As a student currently in second year university, I sometimes find it troubling how subjective and unfair the concept of grading can be.

I mean, think about it... you've got a handful of students, sometimes in the hundreds for a particular class, pitted one against each other fighting for the almighty A. Sleepless nights, cramming, mindlessly committing certain things to memory just to regurgitate them rather than actually just to understand the underlying concepts. Is this what education is supposed to be about?

You have countless times when students achieve marks they don't deserve because of the always contraverisal bell curve. You have some courses like those in the mathematics or science field that are primarily black or white: You either get it, or you don't. You'll get your marks, or you'll get zero. However, if everyone gets it 'too well' than naturally, it is the professors fault for making the course too easy, and everyone gets curved DOWN so their marks reflect a more respectable 'standard' distribution for grades.

On the other hand, you'll have courses in the social science fields that are more open to interpretation, where you essentially put yourself in the hands of a marker. I find it troubling that my future might be compromised because my marker was upset with some form of personal event, or just outright disagrees with the thoughts on my paper. I speak from personal experience when I've seen the subjectivity of marking first hand. Papers marked by one person, score B to A+, papers by a different marker on the same topic score C to F. Was it just coincidence that one marker ended up with all the bad papers?

To briefly conclude, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to grades. What I've looked at encompasses a SINGLE class. You start to see more discrepancy with each broader scope you perceive the education system. Perhaps an A merited in a certain class from one university/college was given to a non-deserving student via the bell curve, where another student in a 'smart' class scores a B for being on the wrong side of the curve. How are we to ever know? The only thing the institutions hire at for our future look at are those few letters beside our name.

Learn more about this author, Keith Godsoe.
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