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> If most students learn the material, then they deserve a good mark. Yes, if you're trying to prepare your students for applying for jobs that will have GPA c

• adw 3y ago
  Most elite universities have been forced (by market forces) into doing what Harvard is doing. The proportion of firsts being awarded by Cambridge, for example, had already inflated substantially 20 years ago. The solution involves having, relatively speaking, "low" absolute grade boundaries (first-class honours at Cambridge is usually set around 70% of the marks in most subjects, third-class honours is 50%, pass without honors is even lower) on genuinely challenging exams, then using the raw grades for things like PhD admissions and scholarships. The notorious Maths Tripos is an extreme example of that strategy.
• Scarblac 3y ago
  Shouldn't the mark be primarily a signal for the student to indicate how well they understood the subject, and to serve as motivation?
  • dfadsadsf 3y ago
    If 80% of students get A, it's very weak motivator if you are top 10% student. Essentially there is no point in working harder than some arbitrary pretty low threshold. Most subjects has unlimited depth so it should not be too hard to design test with reasonable questions where no student get everything right and you can do normal distribution for grades (something like 5% A+, 10% A, 40% B, 30% C, 0-15% F)