Learning Good. Grades Bad.
I dont care much for grades. Learning is fun, grades just ruin the fun. I enjoy learning, I dont enjoy grades. They aren't a necessary evil either. UC-Santa Barbara tried a total pass/fail system and was relatively sucessful but was forced to change to a more traditional grading system when students were not being accepted into graduate programs. Supposedly grades provide an incentive for students to study. The fear is without grades students would all become slackers. The idea of learning for the sake of self-enrichment doesn't really exist anymore. Its just hard for me to comprehend how knowledge can be reduced into two digits and how a 79.5 is equal to an 89.4; an 89 is "okay" a 79.5 on the other hand is "you suck". But, no our transcipts dont reflect this fact. How grades are determined irritates me even more (refer to previous post). On a lighter note I got an 'A' in my comm class, though I have to admit I did the minimal amount of work neccesary and was only saved by the curve, yet I've gotten B's in classes which I've gone above any beyond what was required...I wonder what that means? Grades at the end don't measure much yet so much emphasis is placed on them.
2 Comments:
i got a 4 on my english ap and a 5 on calc.
i work hard in both classes
and i just suck in english.
but besides that point,
yea. grades suck.
evaluating progress is more accurate when level of achievment is broken up into grades. ie: a b c d.. i dont think pass fail is thorough enough of an evaluation. ok, some teachers suck at giving grades, but generally i think they are a necessary evil.
I pretty much agree. However I think that high school and undergraduate programs should probably follow in the footsteps of almost all professional graduate programs where there is a staggered GPA system in addition specific grades earned in the graduate school is not seen as important. Evaluation are not grade based but rather given thoroughly through the individual dialogue between student and teacher. Of course there are certain obstacles including time, class size and overall maturity of the student body, that prevent this form of evaluation from occuring in the high school and undergraduate level. There also tends to be tremendous grade inflation in graduate school for this reason. Professors know that chances are grades will not be used for evaluative purposes so the specific grade thst is given won't matter that much.
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