Ivy league students today are on average much smarter than ivy league students in 1950. If the point of grades is to sort students then sure, grades are "infla

Ivy league students today are on average much smarter than ivy league students in 1950. If the point of grades is to sort students then sure, grades are "inflated" in that they don't accurately reflect increasingly fine distinctions in intelligence or effort. But if grades are supposed to reflect how well students understand the material on some sort of remotely absolute scale then we should expect to see average grades going up over time.