<p>I would like to question to assertion that hard-grading professors/teachers are always better. While Ive had a number of tough teachers that I loved (one of my favorite teachers in HS greeted us by saying that we would all fail the first test--and so it was), I also think theres a certain amount of value in having a class where you can concentrate on whats being taught without constantly worrying about your grade. For example, I had the easy AP English teacher senior year where I basically got an A for showing up and doing the work. Results? 5 on the AP test, success in a statewide writing competition, good experiences so far with college writing, less stress senior year. Another example was abnormal psych this semester. Class had no tests, only quizzes and one paper at the end of the semester. No required outside reading if you came and listened to the lectures. It was an awesome class. It was entertaining, it was hilarious, I loved listening to the lectures, and as a result, I learned a ton. It stuck, not because we had 12-page essay tests but because it was taught brilliantly from experience, not from weeder-class academics. Easy A? Yeah. Useless class? Not a chance.</p>
<p>Being hard-grading in itself is not "better", in my opinion. I prefer teachers who are hard-grading on initial efforts that will give another chance on re-dos and look for improvement over the course of the term. For some programs, getting a hard grader can hurt your chances if you are pre med or want to get into some competitive program where that gpa counts. A lousy hard grader is certainly not one to get. There are hard grading teachers, however, that may be so outstanding in other areas, that it is a consideration to take their course. BUt the hard grading part by itself is not anything desireable, in my mind. You can be a great teacher, interesting, teach the kids a lot without being hard grading. The attributes are not intertwined.</p>
<p>A story: last semester, I took a writing-intensive foreign language class in which we were all very, very advanced (half of us were already fluent in the language). The professor barely had to do any work, so he slapped a grade down on the page and didn't bother marking off any mistakes. I'm a bit of a nerd, so I went in and talked to him, asked if he'd be willing to grade my papers harder--because I wanted to learn from my mistakes. And he did just that: every single one of my papers were covered with red ink after that, and I learned more in that class than I could've thought possible. On the other hand, everyone else in the class whined about how they lost more than they learned.</p>
<p>I don't think hard-grading teachers are intrinsically "better" than other teachers. However, in my experience, they often want you to LEARN--and how better to learn than by learning from your mistakes? I would be willing to take a hit to the GPA if I've learned something from it, and I think that's the important thing.</p>
<p>Define "hard-grading." Is it "hard-grading" if students can't make up for poor test scores with consistent homework performance? My son always preferred teachers who graded on tests; my daughter preferred those who graded on consistent performance of all assignments, including homework.</p>
<p>College professors may have even more widely variant standards: when I was at MIT, I took "Survey of Higher Mathematics" from Gian-Carlo Rota (at that time, considered one of the top mathematicians in the world). 60% of the grade was attendance; your grade went down a letter with every class missed. The other 40% was completion of a paper on a topic within the course. Each week was a new topic in higher math, such as topology, Cantor's diagonal theorem, etc. It was a great course, Rota was a great teacher, I learned a ton and enjoyed the course, but at MIT grading that toughly on attendance was considered a shocking thing (at that time) and he only attracted 50 or so students to his course every spring. (He also taught a probability and stats course for graduate students that was considered the hardest course at MIT.)</p>