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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If more than half the kids in a class get an A, there is grade inflation.  And yes, I understand that there is grade inflation everywhere.  Everyone gets a trophy.[/quote]

But one could infer from such a cynical remark that you don’t believe those As are earned.

The purpose of primary and secondary education is to teach mastery of material. It’s not to generate a bell curve where top grades are rationed. Thinking about top grades as a commodity in this way is bizarre and antiquated. It’s literally Ok if half the class gets and A, even if they get to have retakes the like — because it demonstrates they learned the material. Which is the purpose of education. It’s not a race to learn the material “first” and it’s not like someone had to be “best” at it. [/quote]

But when do students learn that college doesn't give them these accommodations? Are students just supposed to adjust to midterms and finals in college when they've never had them in HS? There are no retakes in college so how do they adjust when that's all they've ever known in school? [/quote]

I had retakes and opportunities to revise in college (UVA in the 90s). It varies by class, school, professor, obviously; if you’re in a weed-out program like engineering, it just sucks. But professors are humans, and many of them are flexible and want students to learn. The idea that there’s some rigid “college system” that students won’t be able to adjust to isn’t real. [/quote]

I didn’t have any of that on college and neither did my kids. Our professors had office hours where they might offer to pre-read papers but that’s it. The students who needed this were also the students who typically didn’t do things ahead of time anyway. [/quote]

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