Why do letter grades and GPA systems exist?

[Machiavelli]

Chas: you know that SOLs are POSs tho

[RallyRed 98]

yes, any decision to drop out is yours.

but imagine you hate school and don't even bother to try and the administrators call you in to the office to tell you that it's okay if you want to leave. they then tell you that they will set you up with a program to get your equivalency easier and faster than putting up with x-y more years of high school. seems pretty cherry to me. this is ALL just a big game of CYA.

"SOL" as an acronym has another entirely different definition, and that's the way teachers see it as far as i can tell.

[98v6]

isn't the whole point to learn? i mean education... ?

I always thought measuring performance can be decent motivation but the way they do things takes it too far. You get caught up in the grades and forget the stuff as soon as you get out of the class because you hate it so much. I actually had a prof who agreed with me on that, got an A+ in his class because he was a great teacher and the way he put forth the information, there was just no way to miss it. I guess not all teachers are as good as him, and that is why performance measurement is necessary, but on the other hand there's such a thing as taking it too far...

[Mighty Thor]

I want to know why C, C+, B- and B is not accepted any more in your core major. You have to have B+ to A in order to get your graduate degree.

I was really absent when I got a B- from a really bad, unorganized teacher. And they put me on academic probation this quarter. It discouraged me from pursuing my graduate degree.

I mean who really cares about that when in the real world employers are looking for experience. I would go then and pursue that experience.

Sorry...good topic though.

[chas]

as far as dropping out becuase the SOL test might be difficult and you will lower the schools score -- wrong move. consistently low scores from a particular school is going to raise eyebrows. the purpose of the SOL is to test students but also to test how well they have been educated. further is the SOL is anything like the similar exams i took way back, it was much easier than any of the regular exams. no essay questions, just multiple choice.

as for needing a B+ or better in your core major for graduate programs i guess i dont see a problem with this. particularly since the graduate programs in some of the bigger schools (you know 'H') give you a C just for showing up to class. it wouldnt do to have their graduate students failing their core couses. they are paying for the education so give it to them.

as for dropping out at the advice from some administrator (particularly a guidance counselor) at high school. consider the source. if they want you to do something you should run the other way as fast as possible. your grades are irrelevant when it comes to the SAT. take the SAT anyway. while college dont consider just your SAT score you should atleast show that you are willing to try and put forth the effort. "oh i didnt take the SAT since it probably would have been hard". sounds good doesnt it?

[of course, i am with stefan all the way. everyone should get A's since we are all special in our own way. no one is better than anyone else. everyone is a winner.]

[Dan M]

Nobody should get "As!" Or Bs, or Cs, or Ds, or Fs. Bah! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I think I need a C average in my undergrad major classes, a B+ would be hard. Since college professors are not required to know how to teach (becoming another pet peeve), I find it hard to learn from most of them. Especially computer science professors, they're almost worthless.

[RallyRed 98]

Originally posted by chas:
as far as dropping out becuase the SOL test might be difficult and you will lower the schools score -- wrong move. consistently low scores from a particular school is going to raise eyebrows. the purpose of the SOL is to test students but also to test how well they have been educated. further is the SOL is anything like the similar exams i took way back, it was much easier than any of the regular exams. no essay questions, just multiple choice.

this would be right, but teachers teach the exam and the official goverment line. this is where the libertarians here should be furious.

consistently low scores do raise eyebrows; that's why they ask the students who are helping get low scores to leave. i guess you must have meant that consistently HIGH scores will raise eyebrows. they are smarter than just kicking out all the kids with bad test grades. this reminds me of being in the 6th grade... we had to bring home all of our papers and worksheets and stuff on fridays to show our parents. some kids got the bright idea that you could just throw away some of the bad papers... but even then they were smart enough not to throw ALL the bad ones out, just the ones that were really bad.

we all got in trouble for that. [img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img]

i'm not arguing against grades, but there are good and bad sides to every education bill that comes down the pike, even ones by legislators that i like.

[chas]

nope. i think students should insist on taking the test. they should take the advice of a teacher/counselor who tells them to "drop out now before taking the test". they are skewing the results by doing so. if you are going to drop out of school you might as well screw them over as much as possible and take the SOL.