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<p>That’s rather interesting, because all the top students at my school do know everyone else’s grades and rank. I’ve seen multiple examples on CC of this being the case, so naturally I assumed my observations applied everywhere. Since you have noticed this to the contrary, I guess we can establish my impression is true, to a limited extent.</p>
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<p>The part about “all our classes are together”. When you see the same kids every day and listen to their contributions to class, both extemporaneous and prepared, peer edit their writing, and assist them in learning concepts/finishing homework, you get a clear sense of how smart they actually are. Again, it may be the result of our school’s small size and relatively restricted scheduling, but I didn’t think increasing a school size to 1200 or 1500 (or higher), had that much of an effect. Perhaps I was wrong, but from multiple sources, that wasn’t the sense I got.</p>
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<p>The school did release the info, to some extent - after a senior class meeting, the principal pulled over the top 10 and talked to us about who would eventually become valedictorians (five, I think, our system is unique). He had a class ranking on the table as he was talking, and wasn’t reluctant to show us ours. The other names weren’t covered up, though, so it was impossible not to see where everyone else was. Regardless, kids had been talking about it before; I would have found out either way.</p>