Amanda Reza
Tests, projects and papers: These three words are enough to induce stress in any student. For some NC State students, academic obsessions may go as far as hitting refresh on the MyPack Portal to view grade results.
When pressure is placed upon the importance of good grades, the value of learning for a student changes. Instead of being a valid measure of learning, the definition of grades becomes, “how many questions do I need to get right to achieve a satisfactory validation of my college career?”
The opposite is true as well. If a student realizes they do not need to put in as much effort to receive a good grade, they often do not take the opportunity to challenge themselves due to their busy lives. A friend of mine recently said, “I often find myself calculating how many assignments I can skip and still get an A.”
The better question to ask is, “How can we make the current grading system more effective?”
I am not proposing that grades do not matter and are not helpful. From an academic institution or employer’s standpoint, the grade point average may be a deciding factor in hiring a candidate. According to College Data, GPA, standardized tests and class rank are three of four items rated as the most important deciding factors in accepting students at NC State.
Grade-obsessed students often find themselves stressing over classes instead of enjoying them. If students were restricted from viewing their grades, it could create a healthier mentality toward learning. Students can focus more on enjoying each unit they learn or project they work on instead of worrying.
But wouldn’t this make students lazy? Not knowing the immediate outcome, students would have to work hard without slacking to make sure the end grade is good. This strategy would encourage students to try their best each time rather than demanding the need to adjust studying habits only after bombing a single assignment.
“I check my grades once a week,” said Ramsey Daunch, a freshman majoring in exploratory studies. “If I did not know my grade I may think I am doing better in the class than I really am but it would motivate me to work hard because I would not know if I was doing bad.”
Grades can be useful tools in letting students know how they are doing. Instead of getting rid of the feedback system grades provide, written evaluations or other solutions may be more effective. It is easy to point out the right answer from process of elimination, but an explanation as to why a student’s answer is right or what the most appropriate response would be, would be more useful. It is often easier to learn from an explanation of an individual’s academic performance, rather than a number or a letter.
Using grades can be problematic in that it puts a fixed value on learning. Correctly educated guesses from one student becomes equivalent to material a student understood and knew. In the case of standardized testing, test-taking skills are valued more than learning the course materials.
“I think that the questions on exams that are more thought-provoking should be weighted more than the ones that test using the process or formula,” said Jessica Thomas, a freshman studying aerospace engineering. Her idea offers a plausible approach toward objective grading scales.
For creative assignments, grades run the risk of not being accurately distributed. How can these creative works – subjective learning – be measured by grades, objectively? Professors can easily compare solid arguments from weaker ones in essay formats. But in a case where both essays contain a logical argument, how does someone objectively determine how much better the stronger argument is by a numerical value?
In creative fields, such as among design or textiles majors at NC State, there is often no set right answer, but the end result is instead a culmination of the individual student’s skills represented in a tangible product.
Many professors at NC State acknowledge the difficulties associated in grading assignments. Finding a solution that fits everyone’s needs can be difficult. Some bright students may struggle in not being the best test-takers and each student may have different learning needs. What makes improving the grading scale challenging is finding a fair and accurate scale toward the subjectivity measuring of knowledge.