Читать книгу How to Succeed At University--International Edition - Danton O'Day - Страница 25

The grading system varies from university to university. Percentages, letter grades, and/or point scales are common evaluation measures. The prevalence of each system depends on the country. Some universities use a complicated grade point system in addition to percentage and letter grades One example involves converting the percentage or letter grade to a 4.0-point scale, as shown in Table 2.1 for the University of Toronto. The grade point ranges used vary between universities, with some calculating grades on 4.33-point, 12-point or other scales.

Since this is of little concern to you at this stage and since the grading system varies so much between institutions, it will not be discussed further. We would like to make a comment about grade points, however. Converting a 100% scale to a 4.0 or other scale with 0.3 or similar gradations (as is done in the system in Table 2.1) homogenizes the marks and distils them to a smaller number, putting students into groups. At the University of Toronto a student who gets 85% is given the same grade as one with 100%, completely destroying the concept of excellence. What’s more, depending on where you fall one percentage point of real marks can be quite significant. A 1% difference can mean either a 0.3 or a 0.4 difference in value (which actually represent 7.5% and 10% differences in grade point value, respectively). Similarly, a student with 80% gets only 0.3 less than a student who gets perfect! This becomes even more ridiculous when different universities then have to recalculate your university’s grade point into their own which further fudges the grade. There are numerous other inequities to the system but the point has been made: all universities should use the full 100% scale because it is fairest to students.