Is the System Outdated

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Is the System Outdated Since its first use in Harvard University, the A through F grading system has become the common accepted method for schools to use when rating a student’s performance. This method has been used in colleges for nearly two hundred years, and there are some concerns that this system is outdated and not as effective as we would like it to be. There have been several new proposals as to what this newer system would look like, but so far no one has come up with a new system that is largely accepted by educational universities. Now the reasons for wanting to come up with a new system will vary among people: some people believe that it takes away from a student’s learning abilities to have grades involved, others say that the fear triggered by grades is not a positive thing for students to experience. The positive side of the grading system is that it adds a challenge for students that they would not have otherwise; it forces students to acquire critical thinking skills that will help them all throughout their lives. In this case, the good of the system seems to outweigh the bad, and so far, the system seems to be an effective way of determining a student’s understanding of whatever the materials may be. The current grading system we have dictates that, in order to earn an A you have to get anywhere from a 100 percent to a 90 percent, a grade B means you receive a 89 percent to an 80 percent, a C means 79 percent to 70 percent, a D can be anywhere 69 percent to a 60 percent, anything below that means an F grade. Some educational systems have chosen to drop the D grade altogether, and this will affect the percentages of the grade, but overall this is the common percentage system for grading. The percentage to grading is common knowledge among students, and because of this system students are motivated to try and do well enough to that they will
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