<p>I don't have a problem with "some" (usually 10%) of the grade based on attendance and participation. That goes for most classes. I have a problem when half your grade or more is based on "participation", in the sense that I show up to class every time, do all my work on time, get As for all my assignments, and end up with a C for the year, and the idiot next to me who shows up late half the time and leaves in the middle the other half, is always last to turn in the assignment, and yells out random (not necessarily relevant) comments in the middle of class...HE gets an A. I wonder why I even bother to try on the assignments, when I will clearly always end up with the same grade no matter what I do.</p>
<p>Many years ago I had a professor that marked a T/F question wrong. He said it was false when, in fact, it was a verbatim statement from the book. Quite a few students challenged him on it. After looking at the text, he said, "Well, you can't believe everything you read", and refused to change any grades.</p>