Group: Hunters FBE Writing 2 Lecturer: Le Thi Bich Thuy, M.A.

Grade inflation, does this concept really exist? Writing about this hot issue, Stuart Rojstaczer and
Phil Primack had their own approach. The former focuses on the effect of grade inflation while
the latter pays more attention to analyzing its reasons.
In particular, Stuart Rojstaczer shows how bad grading system has been by giving stasistics of
the average GPA at public school is 3.0 and even higher at some private school. This seems to be
alarming but it’s not entirely persuasive as the audience expects to see the average GPA in the
past to compare with the present number that he presents. He then mentions “a recent study of
more than 30000 first-year students across the country” (Rojstaczer) which shows that students
are left with a huge amount of time to spare, leading to poor educational quality and possible
drinking habit. Indeed, many students get high marks because they can feel that their study load
nowadays is not as heavy as that of half century ago and they are really smarter than the previous
generations. After that, he gives some case examples of Princeton University, Wellesley and
Reed College which keep grade inflation in check to prove that “grade inflation is a complicated
issue with no easy fix”(Rojstaczer). His purpose is to encourage colleges and universities to
bring down inflated grade and motivate real learning.
Similarly, in Phil Primack’s case, grade inflation shows itself by the change in students’ mindset
of what is considered as good grade now. From Primack’s personal case, back in the late 1960s,
B was a dream and for now, it stands for a transcript wrecker. However, his personal experience
is not a typical example to prove grade inflation. He also uses the case of Harvard University to
strengthen his argument “About 15% of Harvard students got a B- plus or better in 1950. In
2007, more than half of all Harvard grades were in the A range”(Primack). This evidence seems
less persuasive than Rojstaczer since it was just one school and the consensus here is that
students increasingly get easier grades than their parents or grandparents used to. He then
concerntrates on analyzing the reasons leading to grade inflation, which is not the part that Stuart
Rojstaczer puts an emphasis on. The reasons behind this issue is professors’ concern about the
number of students attending classes. They fear that if the grades were low, students wouldn’t
attend their classes. In my opinion, high grade is necessary, but knowledge is more important
and students like high grades, but they love knowledge more. Grade can’t help students stand on
their career path forever.
Moreover, there are counterarguments to Phil Primack’s issue. He doubts the validity of the
claim: the increase of GPA has been due to better preparation on the students’ part. He doesn’t
provide analysis for this counterargument and then says that the responsibility belongs to top
officials.
Both Phil and Stuart suggests the idea that universities and top educational officials should
implement policies and guidelines to bring down inflated grades and encourage learning.
However, is that really optimal? Students themselves should also play an active role in dealing
with this issue. It’s them who benefits from education and can prove what real learning is by the
time and efforts invested in.