Muhammad Adil Inam

2020-10-0180
Furrha Ahsan
Writing and Communication- SS 100
March 16, 2017.

Letter Grading System Over Pass Fail System of Evaluation

Imagine a student walking out of an Examination Hall after taking an exam he has
burnt the midnight oil for. Imagine that he worked hard, day and night for that particular exam.
He attended all the lectures, made all the notes, did all the readings, attended all the tutorials
and practiced all the necessary material. Consequently, he passes with flying colors and did
substantially better than the rest of the class. Now as he is walking out of the Examination Hall,
his best friend shows up who did not attend any lecture, wasted the entire time procrastinating
and just went through some notes and past papers in the last few hours before the exam. Turns
out, that it was an exam based on pass-fail system of evaluation and both of them passed. Both
of them get the same status that is passing the exam. Is it really fair to the person who worked
so much harder and performed so much better in the exam that he ended up with the same final
evaluation as his best friend? Did he and his best friend deserve the same final grade or
appreciation? Was the person really appreciated for all his hard work and effort? Will that person
be actually motivated to work hard in the future? Will his best friend be really able to know his
weaknesses and work on them with this pass-fail system of evaluation? All these questions lead
to the very reasoning that although the letter grading system of evaluation can be tough and
competitive at times, the educators should endorse it because it allows a better overall
evaluation of the students, promotes hard work and is fair to those who work hard to excel.
Letter grading system provides easy assessment on the part of students, parents
and teachers. The detailed report card makes it very easy for the students to look at the bigger
picture, to analyze how they performed with respect to certain subjects and helps them to
understand their shortcomings. Letter grading system provides the students with the information
about the areas of the subject matter in which they are lagging behind and therefore allows them
to work on their flaws and improve them with time. The assessment called self-assessment,
keeps the student well informed about his/her understanding and learning for the subject matter
(Rowntree 27). Similarly, the parents can easily assess how their kids are doing in the academia
by just looking at their grades and can help them by putting in more effort with the subjects their
child is struggling with as compared to the others. Moreover, letter grading system is also very
helpful and useful for the instructors to get a clearer picture of how their students are doing in
the class. By comparing the number of students who got an A or an equivalent grade with those
who got a D or an F, the instructor can analyze their teaching methods and work on them for the
furtherance of the students’ learning. Similarly, by knowing the particular grades of different
students and the particular areas the students are struggling with, the instructor can work on
each of them separately according their specific needs. Meanwhile, the pass-fail grading system
keeps the students unaware of their shortcomings and does not allow much room for
improvement.
According to the Incentive theory of Motivation(citation), people are motivated
to work harder for something because of some reward that they might get out of it. In case of
Letter grading system, the grades play the role of incentives. A student who gets a D or a C per
se is motivated to work harder in future and aim for an A or A-. Similarly, a student who gets an
A is motivated by the appreciation he gets and consequently he works even harder to maintain
it. But if, on the other hand, the only incentive is getting passing marks, it is an undeniable fact
that students will tend to get overly relaxed as people tend to do better when they have a specific
goal instead of a generic one. The motivation to get better and improve, diminishes for the
students evaluated by pass fail system. In the pass-fail grading system, students do less of the
required reading, attend fewer classes and spend less time studying for these subjects (Karlins,
Kaplan, and Stuart 38). Getting either a D or an A counts the same as passing and as long as one
passes one’s commitment to the subject does not matter.
The letter grading system is source of a healthy competitive environment in
schools and colleges. Although it can be really tough and stressful at times, it teaches the students
to cope with stress and competition and prepares them for practical life. The students evaluated
by Pass-fail system of grading, on the other hand, may get away with having to compete in the
short run but this system is very ineffective in the long term. The practical life is going to be a
tough and merciless path for such students because practical life is not about passing or failing
at something. It is always moving forward towards excellence.
However,The proponents of pass fail system of evaluation argue that it reduces
the amount of stress on students, increases group cohesion among them and may cause a
decrease in the use of unfair means such as cheating in examinations. According to a study
conducted by in Mayo Medical School, Rochester, Minn in 2006, students evaluated by the pass-
fail system perceived less amount of strain (median, 15.0 vs 21.0; P=.01) and greater group
cohesion (median, 34.5 vs 30.0; P=.02) towards the end of the year as compared to the last class
that was evaluated by letter grading system. Thus, without any doubt the pass-fail system is more
tranquil for students but the argument could be made that stress is not really not a bad thing
after all. At one point or another, one has to cope with stress anyways and facing the stress of
getting better grades in school or college can prepare one for the more serious challenges ahead
in the practical life. According to McGonigal,
Stress is harmful, except when it's not. ... Stress increases the risk of health
problems, except when people regularly give back to their communities. Stress
increases the risk of dying, except when people have a sense of purpose. Stress
increases the risk of depression, except when people see a benefit in their
struggles. Stress is paralyzing, except when people perceive themselves as
capable. Stress is debilitating, except when it helps you perform. Stress makes
people selfish, except when it makes them altruistic. So how do we incorporate
this new thinking into the way we look at personal growth.
 According to some educators, letter-grade system of grading is one of the main reasons
that students use unfair means such as cheating to get better grades at times. While it has some
truth to it but the thing is that cheating cannot be attributed alone to this factor. There are certain
other more important factors such as poor invigilation, inadequate preparation and peer
pressure etc. Whereas letter grading system is the least contributing factor in tis case. Moreover,
it does not mean that in pass-fail system students are not tempted to cheat or use unfair means.
For instance, they will get more relaxed and lazy, study less and end up cheating anyways to
improvise.
In conclusion, there are certain pros and cons to both the systems of evaluation.
While on one hand pass-fail system of evaluation can alleviate the stress level in student and
allow them to work in groups there are certain cons to it as well. It promotes laziness in students
and does not provide a healthy competitive environment to the students. It can be very unfair to
the hard-working students who do way better than their peers but end up with the same passing
grade. Moreover, the incentive to work harder for most student is lost and students are not
motivated as such to work harder as they are in the letter grade system of evaluation. Similarly,
the letter grade system of evaluation can be very tough, strenuous and stressful for the students,
It has more pros associated to it in the long term. So, even though the pass-fail system of
evaluation may seem attractive in some aspects, the educators should endorse and continue with
the letter grade system of evaluation in the institutions as it gives a straight forward assessment
of the student’s strengths and shortcomings, provides a healthy and competitive environment
and gets the best out of the student’s abilities.
References
Karlins, Marvin, Martin Kaplan and William Stuart. “Academic Attitudes and
Performance as a Function Differential Grading Systems: An Evaluation of Princeton’s
Pass- Fail System.” The Journal of Experimental Education 1969: 38. JSTOR Journals. Web.
23 Oct. 2016.
McGonigal, Kelly. The upside of stress: Why Stress is Good For You, And How To
Get Good At it. New York: Avery,2015. Discovery eBooks. Web. 23 Oct. 2016
Rowntree, Derek. Assessing students how shall we know them. London: Harper
and Row Ltd, 1997. Print.