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That's all well and good, but the whole point of a scale is that students fall somewhere on it and it reflects work done in comparison to something. If not othe

That's all well and good, but the whole point of a scale is that students fall somewhere on it and it reflects work done in comparison to something. If not other students, then just patting ourselves on the back for a job well done. Would you need a some slacker half-following directions to earn an Average? No, you'd need the Average of the students in the course to earn an Average. Otherwise the distinction is meaningless. Then again, I've just spent some time re-reading Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective people, and I've given up caring too much about grades per-se. They discourage cooperation and encourage competition amongst peers. And in doing that strongly bias their adherents to win-lose scenarios when we should all strive for win-win scenarios. If you think that's bunk, I encourage you to read Covey's book. Coming at it with an open-mind can truly be life-changing in a positive way.

Smudge 13y ago
> If not other students, then just patting ourselves on the back for a job well done. Or, for the win-win version, how about an objective measure of correct answers/solutions. Grade inflation never bothered me in math and computer science courses, because what were they going to do when the students knew the material? Make 1 point the difference between a A and an C? I remember a midterm where a professor did exactly that (forced a grade-lowering curve on a group that had earned mostly 19 or 20 out of 20). It just didn't really work... A few kids even dropped the course, despite the fact that they basically knew all of the material (and had slipped up on only one or two answers). Of course, they could just make the material impossibly hard so that only 2-3 students could get the A (after weeks of all-nighters and likely trading off good grades in other courses) but to me that is counterproductive to the whole reason the students are there -- to learn!

Smudge 13y ago

> If not other students, then just patting ourselves on the back for a job well done. Or, for the win-win version, how about an objective measure of correct answers/solutions. Grade inflation never bothered me in math and computer science courses, because what were they going to do when the students knew the material? Make 1 point the difference between a A and an C? I remember a midterm where a professor did exactly that (forced a grade-lowering curve on a group that had earned mostly 19 or 20 out of 20). It just didn't really work... A few kids even dropped the course, despite the fact that they basically knew all of the material (and had slipped up on only one or two answers). Of course, they could just make the material impossibly hard so that only 2-3 students could get the A (after weeks of all-nighters and likely trading off good grades in other courses) but to me that is counterproductive to the whole reason the students are there -- to learn!