<p>I agree that docking one letter grade per day late is quite lenient for Harvard professors.</p>
<p>I find this article to be limited in many respects. Mr. Flow largely seems to be addressing humanities courses - in these, it is indeed possible, as it is in every single other university, to binge study, largely due to the structure of these courses. The only way a professor could prevent binge studying would be to institute periodic quizzes or have one-on-one check-ins. For Harvard, these measures would be quite patronizing and not befitting of adults, since they would limit our independence. For humanities courses, we work on the big piece - the term paper, the final exam - because the big piece is a true product of hard work. Remember that humanities classes are typically graded on an absolute scale (no curving), and the product of one student’s binge studying can typically get one a B+ or an A-, due to the sheer talent and skills of that student. Throw a Yale student into the mix, and you couldn’t be sure: academics at Yale don’t share the same intensity, and the students there simply care less in general about them. Harvard students don’t face tradeoffs - One day? I can still bang out an incredible paper. It might mean speedreading through five books and typing for twelve to fourteen hours, but it can be done. </p>
<p>Yet the difference between the B+/A- and the A is the biggest part of Harvard. It is what separates the bingers from the killers. Some might argue that the abundance of B+/A-'s are a sign of grade inflation, but I’ve compared several Intro ‘History’ and Intro ‘Econ’ tests at Harvard and Yale, and I as well as others (i.e. my Harvard and Yale friends) have found the grading differences to be minimal.</p>
<p>In the sciences, Harvard is even more competitive, and strict curves and constant assessments (the only way to practice problems effectively - putting them to the task) keep nearly everyone on their feet.</p>