Word: failed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...what would happen if we abolished course grades altogether? Assume that instructors would continue to mark tests and assignments, but at the end of a course, students would receive only a "Pass" or a "Fail." Those who fail a predetermined number of courses would get kicked out. Others would graduate with Harvard degrees attesting to their abilities and hard work...
Admittedly, students who concentrate their efforts on academics would have a more difficult time proving their excellence without letter grades. However, because only the final course grade would be pass-fail, instructors could identify their most brilliant students by performances on tests and assignments. When the time came for these students to apply for jobs and graduate schools, they could ask for recommendations from those instructors familiar with their work. Likewise, instructors could identify floundering students needing extra help by nothing who performs poorly...
...this most likely would place gregarious students and students in smaller departments at an advantage. Those who are friendly with their instructors would obtain both more insightful recommendations and more attention to their academic difficulties. But this drawback results from the impersonality of a big university, not the pass-fail concept. Students get lost in the academic jungle under the current system...
...most substantive argument against a pass-fail system is that students would stop working hard if they knew no one else could tell whether they had done A or B, or C level work. This concern would be especially great during the new system's implementation. Believing their late-night study orgies finished forever, students would go positively wild--and probably a little bit lazy...
...College could remedy this problem at least partly by providing a very credible threat that slackers would be asked to leave. If the "fail" status is made equivalent to a C or C- and the number of "fails" necessary for expulsion is relatively low, fear would keep students working hard...