Re: grades, pass/fail etc.

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

Another and more extreme, until recently, example of pass / fail:

e.g.
                           6.Q. I have a high GPA from my community college.
Should I continue to ask for
                             grades here?

                             A. There are as many motivations for or against
electing grades as there are
                             students. Your college can provide you with a
comprehensive handout explaining
                             the grading policy. Because we still also have the
Pass/No Pass option for
                             grades, there are some complex issues that other
schools do not have. Some
                             issues to consider are:

                                    Will receiving a grade motivate you more
than pass/fail?

                                    Do you feel confident enough in the
material to do very well? You shouldn't
                                    elect for a grade unless you plan to do "A"
work.

                                    Have you met the instructor of the course,
read the syllabus, and
                                    understand the grading policy?

                                    Are you aware that if you take a course for
a grade and get a "D" that it
                                    will not count toward your major and if you
retake the course, it must be
                                    for a grade (you do not have the P/NP
option)? This also applies if you plan
                                    to retake the course elsewhere.

                                    You will get a narrative evaluation for the
course whether or not you elect
                                    for grades. Many graduate schools are able
to interpret the evaluations, in
                                    lieu of a GPA.You may wish to contact a
graduate program yourself, just to
                                    see what they say about grades vs. pass/no
pass.

                           7.Q. I have lots more questions....where can I go
for answers?

                             A. You may start by calling Mike Mosley,
Mathematics Undergraduate Adviser.
                             (831)459-4691 or email: mjmosley@cats.ucsc.edu

http://www.math.ucsc.edu/Undergraduate/FAQArtAgr.html

Pass / Fail advocate:  http://library.ucsc.edu/reg-hist/smith.html

bc who attended several Penny U. "classes" just before Provost  Smith died

Rick Tarara wrote:

> Pass/Fail can work reasonably well with well motivated students with good
> work ethics, but consider what would happen (does happen) with the greater
> proportion of students under pass/fail systems.  They figure out how to do
> the minimum amount of work to pass.  While such students aren't going to go
> out of their way to 'learn' in graded classes, you can often get them to do
> enough work to actually develop a skill or two and even learn something in
> spite of themselves.  Under pass/fail the only goal is to 'pass'.
>
> So, IMO (which has changed--used to think this was a great idea), pass/fail
> systems are only good for high-end college prep programs and prestigious
> university programs where the school reputation AND the standardized test
> scores (SAT,GRE,MCAT) of the already highly motivated students will get them
> into the colleges or graduate programs they seek.
>
> It would take a much larger kind of experiment with some full-range
> (student-wise) high-schools and colleges going totally pass-fail and then
> comparing a few years of state achievement tests, SAT, ACT, GRE, MCAT, etc.
> scores between equivalent graded programs and pass/fail programs to convince
> me that pass/fail would work for the majority.
>
> I would be interested in how the students in the 'high-end' pass/fail
> systems like it.  I have anecdotal accounts that says at least some
> don't--the lack of a 'reward' or a ranking of their achievement bothers
> them.
>
> Rick
>
> *********************************************************
> Richard W. Tarara
> Professor of Physics
> Saint Mary's College
> Notre Dame, Indiana
> rtarara@saintmarys.edu
> ********************************************************
> Free Physics Educational Software (Win & Mac)
> www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
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> ********************************************************
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>
> To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
> Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 9:18 AM
> Subject: Re: grades, pass/fail etc.
>
> > Steve Clark wrote:
> >
> > > > My first year teaching was in a private school where the
> > > > only grades we gave was PASS or FAIL. Amazingly, most
> > > > students did very well when we took the grade pressure off
> > > > of them. ....
> >
> > Tim O'Donnell wrote:
> >
> > > I often have thought that pass/fail is the way to go. I do
> > > think students would then focus better on learning.  I
> > > have often thought about a check list. A student does
> > > receive credit until all topic are checked. A lot of students
> > > (some who want to be engineers) avoid my class because
> > > it might hurt their GPA.  It seems that the GPA is

cut

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.