4 ms·

Grades are the only metric that is difficult to cheat even with wealth.

• Jcowell 4y ago
  Couldn’t you just bribe people?
  • naniwaduni 4y ago
    Not all bribery is equally easy.
• fsckboy 4y ago
  unless you have especially rigorous grading (and look at the volume of comments here bitching about grading on a curve, so it's rare), it's easy to get good grades by just doing the normal amount of work, put in some time each day on each class. It's a measure of conscientiousness, not smartness, ability, etc., but yes, it's a good measure of getting a baseline amount of learning out of a course, nothing exceptional. (people here who bitch about grading on a curve should take a course in statistics graded on a curve, then listen to their fellow students who got A's to explain how it works.)
• washadjeffmad 4y ago
  The private "school of excellence" I attended instituted a 40% minimum on any assignment turned in with a name and date on it, and labs, tests, and quizzes - combined - made up 25% of one's final grade. The administration contended this policy had nothing to do with the $8M athletics facility built with donor funds, nor the influx of scholarships awarded to students who all happened to join the football team that year. I disagreed. Vocally. When I went from a 98% student to a 24% student at the start of a new semester just by refusing to write my name on any homework, I was pulled from all activities, isolated in endless detentions, and put on a "remedial track" away from my class (like ISS). It took a few more weeks of talking with the teachers and priests and protesting, but the headmaster eventually stepped down and was replaced by one of the nuns. Grades aren't hard to cheat if the institution is complicit, especially if what's being measured is compliance and obedience.