Posted on 01/22/2005 1:27:28 PM PST by foolscap
I am so glad they are finally doing this. It put the students coming from state schools at an unfair place. The last sentence of the article was the truth, grad and professional schools don't care where the grades come from and if your school doesn't inflate grades.
Grades don't always follow a bell-curve distribution. If you have a large group of intelligent, highly motivated students (which, presumably, anyway, is what Princeton students should be) and an objective exam, why is there no legitimate reason why the entire class couldn't legitimately earn all A's?
"...and an objective exam..."
A lot of college work is papers, not exams, so there is always some subjectivity to the scoring. I think just pre-determining that only 35% can get As is silly, though. Just another quota system, not a good, or fair, idea.
There are means to grade subjective work somewhat objectively; I won't pretend to know it, but I am aware that my law school professors try to use this method.
What would you give the average student in this class?
About damn time.
It has always cracked me up to hear the MSM demean the president's grades from the 60's. Most folks know full well that grade inflation has made the "A's" that are being thrown about like confetti nearly meaningless.
All exams should be graded on whether the questions were answered properly period. Not on the fact that most of those who took the exam did well so all should receive the same grade.
A C does not necessarily equate with "Average." If C equated to "average," there'd be no stigma attached to having an average student's level of comprehension of, say, organic chemistry.
A C, rather, is indicitive of an adequate mastery of the subject, or so it should. A B is a good mastery of the subject, and an A should reflect strong mastery of the subject.
If all the students in the class understood and interacted with the subject material well, I would argue that it would be wrong and unfair not to give those student's "A's" just because of some sort of quota system. Especially when graduate schools and employers attach a stigma to the "C."
Not at all what I said, or meant.
What I am asking is, if all the students demonstrated mastery of the subject on the exam, why should they not all be given A's? A quota is a pretty poor reason to determine how well someone mastered the course materials.
I have to ask, are you really serious with this thought or are you just being tongue in cheek?
Is that how they graded you during your high school years?
A
If the whole class earned A then they earned A and the average woud be A.
I'm willing to concede that at Princeton, the population may not be all hard-working, intelligent students. If Admissions does their job properly, though, it should be.
Quotas for A's. And you think that's a good idea?
what was princeton basing it on, who is the most popular in the class or how much money the parents/family gave to the school?
My high school was extremely competitive. Teachers graded f, d-,d,c-,c,b-,b,90,91,92,93, etc.to 100.
There were classes that ran from b to 98 or higher. Why not?
If the school is too tight on grades, then potential grad school applicants will have to flood the easy courses or be out-competed not only by their classmates by by foreign gad school applicants.
And the chance of this would be?
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