").
- analog31 7y agoIn the US, students fill out course evaluations that are known to be driven by the grade that they expect to receive in the class. This creates a perverse incentive to raise grades. I saw this when I was teaching.
- asdff 7y agoBy the time I came around (graduated a couple of years ago), professors would start syllabus week with a disclaimer about that kind of groveling for points. In short, they weren't going to hear it at all, the ink is dry unless there is a glaring grading mistake. Probably took a couple of years of constant annoyance to normalize aggressively putting your foot down.