Grades: Given or earned?

[Sikeliot]

I've encountered two stances in the time I have been in college and high school.

1) The grades are "given" stance.

People who think this, tend to believe that teachers will alter the grades of their students depending on whether they like them or not. They believe that in classes with curved grades (i.e. pre-med classes in college, science classes), the teacher wants only a certain percentage of the class to get an A, and they will be like "I want 10% of my class to get an A", so of the top 10%, the lowest grade in that percentile becomes the boundary for an A. In circumstances like this, where a grade is not your raw score out of 100, some believe the grade is "given". Also considering that essays and projects are subjectively interpreted, others say that the grade is given.

2) The grades are "earned" stance.

People who believe this, such as myself, believe that whatever requirements, grading style, or method of interpreting work a teacher sets, you have to meet that standard and you thus earn your grade relative to how well you can do so. Under this point of view, complaining that the grades you receive are "unfair" or "I didn't deserve a C" is ridiculous, since a grade is a reflection of how much you know, how well you meet the teacher's criteria, and the extent of effort or ability you have demonstrated. People who believe this think that even with curved grades for instance, if the teacher decides that only 10% of the class can get an A in say, a competitive pre-med science course in college, if you want to be one of the ones getting an A, you have to work to earn that grade and be within that tenth percentile in the class (I don't know how often this approach is taken but if it is, you have to meet the teacher's standard!)

[EagleAtHeart]

It's a mix of both really.

At my University, the administration has pushed for multiculturalism. To give you an example of how far it's gone: I'm one of two white people in my whole building and sometimes the only white person in my classes.

I will say that I have yet to get below a 90% in any of my Humanities courses. They bell-curve the marks to appeal to the ethnic crowd...Arabs, Blacks, Asians, etc. to make it seem like this institution is a exemplar of "diversity".

For my Humanities courses, I never read any books, just Amazon book reviews, cut and pasted my essays from online, and I get over 90% in all of them. i did have an interest in a course i took this summer about North American History, and I finished with a 97% -- which is way inflated compared to the effort I put in, however.

I'm majoring in Finance and a Minor in Math for Finance, so those courses are hard to bell-curve. I usually only see Asian, Jews, and Europeans in these classes. Also, the Natural Science courses I'm required to take (Physics, Chemistry, etc.) are the same.

People taking Liberal Arts, Social Studies, Feminist Studies, etc. have no Math or Natural Science requirements for their degree, so even a mentally retarded person can get one of those degrees imo.

[Sikeliot]

boyinblue, so you're saying they accept a "diverse" student body and then lower the grading requirements so that they all do well?

[Incel King]

Earned off course, even underrated.

[antonio]

Current high education trends are in the way of given grades based in just daily work and paying expensive fees. Mine was a hard earned one (based on difficult and time-consuming final exams) in the cheap: less than 600$ for year. Unfortunatelly in Spain the reward/difficulty ratio of Computer Science is ridiculous comparing with Medicine, Humanities, etc,etc,etc...

Ps. At Spain grades were rigid structures: and all the hard stuff were unavoidable. Now, people resort to European interchanges to easen in a foreign country the difficulties of Spanish courses.

[Stefan]

Grades might or might not be accurate gauges of knowledge. It truly depends on the context of the situation. Furthermore, there is a component of achieving a certain grade that has no role in giving knowledge or skills, but rather acts as a means of busy work, where the value of completing, an assignment for example, is minimal past its value as a grade. I am strongly a proponent of independent learning, and hence feel that grades aren't the only thing to consider in an individual, as they're based heavily on environmental conditions. This means they're not 1:1 correlative to ability, although there IS a correlation. A single grade might be skewed, but a GPA or QPA is quite clearly representative of an individual, unless they have a chronic problem - such as an illness: both physical and mental.

[Contusion]

Personally I have encountered classes in college where grades were essentially just given and others where grades were truly earned.

I think it all heavily depends on the Professor. I've had Professors before who would cater to the class so much (i.e. extending due dates, providing extra credit on exams, dropping the lowest test grade at semesters end) to where they would make it difficult for any one student to really fail the course. It seemed as if the class were set up to allow even the most disinterested of students into getting by with an average grade. Although some may argue that this is not exactly giving out good grades, I would argue that if a lackluster student were to pull off an 'A' in light of all the professors support that would absolutely devalue the 'A' earned by a truly exceptional student in the same class.

[Stefan]

I think it is a matter of how you view grades. If you view them as a sort of capital for credibility, then yes, it does devalue the grade.

If you view them as a means for self-improvement, then an A in a course means you've done the best you can do (within that course) and hence you must look elsewhere for signs of self-improvement, if anywhere.

I personally choose to look at grades via the second methodology rather than the first.

[Kazimiera]

Definitely earned. As nobody is 100% unbiased, the teacher's favourite WILL have higher grades, and the person who is not the teacher's favourite might have lower grades even though they might be better than teacher's pet.

I work in the medical profession, and I can tell you now, I want NOBODY looking after a family member of mine whose grades were given and not earned.

EDIT: If the person is 1% away from a distinction, for example, then they can "find" that 1% there somewhere.

[Kale]

I would say some are given, but "earned" is kind of sugar coating it a bit. The "earned" portion is essentially bending over and receiving whatever may enter.

[Anusiya]

At this point, where no University degrees play any role on whether someone will thrive or not, I don't see the importance. It depends on the university's standards, and specifically those of the teacher.

[Vesuvian Sky]

Definitely, a little from column 'A' and a little from column 'B'.

[bocc]

It depends on the institution you are attending.

[Breedingvariety]

I would say some are given, but "earned" is kind of sugar coating it a bit. The "earned" portion is essentially bending over and receiving whatever may enter.
I agree with the above quote.

If you identify yourself with the requirements of educational institution and you view the requirements as fair and universal, you see grades as earned. If you see the requirements of educational institution as twisted and evil on the grand scale or plain stupid on more mundane level, then you see grades as given, because requirements don't depend on you, but grades do.

From the point of view of institution, students earn grades, from the point of view of students, they get grades, unless students identify with institution by negation of their own will or should I say Intelligence. Often there isn't much to negate anyway.

[Cail]

The best institutions are very meritocratic. And the others do not matter anyway, if you want to have a real career. Grades do get earned, and you have to work hard for them. And they do matter definitely, since many entry-level positions in the best companies have strict grade cut-off (i.e. you're not getting into Goldman or BCG if you have a 3.0/4.0 GPA, even if it's from Yale).

[Svipdag]

Anyone who studied under me EARNED his/her grade. I tested for comprehension rather than merely retention. I went to great lengths to avoid knowing whose exam I was grading so as to be as unbiased as possible.

[superhorn]

In courses where there are cut and dried right or wrong answers , or specific skills to be learned , grades indicate how many correct answers
were remembered on tests .
But there are other courses where there are no cut and dried right or wrong answers, and grading by schoolteachers or college professors
is pretty much arbitrary . For example , in classes studying literature , whether English or whatever in school , are very arbitrary , and
based pretty much on blind chance , not knowledge or ability .
Grades do not necessarily show how intelligent, talented , knowledgable , and imaginative a student is . Being able to memorize and
regurgitate correct answers on a test does not necessarily mean that a student is more intelligent or talented than those who are less good
at memoriztion are .

[Proctor]

Anyone who studied under me EARNED his/her grade. I tested for comprehension rather than merely retention. I went to great lengths to avoid knowing whose exam I was grading so as to be as unbiased as possible.

I wish all teachers of any kind were like you.