<p>I am kind of confused about grading in college and students' reaction to grades. In many posts, I saw people complaining about classes in which "only" 30% of the students can get A. To me, even 30% is high! I mean it is almost about one third of the whole class! If those people find 30% a very low number, what is the norm? 50% getting an A? If that is the case, my idea of college being hard is shattered. Please show me what is wrong with my argument? Thanks.</p>
<p>The argument against 30% is that why should my grade be dependent on the performance of my peers? It should be an assessment of my ability, not anyone else’s.</p>
<p>Hmm, I see… so what do you think is the best assessment? Pre-set percentages for certain letter grades, so your grade doesn’t depend on other people’s, but depends only on the amount of study you did?</p>
<p>Except for certain subjects, percentage-based grades are a silly delusion that makes teachers and students feel like grades are “objective.”</p>
<p>The best advice that you can get going into college is not to think about grades at all, ever, for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>^haha, great advice. But as a person who is considering to be an academician very seriously, I just wanted to learn how my professors will treat me, and then when I become a professor, how should I treat my own students?</p>
<p>By 30% A you mean 30% get flat A, or 30% get A or A-? If the former then that’s plenty generous and people shouldn’t be complaining. 30% getting A or A- is generally typical for core courses in a subject (that everyone in that major has to take). For an upper level elective I would expect to see something more like 35-40% (A or A-), around 50% (A or A-) for a masters class, and something like 60-80% (A or A-) for a primarily PhD class. If this is a primarily PhD class, that is pretty awful.</p>
<p>Blame it on grade inflation. Nowadays, about a little over 40% of grades given in colleges and universities are As, while 35% are Bs, which is pretty surprising considering that nowadays everyone goes to college, not just the intellectual elite.</p>
<p><a href=“A History of College Grade Inflation - The New York Times”>http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-history-of-college-grade-inflation/</a></p>
<p>@Vladenschlutte: I meant the former, 30% getting A. With the addition of A- grades, I expect 40% get A or A-. </p>
<p>@Ach7DD: Nice article!</p>
<p>I think I should not care much about grades anymore. The best thing is to study as hard as I can and get the top grades!</p>
<p>That’s some pretty crazy grade inflation!</p>
<p>At my college, in my major classes, about 1% get an A+ and 10% get an A.</p>
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<p>Often, a class is curved on an average, not a percentile of certain grades. If a lot of people get an F, there will be a lot more people getting an A. If few people fail, then more people will get a B, and there will be fewer As.</p>
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<p>A) No they don’t.
B) That can’t be true considering that the admissions get tougher at almost every single college every year. </p>
<p>Yes, there is inflation but your reasoning is flawed.</p>
<p>^ But remember… there is grade inflation at the high school level too. So just because the average matriculant GPA goes up every year, doesn’t mean the standard of students is increasing. Just something to think about…</p>
<p>As well, I think it is true that MORE % of people attend college than say 50 years ago, though definitely not everyone does.</p>
<p>@roamingypsyeyes:</p>
<p>The “everyone” was mostly an exaggeration, though it still carries my point that far more people nowadays are going to college. And again, the increase in competitiveness is mainly due to a larger overall population, more kids graduating high school and going on to college, and more applications being sent per prospective students.</p>
<p>Plus, the inflation between the middle of the century to now cannot really be explained due to better students, since even though most of the selective universities have average GPAs of 3.2~3.6, the non-selective ones with acceptance rates greater than 50% tend to have theirs hovering around a 3.0, greater than the average GPA for all universities decades ago.</p>
<p>And we cannot really use HSGPAs of incoming freshmen to justify the higher university GPAs, as there have been several evidence of grade inflation, such as the ACT study, or the fact that as time passes a greater percentage of straight A students leaving high school require remedial courses.</p>
<p>My name is not roaming.</p>
<p>I didn’t say use gpa. You could use test scores which are constantly increasing.</p>
<p>I’d be interested to see studies about straight a students needing remedial courses.</p>
<p>robcol,</p>
<p>since you posted this on the brown forum originally before a mod moved it, the statement “30% A so with A- 40%” is false since there are no A-s at brown. The policy is more akin to a school saying 30% receive grades of A or A-. As I said before, the reason there is backlash is because many students specifically choose Brown to avoid this mentality. If an institution wants to competitively select who is in their class and then force them to compete against each other be my guest but don’t bait and switch me by changing the policies in a way where you’re also fundamentally changing the way the school wants us to approach learning.</p>
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<p>Do you go to Purdue or something? That’s not typical at all.</p>
<p>It’s laughable that at any point in our history the “intellectual elite” went to college. No, the socioeconomically privileged went to college.</p>
<p>Anyways guys… I am not complaining at all. If they want to give more As, then let them give more haha. I just found it strange at first, but with the reasons you write here (thank you!) now I understand it better.</p>
<p>romani,</p>
<p>thanks for pointing that out, laughable if people actually thought the ivies in their all white male days were only for “the intellectual elite”</p>
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<p>No, I go to a large public institution in Canada. The distribution varies depending on the class, but my class averages have been anywhere from 57-70, usually C-/C/C+ range. In my major (biology), often only the top 1% is selected to get an A+.</p>
<p>I have heard that there is less grade inflation in Canada so that could be it.</p>