Grades, Grades, and More Grades

I found the discussion today in class to be very interesting and informative. I had never really given a second thought to the A-F grading system, and its pros and cons. I have always gone to traditional schools, so I have always been taught through the A-F system or some variation of that system. I have always been a good student, one who has always strived for the A’s in my classes. In high school, I only got A’s and B’s because I worked my butt off to get there. I am a people pleaser by nature, and a bit too responsible, meaning I never had a missing assignment or anything turned in late. I was that girl… I must have been so annoying looking back.

College was a bit of a reality check for me. I suddenly wasn’t accountable for my actions. There was no homework, and almost nothing needed to be turned in. As a result, I struggled a lot in my Math 130 class first semester freshmen year. Math was already a struggle for me, so even though Math 130 is known as the math class for social sciences, or more commonly, “the super easy math class” it was still as struggle. And as a result I got my first non-weighted C. I worked so hard in that class, but I did not get my usual results. It was a challenge for me. In the beginning, I went to every class, did my online homework, and did all my unit tests, as per my usual self. But in this case I did not see any results. I worked my butt off, went to class, but still did badly in the class. It took me many tries to past my unit tests (on which you needed an 8 out of 10 to pass), and I only got C’s or D’s on my tests. After awhile, I started to give up. I had lost my motivation. I started skipping class, and learning shortcuts to solve the problems. If someone asked me for help in that class today, I would not be able to help them whatsoever. I simply memorized that information for the class. Math 130 and I were not friends, and we were barely even talking. When things got hard, I gave up, and lost motivation. I couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong. I was over Math 130 and nothing would change my mind.

That being said, I understand how bad grades can be destructive to a student. Getting an F over and over again is not helpful for anyone. If I had been a different student in high school, I can see why one would not want to work harder for success. Once you have a bad grade, you figure, why try if I am just going to fail again? I think there needs to be a change in our grading system. I like the ideas that were thrown around in class today but Dr. Garcia and Chase. I think that students, when failing, should only score 50%, so that students are able to be a little bit more motivated. I also like the idea that Chase came up with, of breaking down the grade so students can see what they need to improve on. I also think that this will help motivate students, or at least help them understand what they need to work on. These ideas are a great start, and I’m excited to see what other students come up with as alternatives. It is hard when you see a problem, but can’t think of a good solution. I guess that is one of the problems of education.