What is the grading like at your school?

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Comp_Geek_573
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28 Oct 2011, 7:41 pm

Here in the USA, it's typically 90% or higher for an A, 80% for a B, 70% for a C and 60% for a D, and an F for anything lower. Pluses and minuses can be appended to it, usually for being within 2-3 percentage points of a cutoff. And sometimes the pluses and minuses count in the GPA (as they do at my school.)

Every class I've had has done either a straight-points system (A is worth X points, B is worth Y points, etc.) or a weighted average (quizzes are 15%, homework is 10%, tests are 50%, etc.) with points for different items in each category. I've heard of classes where they don't track "points" at all and just subjectively assign a grade at the end! I would HATE that.

What's it like at your school? I'm particularly interested in non-USA systems.


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28 Oct 2011, 8:30 pm

I'm in the USA. At my university the possible grades for letter-graded coursework, at least for undergrads, are:

A (4.0)
A- (3.67)
B+ (3.33)
B (3.0)
B- (2.67)
C+ (2.33)
C (2.0)
C- (1.67)
D+ (1.33)
D (1.0)
F (0.0)

(There are other "special" grades like W if you withdrew from a class, P for pass/fail classes, etc.)

I think this is probably the most typical scheme for the USA.

If your GPA is below 2.0 you're in trouble, even though C-/D+/D aren't considered failing, you might as well have failed, to the point where I'm not entirely sure why those grades exist (most requirements are only fulfilled with a C or better, minimum GPA for good academic standing is 2.0, etc.).

As for how the class is graded, I think some departments and/or schools have specific grading policies, but the university as a whole does not if the department/school does not have such a policy (and to my knowledge most don't) then it is totally up to the professor. I've seen pretty much every grading scheme imaginable from ones that are point-based and extremely precise, to ones that basically amount to the professor just giving you whatever grade they feel you deserve. In practice even with a point-based system the professor can fudge it to get whatever result they want. You're going to get whatever grade they think you deserve.



Sath96347
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28 Oct 2011, 10:49 pm

Here in Texas, public school, it's:
0%-69% is an F
70%-74% is a D
75%-79% is a C
80%-89% is a B
90%-100% is an A



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29 Oct 2011, 1:20 am

I'm in the US, in undergrad we actually got a "grade point" in each class--the scale was the same generally, but for example a 95-100% was a 4.0, 94% was 3.9, 93 was 3.8, 90 was 3.5 and so on. This was the case in most classes but occasionally there was a yakker in a curved class, I had a 2-quarter class (the hardest class, and the most awesome class, I ever took in undergrad) where I got a 58% in the first quarter and it was a 2.6, then I stepped it up and got an 86% in the second quarter and it was a 2.1.

That class busted my major GPA big time, that class single-handedly brought it down from like a 3.7 to a 3.4.

At any rate the system was a lil weird but more so overly complicated, and overall it probably worked to my advantage because I got a lot of B+ grades that went on my GPA as 3.3-3.4 instead of 3.0 (as it probably would have in a standard grading system).


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Comp_Geek_573
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29 Oct 2011, 1:30 am

+/- does count +/- 0.3 in the GPA at my school, other than A+ which counts the same as A. However, I did have one class that did not use +/- grades, and I ended up with an 88.6% that turned into just 3.0 in my GPA.


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29 Oct 2011, 1:57 am

Yea that sucks.

I had an 89.43% in a class my first semester of grad school (needing an 89.45 to round up to an A), getting a 3.0 for that was pretty punishing.

Welcome to a new grading system :lol:

But ultimately it has been probably to my advantage because I've also gotten a lot of low A's that were graded as 4.0 instead of the 3.6 or 3.7 they would have been in undergrad.


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29 Oct 2011, 3:23 pm

It's on a 7 point scale.

93-100 = A

85-92 = B

78-84 = C

...and so on.


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30 Oct 2011, 8:26 am

We have a 5.0 scale, but getting a 5.0 is impossible because you would have to exclude mandatory classes (like Oral Com, Health, and PE) from your final grade. 5.0 is the grading scale used for accel classes and AP classes.

So the accel scale is this:

A - 5.0
B - 4.0
C - 3.0
D - 2.0
F - 0.0

And the regular/remedial grading scale is this:

A - 4.0
B - 3.0
C - 2.0
D - 1.0
F - 0.0

Then they have two GPAs. So, say you had AP English, Accel Physics, Geometry (regulars), AP Euro, and Health. Those go to your academic GPA. If you had Art and Woodshop, those would be averaged into your "nonacademic GPA" along with all of your other classes.

So if your report card was this:

AP Eng. A
Accel Phys. B
Geo. B
AP Euro. A
Health. A
Art. A
Woodshop. B

Then your academic GPA would be a 4.2.
Your non-academic GPA would be a 4.0.

However, our teachers are butts and make it so that if you let your grade slip to a B, it will NEVER be an A again.



childerico
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30 Oct 2011, 3:04 pm

In Brazil the schools have the autonomy to grade the students as they want and my school have a 10.0 scale. We have small tests(2 or 3 for each subject) that worth 10 together and a big test(one for each subject) at the end of the bimester that also worth 10, than they add up both grades and divide the total by two. If it's less than five, you flunk.



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30 Oct 2011, 3:15 pm

Hard.



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06 Nov 2011, 4:08 pm

In Norway, schools use number grades from 1-6, with 1 being the lowest and 6 the highest. Though, you really only get 1 if you don't do the project at all.



Comp_Geek_573
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07 Nov 2011, 10:20 pm

Funny, German grades are the reverse! 1 is the best, 6 is the worst and I think 4-6 are failing.


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Foxx
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08 Nov 2011, 3:23 am

The Danish system is primarily made to be compatible with the 7 point ECTS scale:

12 Exemplary presentation. Supposed to be the same as an A for Americans, but it's harder to get, as many teachers still work within the mindset of the old "13" scale, where the top grade (13) was given to exceptional presentations (in percentages, that woud vary from about 95-97% depending on the teacher). ECTS= A

10 Very good presentation. ECTS = B

7 Good presentation ECTS = C

4 Average presentation ECTS = D

02 Aquedate presentation ECTS = E. Anything below 02 is considered failing

00 Inaquedate presentation ECTS = Fx

-3 The bad presentation ECTS = F

These numbers are then calculated into an average. In school the average as calculated as normal, but in college, a multiplier is added depending on the grade of a given subject.

College-level subjects are divided into A,B and C-grade, with A-grade being the most difficult. A gives a multiplier of 2, B is 1.5 and C-grade subjects has a multiplier of 1

Consider this mockup report card:

English A: 10
Danish A: 7
Physics B: 7
Chemistry C: 4
Design C: 4

the calculation would then be: ((10*2)+(7*2)+(7*1.5)+4+4)/5 = An average of 10.5. However it's possible to get an average above 12

AFAIK, In Sweden it's much simpler: Passed or Not Passed :D

But what baffles me is that noone just considered a scale of 1 to 10... Hats off to Norway and Germany at least being part of the way there... :)



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08 Nov 2011, 5:46 pm

Foxx wrote:
But what baffles me is that noone just considered a scale of 1 to 10... Hats off to Norway and Germany at least being part of the way there... :)


This is not true. The dutch do actually. I know many dutch people and spent about a year in the netherlands. They have a 1 - 10 scale. With 1 being very bad and 10 being outstanding which is again near impossible to get unless you study like no tomorrow. Most people get about an 8 which is an A. 6 and above is a pass which is equal to the British C grade and 5 and under is fail which D and below.

They are also more oragnised with having exams at the age of 12 which then based on those results put you into a school with people of similar abilities. They have one for VMBO which is the lowest, HAVO which is the middle people, VMO which is the top and you get 50% of your lessons in dutch and 50% in English. They also have diffenrent years on which you graduate. VMBO 16, HAVO 17 and VMO 18 which all then go onto a different type of education. This part make no sense to me.