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A Law College is proposing to raise the required grade average from 5/10 to 7/10 to graduate, claiming that it's going to improve the students overall performance.

Are there any studies to support this claim?

How grading works in this case

Along with the changes of grading standards, the Law College is also going to enforce the in-class activities. Professors would then be obligated to apply middle and final tests (only finals were mandatory) along with in-class activities representing 30% of the final grade (completely optional untill then). However, professors are still going to be very autonomous when it comes to making and grading the tests.

Renan
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    Any reason not to treat the numeric values as completely arbitrary? After all, the instructor sets the test|assignment|whatever and *the standards to be met to get a particular mark*. I'd argue that it is the standards that matter and those are rather harder to quantify. See also the various schools and colleges which don't use "grades" *per se* at all. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Dec 10 '11 at 17:49
  • I don't think this is answerable at all, nor that studies are to be found. – Sklivvz Dec 10 '11 at 19:28
  • Too vague. Is there grading on a curve? Is grading based on specific standardised testing? – user5341 Dec 11 '11 at 12:01
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    @dmckee and dvk: Standards do exist but are extremely subjetive to each professor. They write and apply their own tests. Some of them are clear about the standard to be met while others not so much. I edited the question description with a few more grading details. – Renan Dec 11 '11 at 16:44
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    As a professor of computer science (80-84), I can attest that students don't study unless they have to. We used weekly required homework, periodic exams, and a common final over several different classes. All grading was done on a subjective curve. Personally, I would like to see less emphasis on grading, and more on attaining specific goals. The way flight instruction is done is my model. The point is not to see how high you can achieve in a set number of weeks, but to let you take whatever number of weeks you need to achieve a set competence. – Mike Dunlavey Dec 11 '11 at 17:21
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    @Mike: I tried laying out my intro physics tests on the basis of a *must*, *should*, *may* list of comprehension and application goals for the students. It is a *hard* way to write a test, and the students screamed even when I put a C (all *must* goals) at 50% and a A (all *must* and *should* goals) at 80%. *::sigh::* On the other hand it did make me think about *what* to teach. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Dec 11 '11 at 18:29
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    @dmckee: Teaching is hard work. Even so, I liked it and would have stuck with it if my research was happening and I wasn't facing that tenure clock. None of the folks getting it were also consulting and raising a family. As far as intellectual challenges, I've found the industrial world a lot more stimulating. I bet in physics it's the other way around. – Mike Dunlavey Dec 11 '11 at 19:53
  • @Mike Dunlavey: Letting the students "take whatever number of weeks [they] need" is a wonderful idea (+1), and I would have loved learning in that type of atmosphere when I was a kid. However, I do think there needs to be a balance wherein the students get a mixture of that type of learning as well as time-constrained goal-oriented assignments to prepare them in a more well-rounded way (especially since both approaches are useful in the after-school world that often begins with gainful employment). Determining the ideal mixture for each student would obviously be an important factor. – Randolf Richardson Dec 12 '11 at 05:37
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    @Randolf: Yeah. I think the whole approach to higher education (at least) needs a re-think. When I was a prof I used to ask what's the point of having time limits and then ranking the kids on a point scale? Aren't their parents paying us to teach them, not to rate them? The answers I got were pretty weak, like "Well, the med schools need to know which ones are the smartest." My answer to that was "Let the med schools administer a test." – Mike Dunlavey Dec 12 '11 at 12:54
  • @dmckee are those 50% and 80% represent questions on the test, or students taking the test? – Bruce Dec 12 '11 at 21:09
  • @Bruce Points available. I.e. if they get 50/100 they get a C. But to do that they'll show competence in all the *must* items on the test or something roughly similar. In principle the whole class could get As. In practice the struggle is to get most of them solid on the basics. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Dec 12 '11 at 21:19

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