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It does make sense because grades no longer mean anything if everybody gets the same grade. The most informative grades would be uniformly distributed, it’s an
by j7ake 3y ago
It does make sense because grades no longer mean anything if everybody gets the same grade.
The most informative grades would be uniformly distributed, it’s an opportunity for the geniuses to shine and give a signal to profs about who to hire for their PhDs.
- antonyt 3y agoSounds like you are looking for grades to indicate class ranking. Should that be the function of grades?
- j7ake 3y agoGrades are most useful to a professor if it indicates class ranking of who has potential to do research level work. The only function of giving everyone an A is to prevent shattering fragile egos who have never experienced setbacks before. Unfortunately real life is full of set backs, so it’s better to learn to deal with it in a safe environment.
- antonyt 3y agoIf PIs or employers want to discriminate based on class ranking, they can ask for it and do exactly that. Why conflate that with grades? A common understanding of a grade is as an indication that the course material has been mastered. Higher grade = more mastery. This is a measure independent of the performance of fellow students.
- j7ake 3y agoBecause it’s nontrivial to convert a grade into a ranking when everybody has the exact same grade. If you gave a test out and the average was 99 percent, you would be ranking noise. They should make the course harder so even out the distribution of grades. The most informative distribution (ie maximum entropy) of grades is uniformly distributed. The least informative is when all grades are the same.
- ceejayoz 3y ago> Grades are most useful to a professor if it indicates class ranking of who has potential to do research level work. There's a bald assertion here that lots of those professors would stop you at; that good grades and capacity for research work are the same (or even necessarily closely correlated).
- archontes 3y agoThe grades mean something in comparison to the population of college grades as a whole. If a class of 30 physics students all get an A, the value is in comparing their A to a B from another year or university.
- yencabulator 3y agoPractically everyone from Harvard getting A's on everything is a clear indication that you can't compare those A's to B's from another university.