Re: Grades at Princeton (Was: UCLA physics course (non-rant))

[John Mallinckrodt <ajmallinckro@CSUPOMONA.EDU>]

On Tue, 12 Oct 1999, Jon Bell wrote:

> I happened to read in today's newspaper a report that Princeton is
> considering eliminating the A+ grade which carries a weight of 4.3 in GPA
> rankings.  Some people feel that it's become too common and is fueling
> grade inflation there.  And some departments give more of them than
> others.  The worst offenders apparently are... get ready for this... the
> science and engineering departments!

I can kind of see how that might happen.  My sense is that science and
engineering courses generally produce the largest variations in
performance between those who "get it" and those who don't.  In
disciplines with smaller variations, a professor might have a hard time
justifying a sigma of more than one letter grade and, since they've "gotta
give some A's," the grades all end up between A and C.  Still, there's
no particular need to give A+'s; after all the sigma could be
substantially larger and still be easily accommodated by making use of the
more traditional D's and F's.

In the sciences, the A+ can provide a much needed escape valve for "excess
performance variation" and end up being used more often even if the
average grade is still quite low.

Well, it's *just* a theory, (like evolution?)

John Mallinckrodt      mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
Cal Poly Pomona          http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm