With most schools in the US about to let out for the summer, reader Sarah in California had report cards on her mind. She wrote to ask how letter grades originated, and why no one ever gets an “E.”
Making the Grade
Credit for the idea of grading students’ work quantitatively generally goes to William Farish, a tutor at the University of Cambridge in the late 18th century. The Industrial Revolution was in full swing in Britain, and piecework payment systems—payment based on the number of pieces produced rather than hours worked—were becoming popular even outside of manufacturing. Some schools were paying teachers per student instead of per hour.
Under this payment system, Farish saw that any limit on the number of students he could take on would limit the amount of money he could make. So he followed the lead of the industrialists and devised a teaching tool that would allow him to streamline his work and process more students: grades. The time and effort it took to evaluate students’ work and ideas were reduced considerably by Farish’s grading system (exactly how that system worked is unknown). The system could be scaled up or down easily, too, and worked just as well with 100 kids in the classroom as with 10. Farish could take all the students he could get and rake in the dough.
Update, 10-2010: Dr. Paul Worfel, an Associate Professor of Education at Huntington University in Indiana, has commented below to point out that I did not check my sources carefully enough, and to clear things up a little. Information I was able to find on William Farish on a few websites echo statements made by radio talk show host Thom Hartmann. Worfel, who’s done a bit of research on Farish, has pointed out here and on other sites, that these statements are largely fabrication on Hartmann’s part.
Worfel says below: “Except for the reasonable evidence that Farish started using a numerical grading system in Cambridge in 1792, the rest of the article from a historical basis is fabrication by Hartmann to try and assert his point of view regarding grades… The reason Farish instituted the use of numerical grades was to provide better equity to an oral examination system that was filled with favoritism and bias… Farish would not have improved his financial picture a bit by instituting numerical grades since students were not graded in relationship to lectures. There was only one exam at the end of a three-year study at the university. And that exam was not open to all students, only those determined by the university heads to be possible honors students… [Farish was also] instrumental in promoting a petition for the abolition of slavery [in the] 1780s, instrumental in working with students to organize the Cambridge Auxiliary Bible Society, instrumental in the development Cambridge Missionary Society… In Cambridge he was vicar of the third largest church, but also the poorest, which lead to his involvement in starting schools for the poor children in his parish. I’ve just touched on a few of his accomplishments.
He also points out in the comments on this post from Beyond School: “…Farish used a quantitative system for grading the single exam given Cambridge undergrads. Notice I said single exam. This was the only exam used to score a select few undergrads in what was called the Senate House exam during what we in the US would call the senior year. There were no other exams or papers prior to this point. The grading system was not, as Hartmann claims, used to increase the number of attendees at lectures. In fact attending lectures was quite voluntary. …Farish along with many other fellows recognize there was a good deal of favoritism in the examination process. Farish introduced (this is based on a good deal of circumstantial evidence) numerical grading as a means of providing a more equitable means of differentiating students’ response. Farish didn’t need grading to attract students to his lectures because they were not used in the context of any of his lectures or teaching during Farish’s lifetime.”
My apologies for providing bad info to the readers here, and a big thanks to Dr. Worfel for calling out my blunder and setting things straight.
Grading in the USA
Universities and colleges in America spent the 19th century experimenting with different ways of grading their students with various numerical systems or descriptive adjectives. Yale got the ball rolling in 1785, when it handed out the first grades in America to a group of 58 students taking an exam. Twenty earned an “Optimi,” sixteen got a “Second Optimi,” twelve got an “Inferiore,” and ten got a “Pejores.”
A few other highlights from the early years include Harvard’s first numerical system, which was a scale of 1-200, except for mathematics and philosophy classes, which switched to a 1-100 scale. Yale, meanwhile, started using a four-point scale starting in 1813, switched to a nine-point scale at some point, then went back to four in 1832. Harvard later ditched the numbers and, in 1883, gave out the first reported letter grade in the United States (a “B,” for what its worth). Harvard changed gears again three years later and graded students as Class I, II, III, IV (IV was not quite as good as the first three, but not failing) and V (fail).
In 1897, Mount Holyoke College instituted a letter grade system similar to what is used today (with the exception of an “E” grade), but by the turn of the century, percentage grading on a 100-point scale became the norm and stayed so until the 1940s, when letters again made a resurgence. Recent surveys show that letter grades are the most common grades used in elementary and secondary schools and two- and four-year colleges and universities.
Understanding the System
The ways that percentages correspond to letter grades and GPA point values varies from school to school, but the following grading scale is pretty common.
| Grade | Percentage | GPA value |
| A (highest grade, excellent) |
90-100 | 3.5-4.0 |
| B (above average) | 80-89 | 2.5-3.49 |
| C (average) | 70-79 | 1.5-2.49 |
| D (minimum passing grade, below average) |
60-69 | 1.0-1.49 |
| F (fail) |
0-59 | 0.0 |
Some schools tack a plus or minus onto a letter grade and, if they use a 100-point scale, will usually assign the regular letter grade a value at the middle of a decile, the + grade a value in the top part of the decile and the − grade a value in the bottom part. In other words, getting an 80 to 83 in a class would earn you a B−, an 83.01 to 87 would be a B and 87.01 to 89.99 would get you a B+.
In most schools, an A corresponds to a 4.00 GPA, the highest one can achieve, which makes the A+ a strange beast. Some schools will award A+’s as marks of distinction, but still cap the GPA at 4.00. Others extend the GPA scale beyond an even four and assign an A+ a value of 4.33.
Where’s the E?
Simply put, there’s no E grade because there doesn’t need to be. The only alphabetical intent in the letter grading system is in the four passing grades: A, B, C, and D.
The F comes next not because of a missing E and alphabetical order, but because it stands for “Fail.” Even if F were the last letter in the alphabet, it’d probably be used the same way on report cards and mean the same thing.
The E is actually used in some grading systems, though. Since WWII, some schools, mostly Midwestern, have used E instead of F to denote a failing grade. A few schools even use U (“unsatisfactory”) or N (“no credit”) instead of F.
Grading the Grades?
Since their inception, grades have been the subject of simmering controversy. Critics claim that they’re unreliable and encourage students to take only courses they know they’ll do well in, while proponents say that they’re necessary for the evaluation of student performance. We no doubt have both students and educators out there reading the blog (my girlfriend and I both majored in secondary education for a little while in college), so tell us: does the grading system at your school get an A, or are we better off with a different system—or no grades at all?
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Comments (93)
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I got plenty of E’s in Kindergarten and in 1st-3rd grades. The grading scale was:
E (Excellent)
S (Satisfactory)
N or U (Needs improvement / Unsatisfactory)
posted by Joe on 6-18-2010 at 2:10 pm
I always thought it was because if a student got an F, they could always fudge it into an E by marking an extra line before the parents got a hold of the report card.
posted by KAR on 6-18-2010 at 2:13 pm
At the college that I attended if you got an A- then it was no longer considered a 4.0. It became a 3.7 and so forth down the line, a B- was a 2.7, a C- a 1.7 and I’m guessing a D- was a .7. It kind of stunk if you got all A’s and one of them was an A- because there went your 4.0 for the semester.
posted by Jen on 6-18-2010 at 2:13 pm
At my Midwestern elementary school I got E’s all the time. Our grading system was E (Excellent), S (Satisfactory), M (Mediocre?), maybe U (Unsatifactory) and F (Failing).
posted by Oliver on 6-18-2010 at 2:17 pm
Grades really took off in this nation as a way to compare students to other students. At the onset of the industrial revolution and the assembly line, all employers really cared about was whether Student A was better than Student B. There was very little push to verify whether Student A could actually PERFORM better than B. Employers just wanted people ranked and the “useless” relegated to some other job. This obviously has serious civil rights implications and is the reason why the “Bell Curve” mentality is so reviled in today’s society.
Yet, our grading systems have changed very little over the last sixty years or so. Why? Teachers tend to do what their own teachers did and they tend to listen to their more experienced colleagues, irregardless of whether their colleagues make any sense. So, we currently have grade systems that are based upon punishment and ranking, rather than encouragement of self motivated learning. Traditional grading systems teach kids that they had better be responsible “or else” they won’t succeed in life. The penalties for even slight deviations from what is acceptable are severe. Just one or two “zeroes” in a classic grade scale is usually enough to fail a student, whether they understand ideas or not. “What is the problem?”, some may say. Well, the problem is that grades are supposed to measure what a student understands compared to a standard, not how responsible they are. We have other methods for measuring responsibility.
What are we doing differently now? We’re making a grade represent what a student knows and can do. We’re encouraging responsibility and positive behavior without demanding it or coercing it with punishment. While in the past a student could not do work, get a zero, and accept the consequences, we’re now expecting and demanding that they show us what they know, sometimes in different ways from tradition.
Of course, the first thing that happens on the internet is people cry bloody murder over credentials, which SHOULD happen. ;) Who am I to say these things? I have a Masters degree in Secondary Teaching and I’m endorsed in Assessment Leadership K-12. I teach high school science at an urban high school in Nebraska.
posted by M Fryda on 6-18-2010 at 2:20 pm
In many universities in Canada an A+ is a 4.5 not a 4.33 and the max graduating GPA is 4.5 as well.
posted by Tristan on 6-18-2010 at 2:20 pm
For some odd reason, my elementary school used a combination of the a-f and a second grading system. The other system had marks for (E)xcellent, (S)atisfactory, (N)eeds Improvement, and (U)nsatisfactory. I always thought the E was skipped to avoid collision between the systems. Then again, I *was* just a kid back then…
posted by MS on 6-18-2010 at 2:23 pm
We got different grades in elementary school (K-5) as well, similar to Joe’s comment:
E = Excellent
G = Good
S = Satisfactory
N (or NI) = Needs Improvement
U = Unsatisfactory
Whenever my aunts, uncles, or other curious adults asked me if I got all As this year, I never knew what to say!
posted by Ben on 6-18-2010 at 2:25 pm
My elementary school didn’t have F’s but we had E’s for failing.
posted by HansMoleman on 6-18-2010 at 2:29 pm
This post really threw me for a loop. I live in Maryland (decidedly not the Midwest), and my secondary schools used “E”s instead of “F”s.
My name links to a PDF showing this (second page)
posted by A# on 6-18-2010 at 2:34 pm
I grew up in southern Illinois, and from 1st grade through high school the grading scale were letter grades A, B, C, D and E. An E was a failing grade.
posted by Gordon Daily on 6-18-2010 at 2:40 pm
I grew up in Metro Detroit during the 1970s, and “E” was always the failing grade in elementary, junior high and high school. In fact, I remember my Mom always talking about her fear of getting an “F” when she was in school, and it sounded ever so old-fashioned to me.
posted by Kara on 6-18-2010 at 2:44 pm
My elementary school in Nova Scotia had E, VG, G, S and NI (Excellent, Very Good, Good, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement). But that was the last time I saw the E.
posted by Graham on 6-18-2010 at 2:45 pm
At my school we have a grading system like so:
A-Excellent
B-Good
C-Average
D-Below Average
E-Failure
I-Incomplete
S-Satisfactory
U-Unsatisfactory
WF-Withdrawn Failure
We also have Plus/Minus grades.
Most teachers only use the basic letter grades (A-E).
P.S. I am in the midwest, I never knew the rest of the country used F instead of E, I thought F was just worse
posted by Adam on 6-18-2010 at 2:46 pm
My school system (Montgomery County, Maryland) had A, B, C, D and E. No F.
posted by NG on 6-18-2010 at 2:46 pm
I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. The grading system was E “Excellent” (20% of the class); “Good” (40% of the class); and “Q” for “Qualified) again 40% of the class. While it was a bottom heavy curve,the professor had the discretion to award a D, for “Distinguished.”
posted by Jeanne Lahiff on 6-18-2010 at 2:56 pm
At my high school we had a different grade scale. Anything below 70 was an F, instead of below 60. A’s were 100-93, B’s 92-85, C’s 84-77, and D’s were 76-70.
posted by Robbbbbb on 6-18-2010 at 3:03 pm
My HS was something a bit strange (a few numbers may be off)
A: 93% – 100%
B: 85% – 92%
C: 78% – 84%
D: 70% – 77%
F: 69% and down
posted by tkrausse on 6-18-2010 at 3:06 pm
“irregardless”? Really?
posted by Mike on 6-18-2010 at 3:06 pm
I live in Ireland and E is an actual grade in high school.
It’s right below D and is in the 30′s then F is anything below 30′s I think.
40% was a pass I think
posted by GH on 6-18-2010 at 3:10 pm
My middle school graded us in the numbers 1-5. 1 is similar to an A and 5 being the failing grade.
posted by Mike on 6-18-2010 at 3:10 pm
@M Fryda As a teacher, you should probably be aware that “irregardless” is not a word. Sorry to nitpick, I just hate the thought of more students learning that nonsense word.
posted by Alex on 6-18-2010 at 3:13 pm
I got a lot of E’s in school, and my mother would have beaten me if I didn’t. (Same grading scale as mentioned previously). I think the grading systems tend to change by region, and can vary state to state within the same region.
My fiance found out the hard way when he tried to attend college in his home state of New York after having graduated from a very prestigious private high school in Mexico. NY didn’t acknowledge his diploma and made him take a GED! He ended up not liking the school in NY and transferred to the University of Texas, where he should have gone to begin with because they were just fine with his original diploma!
That was all a long time ago, but I wonder if accreditation is still a major issue for students who change region?
posted by Chris on 6-18-2010 at 3:14 pm
My HS had an odd grading scale making it a little harder to earn an A.
92 – 100
83 – 91
74 – 82
65 – 73
64 and below
posted by Mike on 6-18-2010 at 3:15 pm
At my college, you had to earn a 95-100 to get an A. Our “failing” students would have been “C” or “D” students at other schools. Hardly seems fair.
posted by loripop on 6-18-2010 at 3:28 pm
Never went to a school with ABCDF system until college.
High School graded like this
E= Excellent
S= Superior
M= Medium
I= Inferior
F= Failure
posted by antlyon on 6-18-2010 at 3:40 pm
It makes me so happy that I’m not the first person who wanted to point out the use of the non-word “irregardless.”
posted by Laura on 6-18-2010 at 3:44 pm
in elementary school we had E, VS, S, N. after that we had A,B,C,D,F using 92 – 100
83 – 91
74 – 82
65 – 73
64 and below
and then my senior year of HS they changed it to:
90-100 A
80-89 B
70-79 C
60-69 D
0-59 F
Subsequently I received better grades my senior year due to the change
posted by teresa is amazing on 6-18-2010 at 3:54 pm
Add to the various grading systems the concept of ranking graduates. In college we had “Graduated Laude”, Graduated Cum Laude” and “Graduated Magnum Cum Laude.” I really can’t tell you the what rankings meant, as I didn’t rate high enough for any of them but instead “Thank the Laude!”
An interesting side note to that is that in my field of electrial engineering I went to work at the same place and time as our Magnum Cum Laude, who started at a significantly higher salary. Ten years after graduating, he was working for me at estentially the same salary while I was now the one making signifiantly more. The differently was shown to be the ability to define and solve real world problems as opposed to academic ones.
posted by Prism on 6-18-2010 at 3:56 pm
And of course as an engineer not knowing how to spell or use words correctly. Should have been differential rather than differently.
posted by Prism on 6-18-2010 at 3:58 pm
Mike, Alex, and Laura,
THANK YOU!!!
posted by motorkitty on 6-18-2010 at 4:00 pm
Lots more E’s than I ever expected!
I’m curious about grade systems like Oliver’s, Joe’s and Ben’s: Were those grades for academics or just other gradable things? In my elementary school, we did the E/S/U/N/etc. thing for classroom conduct, gym class, library skills, etc., but were on a number scale for regular classes.
posted by Matt Soniak on 6-18-2010 at 4:04 pm
At my old high school we were on a 4.5 scale. AP classes and Dual Enrollment classes were weighted allowing the highest GPA to be 5.0.
posted by Elena on 6-18-2010 at 4:11 pm
I am from the midwest and we used “E”s all the time. I didn’t even realize you could get an “F” except from watching movies, and even then I thought it was just a really bad grade. When I saw this post I was very confused.
posted by paige on 6-18-2010 at 4:29 pm
i remember hearing that my system decided to use the E instead of the F because it would hurt the students’ feelings less. that always puzzled me; it was still a failing grade.
posted by m on 6-18-2010 at 4:34 pm
When I was in school from grades 4 to 12, the worst grade you could get was an “E.”
Yes, the grades were A, B, C, D, and E.
The grades that were handed out in grades 1-3 were:
O–Outstanding
C–Commendable
S–Satisfactory
U–Unsatisfactory
posted by Don on 6-18-2010 at 4:46 pm
If we’re going to nitpick, I’ll have to point out that “irregardless” is, indeed, an English word. It is found in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary, and the Oxford English Dictionary. It might not be a word that all people accept, and it almost certainly originated as a faulty construction, but it’s still a word, irregardless of whether you like it or not. :)
posted by William Smith on 6-18-2010 at 4:46 pm
@Mike, Alex, Laura, and motorkitty,
Before commenting that a word is not a word, you should probably verify it is not first. Look up irregardless on Merriam-Webster’s site and read the third and fourth sentences. I’m not saying it’s the best word to use, just that it is a real word.
posted by Bob on 6-18-2010 at 4:55 pm
@William, thanks.
posted by Bob on 6-18-2010 at 4:56 pm
I graduated from law school at LSU. Up until 2000 the higest grade was an 89.
The suggested conversion is 82-89 = A.
89…really? Leave it to Louisiana to do things a** backwards.
posted by bayoubadger on 6-18-2010 at 5:02 pm
I’ve been teaching high school for 5 years now (in California), and I can tell you grading is WILDLY different from teacher to teacher, in the same school, even in the same department. I’ve seen smart kids almost embarrassed because they have a teacher who inflates grades so much they have 125% in their class, and I’ve seen students fail with 59.9%, which most teachers will round up to a D. I’ve even heard of some teachers using 50 or even 55 percent as the cutoff for a passing grade.
Bottom line, A-F can mean many different things depending on what teacher you get.
posted by Savir on 6-18-2010 at 5:09 pm
I went to the University of Arizona, and we were graded A through E. Also in High School, we had A, B, C, and F. A-C were 10% each, and anything below a 70 was considered a failing grade. No D for Diploma!
posted by Mike on 6-18-2010 at 5:36 pm
In elementary school we used a three letter system which described how much of the class requirement you’d met
A for All
M for Most
and S for Some.
I seem to remember getting a lot of S’s.
In high school it was
90 – 100: A
80 – 89: B
70 – 79: C
65 – 69: D
0 – 64: F
I really hated that 60 – 64 was an F. Seems like it should have been a D.
posted by King Taco on 6-18-2010 at 5:52 pm
Ohio State uses E’s instead of F’s
posted by Mike on 6-18-2010 at 6:28 pm
I went to an International Baccalaureate school and they do use E and they use it instead of F using E to stand for “elementary.”
posted by Taylor on 6-18-2010 at 6:41 pm
So here is a new one, in England were I went to university the highest grade you could get was a First, this was anything over 70, over 60 was a second, first class 2:1 and over 50 was a second, second class 2:2. Over 40 was a third (or drinkers degree) and over 30 was a ‘pass’. I think the idea behind this was that 100 is the correct answer and as the education system is founded in philosophy there is no such thing. If you are getting over an 80 then your work is worthy of being published and as poor undergrads this was never going to happen.
posted by nigel on 6-18-2010 at 7:19 pm
My elementary school was like many others in that it used non-standard letters; I believe they were O (outstanding), S (satisfactory), and N? (needs improvement?).
But in middle school and high school, they switched to more standard grades:
A (90-100)
B (80-89)
C (70-79)
F (69 or below)
They figured that if you scored below 70% in a class, you hadn’t mastered enough material to move on and needed to repeat the class. Just a year ago or so though they decided to add a “D” grade for scoring in the 60%’s. There was quite an uproar because people felt like they were lowering their standards.
posted by Moth on 6-18-2010 at 7:38 pm
The alternative high school I went to gave a pass or fail grade. 80% or better was a passing grade.
posted by illyjoel on 6-18-2010 at 7:46 pm
We could always switch over to the Hogwarts grading system.
O – Oustanding
E – Exceeds Expectations
A – Acceptable
P – Poor
D – Dreadful
T – Troll
We could do without the T, or use it as it is defined at Harry Potter Wiki: “Fail, with distinction.”
I think these designations are at least more descriptive of a student’s performance and/or grasp of course material than the traditional A-F grading scale.
posted by Nyghtbeauty on 6-18-2010 at 7:56 pm
At my high school we have the typical grading system. A, B,C,D, F, even though there are +/- given to grades they don’t influence the GPA. To find your GPA A=4 B=3 C=2 D=1 and F is no score. So to find out your GPA is simple, just add up the number value of your current score and divide by the number of classes. The only thing that changes is when it is a “weighted” class, which is usually an AP course or other considered rigorous or difficult. For weighted GPA s an A=5 B=4 C=3 D=1 and F=0.
So pretty much in AP courses an B= an A, which makes sense considering the more difficult workload and the near impossibility of pulling of an A .
Each teacher had their own grading scale, most use 90-100 is an A and so on, but I’ve had a couple of classes with different scales, in my Calculus class 65-75 is considered a C and 76-89 is a B . However in my Latin class 92-100 is an A.
posted by Melissa on 6-18-2010 at 8:03 pm
Sorry to break it to you buddy, but the Renton School District in Washington State used “E” instead of “F” in the mid 1970s when I went there. They thought an F was too degrading. So the premise of your article is totally off. Sorry!
posted by Robb on 6-18-2010 at 8:08 pm
I went to the University of Kentucky and we didn’t have F’s, but instead had E’s.
posted by UKguy on 6-18-2010 at 8:19 pm
I’ve gotten E’s and they weren’t for Excellent. But I guess it’s better than D for Dreadful or T for Troll.
posted by Tammy on 6-18-2010 at 8:28 pm
My school used the worse grading system EVER. It was A-F, of course, but the GPA scale was weighted — even if I, taking all “College Prep” classes, got straight A’s, my overall GPA would still be lower than Suzie Q getting two A’s and three B’s in “Advanced Placement” courses. D:< Yes, I'm 4 years out and still bitter.
posted by Ashley on 6-18-2010 at 9:07 pm
I had no idea before I read this that it was uncommon to use the “E” grade for failing. I live in Michigan, and getting an “E” (not for “Excellent” either) is extremely common here. Thanks for the perspective!
posted by Jen on 6-18-2010 at 9:21 pm
I am from Florida and you get E = Excellent, S = Satisfactory, and N = Needs Improvement until the 2nd grade…
posted by Kris on 6-18-2010 at 9:32 pm
I went to Claremont McKenna College, and we had a 12 point GPA system, to deal with the plus/minus issue without using deccimals (not sure why decimals are a problem). For example:
12=A+
11=A
10=A-
9=B+
Some guy had a 4.0 GPA (pretty terrible), and he applied for a grad school and got in, because the school didn’t check out the GPA system at CMC.
posted by Britt on 6-18-2010 at 9:41 pm
Thank goodness we don’t have that grading system here in the Philippines.
posted by Karl on 6-18-2010 at 9:46 pm
My elementary school in Mass. had:
C=Commendable
S=Satisfactory
R=(Needs) Reenforcement
Went to the ABCDF system in Jr. High and High School.
posted by Leslie on 6-18-2010 at 9:56 pm
Ah! I went to a high school that had E for failing.
I cant remember which one because we moved a lot so it could have been Fort Kent ME, Gaffney SC, or Stoughton WI.
I have no clue because I didnt get the E but I remember seeing one on a persons paper and had to ask what it meant.
posted by Immora on 6-18-2010 at 10:58 pm
After going to a very grades-conscious college prep high school, I’m at a college which doesn’t use grades, which I think is the best way to go. I remember my first year, so many of my fellow students were shocked when in the personal evaluations we receive instead of grades, their teachers called them on all the crap that they had pulled in high school yet still managed to coast through with an A. With evaluations, students are forced to do their best in every aspect of the class, not just the parts they know they’re getting graded on.
posted by Hailey on 6-18-2010 at 11:44 pm
My sophomore year of high school, my chemistry teacher started the year on maternity leave and the sub refused to give Fs . He would grade A-E because “E comes after D in the alphabet!” And thus began a rant about how the rest of the educators had gone off their wagons agreeing to grade A-D and F.
posted by Katie on 6-18-2010 at 11:51 pm
I mostly grew up in West Virginia, and we always had an A-D, F scale with 90-100% being an A, etc.
I also attended elementary/middle school in North Carolina for two years and they also used A-D, F, but I think I think the percentages were a little different with 92%-100% being an A, etc.
I didn’t take college prep classes in high school as I didn’t want to mess up my 4.0 GPA, and I was never interested in trying a class I didn’t think I’d be good at for the same reason. So I do understand that point of the article. Also, I graduated 3rd in my class with a 4.0 because 2 people had 4.0+ due to college prep classes. Hmph.
Thanks mental floss for the article! I have always wondered where the E went in the grading system. :)
posted by Deb on 6-19-2010 at 1:11 am
I got an E in biostatistics.
I wasn’t surprised. I was terrible at it.
posted by Bakedpotatoes on 6-19-2010 at 3:19 am
“Irregardless” makes it into the dictionary because of common usage, not because it is a proper word. It’s a double negative, having a negative prefix “ir-” and a negative suffix “-less”. At dictionary.com, it has three entries calling it “nonstandard” and “erroneous”. Really, M Fryda, who has “a Masters degree in Secondary Teaching”, is “endorsed in Assessment Leadership K-12, and “teach[es] high school science at an urban high school in Nebraska” ought to know better.
posted by B-Doc on 6-19-2010 at 4:21 am
In England, our grading system goes like this
A*
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
U (Unclassified, which is a total fail and you don’t get your certificate)
posted by Roxanne on 6-19-2010 at 6:05 am
In Ontario we got the Excellent, Very Good, Good, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement on report cards until grade six. From grade seven through university and college an A was 80-100, B was 70-79, C was 60-69, D was 50-59 and F was 0-49. I’d always prided myself on being a solid A student but reading over everyone else’s comments it looks like I’ve actually been a solid B student with the occasional A. Although with a system where A begins at 90 I probably would have been more motivated.
posted by Becky on 6-19-2010 at 7:22 am
Also, a D is a fail in most papers at my school.
posted by Bakedpotatoes on 6-19-2010 at 8:14 am
I am currently doing a history degree at Oxford and we aren’t really given grades as such for course work (other subjects may differ). We write at least an essay a week and then read it out in a tutorial with our tutor who will tear it apart and question you more broadly about the topic. They do write reports and give predicted grades, and we sit collections, which are termly exams that don’t count towards the final grade but can get you sent down for doing poorly. At the end of your first year you are examined formally (and I do mean formally- black suit and a gown) over the subjects taken the first year. These don’t count towards your final mark either, but you can get sent down if you do poorly enough (which is rare in history). The entire final mark (save for one long essay and one short thesis that make up 15% of the mark) come from the exams you sit in your final year, covering everything done in the previous two. You could be predicted a 2:2 and do well and get a first (or, more likely, the other way round). As the previous poster noted, we get firsts, seconds (upper and lower, written 2:i and 2:ii respectively) and thirds. I did a fair amount of my education, including some college, in the US and, as near as I can make out, the marks translate roughly as follows: first=A (very few are given each year), 2:i=A minus to about a B, 2:2=about a C, and a third is like passing with a D (best not mention your grades on your CV if you got one).
And by the way, I have the OED online and it says irregardless is ‘non-standard or humourous’, which is OED speak for ‘don’t be a wnaker’.
posted by Scott on 6-19-2010 at 9:07 am
As a teacher, I feel that grades are a necessary evil. You have to have some way to communicate how the child is doing. The problem is – while the child is learning something, they are graded. This is figured into the average. The only grades that reflects the child’s mastery are test or summative project grades. These may have more weight, but still are pulled down by what the child made as they learned the concept. This is what bothers me about grades.
posted by Anne on 6-19-2010 at 9:15 am
I just graduated from my school that goes from Nursery to 8th grade. From first to fourth grade, grading is done by numbers, from 1 to 4 (1 being failing and 4 being nearly perfect). A 5 came into the picture sometimes, meaning everything was correct, but rarely.
From fifth to eighth, grading is done from F to A, F being failing and A being nearly perfect. An E comes into the picture sometimes, but in my school is is actually ABOVE an A, not below an F like you mentioned. It’s pretty much the equivalent of a 5, from the lower grades grading system.
posted by Noel on 6-19-2010 at 12:23 pm
Took me a while to get here (wow, 71 comments!) but thanks for answering my question :-D
posted by Sarah in CA on 6-19-2010 at 1:10 pm
Disirregardless of whether irregardless is an accepted word or not, the commenter communicated the intended meaning, right?
posted by ;) on 6-19-2010 at 3:45 pm
Where I grew up in New Jersey, A through E grades were used from 6th through 12th grade. I think that system is still used, and I still think it makes more sense than A through F.
posted by Elazar on 6-20-2010 at 12:41 am
In Philadelphia’s Public schools, the elementary level report card grading system is so complex I just ask during report card conferences, “Is my daughter above or below the average?” There are letters, numbers, steps, and a gazillion other codes that make me long for the A – F system.
posted by kei on 6-20-2010 at 12:43 am
In my small town Midwest upbringing, the grading scales have actually changed quite a bit.
In elementary school, up until 4th grade, we used E (excellent), VG (very good), S (satisfactory), I (improvement needed), and U (unsatisfactory). We switched to ABCDF (to prepare us for middle school, of course) in 5th grade. I’m not sure we even had percents back then. I think it was just the teacher’s opinion of us, and that caused a lot of controversy, especially if a teacher gave a U/F and couldn’t back it up.
In middle school, we also used the ABCDF grading system, with the typical
A 100-90
B 89-80
C 79-70
D 69-60
F <60
Pluses and minuses could be given, but didn't factor into the GPA.
High school was also different. Our As only went from 93-100, with, I believe, 93 & 94 being an A-. I remember that an 80 was a C-, which seemed ridiculous since that was a B at the public school down the street.
Now in college, we have A, AB, B, BC, C, D, and F. The grading scale depends on the professor and the department.
posted by Sara on 6-20-2010 at 1:24 am
University at Albany (SUNY) is another that uses E instead of F.
And I’m another that received E (for Excellent or Exceeds expectations) in grammar school.
If it matters, I’m 31. No idea how my local schools do it now
posted by MLD on 6-20-2010 at 1:30 am
At my high school an A was only 100-94. I don’t remember the other grades, but I remember I was really bitter about that because all the other schools around had easier grading systems (I grew up in an independent city and our school district only had one high school). It did make it really exciting when we went to college and an A was 100-90. I still find it odd my high school graded more harshly than most colleges.
posted by Becky on 6-20-2010 at 4:41 am
I was another who went to a harshly graded high school. F where I went to school was anything 74% or below. It was a common complaint because all of the other schools in the area had much lower fail grades.
posted by missjoules on 6-20-2010 at 7:07 am
“E” is the failing grade used in Seattle Public Schools. The grading system is simply A, B, C, D, & E. I have always thought an “F” made more sense!
posted by koriru on 6-20-2010 at 9:46 am
“Ain’t” is in the dictionary too.
posted by Mike on 6-20-2010 at 10:20 am
My middle and high schools used the specially irritating 6-point grading scale.
94-100= A
88-93= B
82-87 = C
74-81 =D
0-73 = F
Calculating grades in my head was difficult, then going into college when I learned that a 70 wasn’t an F, I got so lazy, it’s horrible actually. It was really irritating, but what’s better is is almost didn’t matter because some schools re-calculated our application grades because we went by the 6pt scale and not the 10pt. My school had the Ib program and the county paid for it, but what people didn’t think was fair was that everybody, not just Ib students were on the more difficult grading scale.
posted by JasmineP on 6-20-2010 at 10:23 am
LOTS of things are in the dictionary. Just hate to see educators perpetuating nonsense.
posted by Jim on 6-21-2010 at 1:00 am
At Carnegie Mellon University we received A-D for passing grades and “R” for a failing grade. The “R” stands for repeat in this grading scale.
posted by Dan on 6-21-2010 at 9:11 am
We had an “E” grade at my high school in North Carolina. It was in the 60s. An E= Shows effort but is not mastering the subject. The giving of an “E” was subjective. Individual teachers decided if the students were goofing off (which was often the case for me) or if they were truly trying their best. People who got enough “E’s in high school graduated with a certificate, not a diplama. Cerificates were reserved for people who “weren’t smart enough to grqaduate with a diploma” but had tried their best. I don’t remember anyone actually graduating with a certificate the four years I went to high school. Teachers had me figured out so I got “F”s and not “E”s.
Later on, at the university, I buckled down and graduated ‘With Honors”.
posted by Gary on 6-21-2010 at 11:36 am
In my high school (Quebec) we had percentages, not letter grades on our report cards. The passing grade was 60%. All the schools in Montreal used this system. I never encountered letters until I moved to Ontario for university.
posted by Mimi on 6-21-2010 at 3:47 pm
Current thinking of avoiding scoring and grading children to avoid the “trauma†of loosing or failing is a BIG MISTAKE. If there are no losers there are no winners and no incentive to study, work hard, train, practice, or succeed. History tells us where this leads.
posted by John Marshall on 6-22-2010 at 11:34 am
Here in South Africa, the grading system works (worked?) like this:
90-100% = A+
80-89% = A
70-79% = B
60-69% = C
50-59% = D
40-49% = E
I can’t remember if there is an F or not, or if it even goes lower than that. It was generally accepted that anything below a D was a fail. Well, in some classes below 35% was a fail. But that’s just ridiculous.
posted by PattiLain on 6-23-2010 at 12:47 am
I was born and raised in north Georgia, and our grades for high school go like this:
A- 90-100
B- 80-89
C- 70-79
F- 0-69
So basically we have no Ds.
In Sweden, where I go to school now, they do…
MVG (best grade, like getting a high A or A+)
VG (somewhere beween a B and a low A)
G (you pass, but nothing special)
U (Failure, Unsatisfactory)
Any of the systems is fine with me. I think the problem isn’t the grading system, it’s retaining information after the class is done. You go through all this pressure to get a certain grade in a class, and then you forget everything (or a lot of things) by the next year!
posted by Aya on 6-23-2010 at 11:16 am
in english secondary schools…same as a high school…you got A*,A, B, C, D, E, F, G, U for GSCE [exam] grades. the U just means Ungraded…in otherwords fail.
but in your everyday classwork or homework you got A, B, C, D, E.
the grade culd have a – or + with it…for instance B+ is better than B…B- was worse than B, but better than C+.
some teachers might give A*, which a bettr than A+, but mostly A+ was the highest.
england [and i think all of the UK] don’t use percentages.
GPA’s are only used in UK universities.
posted by geriann on 6-24-2010 at 1:13 am
never got an f in my life. did get a few e marks tho. both english and french schools i attended in ontario used e rather than f. maybe it’s a canadian thing.
posted by jacqleviking on 6-26-2010 at 11:38 am
The University of Florida gives E’s instead of F’s because “the F is sacred and stands for Florida.” I guess they didn’t want very poor performance to possibly be confused with the state…
posted by angelanoel on 7-2-2010 at 8:51 am
You discussion regarding grades is very interesting. However, using Thom Hartmann’s article as the basis for you understanding of the history of grades is a mistake. I have read Hartmann’s entire article. In addition I’ve actually spent the time to investigate Hartmann’s claims regarding Farish. Except for the reasonable evidence that Farish started using a numerical grading system in Cambridge in 1792, the rest of the article from a historical basis is fabrication by Hartmann to try and assert his point of view regarding grades. Farish the real person was one of the most respected professors and lecturers at Cambridge during his more than 60 years at the institution. The reason Farish instituted the use of numerical grades was to provide better equity to an oral examination system that was filled with favoritism and bias. That fact is well documented by not only source documents of the time (1740s to 1800) but scholars looking back at the period. Farish would not have improved his financial picture a bit by instituting numerical grades since students were not graded in relationship to lectures. There was only one exam at the end of a three year study at the university. And that exam was not open to all students, only those determined by the university heads to be possible honors students. Yes, Farish did use a didactic lecture process, but he was one of the first to provide visual demonstrations of the topics he was talking about including small working models of all the machines currently being used in the early industrial revolution in England. Lazy? – then how do you account for the FACT that he was instrumental in promoting a petition for the abolition of slavery 1780s, instrumental in working with students to organize the Cambridge Auxiliary Bible Society, instrumental in the development Cambridge Missionary Society. Being a leading evangelical of the time, he was not only a contemporary of William Wilberforce (the primary voice in Parliament leading to the abolishment of slavery in the British Empire) but functioned regularly in the same social and faith circles. In Cambridge he was vicar of the third largest church, but also the poorest, which lead to his involvement in starting schools for the poor children in his parish. I’ve just touched on a few of his accomplishments. If you are really interested in the FACTS try investigating Farish’s name through Google Books rather than a radio commentator who hasn’t bothered to check his sources.
Unfortunately you aren’t the only one who continues to spread the unfounded rumor regarding Farish.
Regarding grades in general – they existed way before Farish – going back to Roman times when students would compete with each other for prizes of rhetoric. It is not grades that are the problem but man’s consistent history of always looking for some means of demonstrating we are better than another.
Paul Worfel
Associate Professor of Education
Huntington University
posted by Paul Worfel on 11-10-2010 at 11:17 pm