Getting Grades
This second time through college has changed the way I think about grading. I’m not sure if this is a universal thing, but my classes universally have been mapped from beginning to end before it’s even started. There’s a defined number of points. This has resulted in me considering my grade as a percentage of the whole right from the beginning. Instead of thinking about how I’m doing in a class based on the percentage of points I’ve gotten per assignment, I think about how I’m doing in relation to the total available.
What does this mean? Well, let’s consider a hypothetical.
Mike One is taking a class. Mike One is the first time I went through college. Mike One completes an assignment and gets 95 out of 100 points. Mike One thinks to himself, “Nice! I’m getting an A!”
Mike Two is taking a class. Mike Two is the second time I went through college. Mike Two completes an assignment and gets 95 out of 100 points. Mike Two looks and sees the class has a total of 800 total points. Mike Two thinks to himself, “OK, that’s about an 12%. At this point, I’m getting an F.”
I start to create milestones. At some point, I’ve gotten enough points that I’ll have a D in the class. Then a C. Then a B. Finally an A if I keep things rolling.
I’m not sure if this is a good approach, or even healthy, but until I’ve accrued enough points in the class where I’ll get a non-failing grade if I stop completely, I consider myself failing the class.
Today I hit a milestone in one of my classes. It’s an 8 week course, and I’ve got a week and a half to go. I’m getting a C. So far. An A or a B is still on the table. Just need to finish this thing off. I’m so looking forward to it being done.
Looking for comments? There are no comments. It's not that I don't care what you think, it's just that I don't want to manage a comments section.