HS students: what's a 'C' on your grade scale?

[ShawnD]

Why is it that the US is consistently not ranked near the top in science and math scores on tests when compared to other nations, but we produce a lot of the top scientists in almost every field?

St00pid people bring down the average


In Alberta, Canada, we don't have letters. It's numbers all the way. 49 and lower is a fail. 80 and up is honors.
University used to use the 9 point grade system, but they recently switched over to the 4 point system. I don't really know how either system works.


edit: I didn't realize an Albertan had already posted

Highschools in Alberta use just a percentage. The Average grade to get into university is 86%, (comming from high school). To get scholarships and what not you need a for sure <90%. Also it is important to remember that the average scores on the Final Exams are 75%. Alot of people don't get into university there first try...

So therefore "our" (canadian) education system does not allow people to get through too easily.

Are you sure you live in the same province as me? University of Alberta accepted me into engineering with a 79% average and I was almost failing English (passed English 30 with a 54%). I opted out of that and went to NAIT instead. NAIT is a well accredited school even though it takes people who have a 65% average or better. My current average is 84%, and I'm elligable for a LOT of scholarships; no less than 20. Getting them is tricky though because there are hundreds of other people applying for them.

 

[JamesU]

Here's my Percent Range/Letter Grading system if it's of any help:

(Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Schools)
90 - 100 A+
85 - 90 A
80 - 84 A-

77 - 79 B+
74 - 76 B
70 - 73 B-

67 - 69 C+
64 - 66 C
60 - 63 C-

Same patterning goes on with <50 = F

-Art

OMFG I wish I was at your school. I bet everyone passes there!

 

[ShawnD]

OMFG I wish I was at your school. I bet everyone passes there!

You'd be surprised how easy it is to fail. University is hard, especially when the person marking your stuff is an idiot. For one report I did, I lost no less than 20% because of 1 mistake in a 10 page report. I forgot to Q-test out a value (outlier), and everything based on that was marked wrong. Mean? Wrong! Standard deviation? Wrong! T score, F score? Comparing methods? All wrong!

It depends who marks your papers. Seriously.

 

[T@P]

where i live, its really relaxed, (college), like 88+ is an A, 75+ is a B, 60something is a C, and below is bad.

but sadly if you screw up one one question in an exam lose 17 points...

 

[Artermis]

OMFG I wish I was at your school. I bet everyone passes there!

You don't know my school. Failing isn't considered a possibility, and excellence isn't an option, it's required. =(

 

[JamesU]

It kinda seems that way with your grading system

 

[Data]

The grade scale tells you nothing about how easy it is to pass or fail (as others have explained).

 

[ek]

Instead of putting money into their education system, the US government just tells schools to inflate grades and makes the SAT way easier to disguise the bigger problem, which is the US school system sucks and is getting worse and worse every year.

I posted my HS grade scheme earlier in the thread, here is my university scheme, in case anybody is interested:

University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada)

90 - A+
85 - A
80 - A-
75 - B+
70 - B
65 - B-
60 - C+
55 - C
50 - D
<50 - F

 

[Andromeda321]

*Looks at grades, makes plans to transfer to the University of Victoria*

 

[sanfty]

a c at my school here in dallas is around about 13-15%

 

[Mikey2788]

My high school is the similar to sisters in terms of grading, and my School is in the middle of no where: Thorndike Maine. Never heard of the the city of Thorndike before? well its because its a cow-farm town, not a city. My school has less than 600 students, and there are only 15 desktop computers in the library and they never work. but never the less this is how our grading system is

92-100 | A

84-91 | B

77-83 | C

70-76 |D

0-69 |F

 

[calvinuk]

In England (Where the A-level grades are standardised across the whole of the country) it goes like this:

80-100% A
70-79% B
60-69% C
50-59% D
40-49% E
40> Ungraded.

Around 25% of A-level grades are given as an A.

 

[Jack21222]

Was there a need to bump a 4 year old topic?

 

[pjfoster]

At my old high school (Catholic, Private school in Iowa) the scale was...

93-100 = A
85-92 = B
77-84 = C
70-76 = D
<70 = F

 

[physics girl phd]

At my high school we went A-100-93 B-85-92 C-78-84 D-70-77 F-69 and below.

This scale seems like the same one that was used when I was in public HS (in Ohio).

 

[jtbell]

That's what it was when I was in high school, also in Ohio, about forty years ago. I don't know if it was a statewide system, or simply one that happened to be popular.

Right now, Ohio does not have a common statewide grading scale, according to a blog written by a state Board of Education member:

http://www.stateofohioeducation.com/2008/09/gpa-and-grading-scales-local-or-state.html

But Texas and South Carolina, for example, do have standard grading scales.

As I said before in this thread (four years ago! egad!), I see no reason to obsess about grading scales when the instructor writes the tests, assigns partial credit, etc. The instructor can simply "grade to the scale" or "design to the scale," whether consciously or unconsciously.

 

[Wellesley]

At my old high school (Catholic, Private school in Iowa) the scale was...

93-100 = A
85-92 = B
77-84 = C
70-76 = D
<70 = F

Same here (Catholic, Private, Michigan), except this is for the Honors and AP Classes. All the other classes have A = 90-100, B=80-90, etc.

As I said before in this thread (four years ago! egad!), I see no reason to obsess about grading scales when the instructor writes the tests, assigns partial credit, etc. The instructor can simply "grade to the scale" or "design to the scale," whether consciously or unconsciously.

Oh how I wish this were true! At my high school, especially in the AP classes, there are no curves on tests, or extra credit...and the tests are not easy.

 

[jtbell]

At my high school, especially in the AP classes, there are no curves on tests, or extra credit...and the tests are not easy.

But who writes the tests (and picks the questions)? Are they true/false or multiple choice where credit for a question is all or nothing, or are they the kind of question where you can get partial credit based on your work? My point is that someone who's taught a subject for a while, to similar groups of students, can adjust the difficulty and/or grading of tests to get a grade distribution that reflects his "gut feelings" about how well students should perform.

It's been a long time since I was in high school, and I don't remember much about the tests I took then. Certainly for essays and essay-type questions in non-science courses there was partial credit. But I don't remember what my chemistry and physics tests were like. AP courses didn't exist back then, at least not at my high school, but I was in an "accelerated" track and was able to take two years of both chemistry and physics, and a year of calculus.

 

[Wellesley]

But who writes the tests (and picks the questions)? Are they true/false or multiple choice where credit for a question is all or nothing, or are they the kind of question where you can get partial credit based on your work? My point is that someone who's taught a subject for a while, to similar groups of students, can adjust the difficulty and/or grading of tests to get a grade distribution that reflects his "gut feelings" about how well students should perform.

It's been a long time since I was in high school, and I don't remember much about the tests I took then. Certainly for essays and essay-type questions in non-science courses there was partial credit. But I don't remember what my chemistry and physics tests were like. AP courses didn't exist back then, at least not at my high school, but I was in an "accelerated" track and was able to take two years of both chemistry and physics, and a year of calculus.

To use AP Calculus as an example...the tests were mainly free response, with partial credit given according to the guidelines the College Board uses to grade the AP exams.

With regards to the grading scale, you are correct, the teachers do have the opportunity to adjust the tests, and the grades. In my case, the teacher didn't...

 

[moo5003]

US, California (% to grade) - Public School in LA
93-100 = A (4.0)
90-93 = A- (3.7)
87-90 = B+ (3.3)
83-87 = B (3.0)
80-83 = B- (2.7)
77-80 = C+ (2.3)
73-77 = C (2.0)
70-73 = C- (1.7)
60-70 = D (1.0)
<60 = F (0)

Then each teacher had their own ability to shift the grades as they wanted (curve etc etc etc).

 

[Bourbaki1123]

Mine were as follows:

93-100 = A
85-92 = B
77-84 = C
70-76 = D
0-69 =F

Standard 7 point grading scale. I was relieved when I got to college and found out how much slack you get.

 

[jgg]

(Highschool)
A - (95 - 100)
B - (88 - 94)
C - (76 - 87)
D - (70 - 75)
F - (69 and below)

EDIT: Public school.

 

[Wellesley]

(Highschool)
A - (95 - 100)
B - (88 - 94)
C - (76 - 87)
D - (70 - 75)
F - (69 and below)

EDIT: Public school.

Yikes. Do your teachers curve the tests? How about the GPA?

 

[jgg]

Yikes. Do your teachers curve the tests? How about the GPA?

Tests are sometimes curved; not usually. GPA is not curved. The only "help" we get is with AP/honors classes; you get a slight grade multiplier at the end of the semester. I look at it this way: when I go to college and 'only' get a 91, I won't be disappointed.

Second thought: we're also not allowed to have a GPA above a 4.0. So if you do what I did and forget to turn something in and get a 94 in biology, you can never bring your GPA back up above a 4.0. But most colleges ask for the GPA out of a 4.0 scale, so I guess it doesn't matter.

 

[fluidistic]

Here in Argentina we deal with a decimal scale. Curiously in Physics II (thermodynamics) we are evaluated by A-B-C-D letters. C is a fail as D.
They don't curve any test nor exam even if 75% of the class fail on the final exam and must retake it a year later, or 6 months later. By the time students can delay in their path and graduate in more than 5 years for the bachelor's degree. The good side of this system is that it let pass only the students that really know the material. A 4/10 is a success but corresponds roughly to do well 60% of the exam.
So to answer this thread, a C is around 40-59% and is a fail.

 

[Wellesley]

Second thought: we're also not allowed to have a GPA above a 4.0. So if you do what I did and forget to turn something in and get a 94 in biology, you can never bring your GPA back up above a 4.0. But most colleges ask for the GPA out of a 4.0 scale, so I guess it doesn't matter.

So you can have over a 4.0, but only the first time? If you take an AP/honors class and get an A (with an initial GPA of 3.9), you can't get over a 4.0?

 

[jgg]

So you can have over a 4.0, but only the first time? If you take an AP/honors class and get an A (with an initial GPA of 3.9), you can't get over a 4.0?

Right. You can never correct that; once you get a B or lower, you can a 117 in every class after that, but they cut the grades off at 100 so you'll get a 3.989 but will never get a 4.0.

 

[screw.jack]

Yes, it's just a percentage. 90 = 90% correct

Dracovich, I agree with you - there should be a universal system, but I don't know if there is any hope of ever having an international standard for grading if the U.S. scales aren't even consistent among public schools in the same state!

That's why the SAT scores are way more important than the gpa in an application to universities.

 

[screw.jack]

Yes, it's just a percentage. 90 = 90% correct

Dracovich, I agree with you - there should be a universal system, but I don't know if there is any hope of ever having an international standard for grading if the U.S. scales aren't even consistent among public schools in the same state!

Plus, even if there was a universal system, it would be useless as you can't just compare the grades of two people from two different schools.