What Is The Fair Way To Be Graded In This Class?

Obviously we are all confronted with the brash reality that the grading of this class with inevitably allow for a few members of this class to receive an F for 40% of our grade. As we discussed on the first day of class, the reason that this was the initial means of grading for the class was to encourage competition amongst our peers. Nonetheless I feel that while this may increase the competition amongst us, there are other ways by which we can compete with our classmates without several of them having to receive a failing grade.

After the first day of class, we lost over 25% of our classmates because they weren't willing to put the work in along with the fact that they undoubtedly were scared about the fact that they could fail this class. This was immediately a red flag that displayed that this grading system may be a bit aggressive. While college is about learning materials that can help us when we graduate, classes should be constructed in such a way that if the student puts the work in required of the class they should receive a passing grade. Classes should not be set up to fail students, no matter how much percent of the grade that portion may account for.

The grimness of this situation became extremely clear to the class after our presentations last Tuesday. Given the set up of the class, one group would receive a D, one a C, one a B, and one an A. However none of those groups deserved a D or even a C, all four presentations were at least B quality work. What this displayed was how this grading system inevitably is not giving us students the grades that we deserve for the work that we are putting into the class.

Overall, I feel that we should do away with the bell curve system, and be graded on a regular scale, with students getting the grades that they deserve for the work. If a student, or even a group does D or even failing work they probably deserve that grade. However no student or group should get a D for work that is B or A quality work just because that was how the grading scale was set up for the class.