OUR VIEWS Consensus Opinion

Making the Grade?

The proposed changes to the University System of Georgia’s GPA system by the Board of Regents offer no clear benefits to the student population at Tech. On top of this, the plus/minus grading system has possible disadvantages for students.

Proponents of the system say the minus grades would deter students from skimming by at the bottom of the grade cut-offs and reward those who are near the top of the grade cut-offs. This sounds great on paper, but the reality at Tech, however un-ideal, is that students, even the best, are often stretched thin between three or four challenging courses.

Come final exam time, these students have to make realistic choices as to which courses to place the most effort on. They must prioritize their time as to reap the most benefit. Thus if a student has done well in a class throughout the semester and is able to withstand a slight drop to their average and keep the same grade, but has struggled in another class and is precariously close to the grade cut-off, that person would logically spend more time studying for the class in which their grade is more uncertain, while allowing for the possibility for a slight drop in the other class.

For the majority of Tech students, whose GPAs fall in the middle range of Bs and Cs, the plus/minus system would, at best, result in the same final GPA when the pluses and minuses are evened out over the course of a student’s career. But for the students at either end of the range, the plus/minus system would mostly likely hurt them. For example, a student who is barely getting a C in a class would instead be awarded a C-, or a 1.7 GPA equivalent, yet, a student who is truly excelling could receive, at highest, an A—no A+ exists.

On top of that, a professor with the option of giving out an A- would be tempted to give the 3.7 to some students who would normally simply be given an A. This means that the number of students receiving 4.0’s could only decrease as a result of the system. We do not need to encourage additional grade deflation, especially when the national trend is towards increased grade inflation.

Fortunately the Board of Regents is giving individual institutions choices in the adoption of the plus/minus. For the sake of Tech’s students, it is imperative that no actual GPA changes be implemented until the real effect of the changes can be known. Grading at Tech is different from other schools, thus possible effects cannot simply be surmised based completely on data from other schools. If Tech does choose to try the system, the grades should only show up on transcript records and the administration must thoroughly evaluate the data generated before taking any next steps.