Word: lumped
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...students aren't buying it. "No, it's not the kiss of death, but it's a peck-on-the-check of death. Sort of a whisper in your ear," Lump observes wryly. "The whole idea that a B+ is a 'great grade'--that's so bogus... That's just laughable. An A is a 'great grade.' The B+, that's a way that [graders] can flex and seem kind of tough...
...according to many students, is utterly meaningless--both slackers and strivers get it. "You know what they say," remarks Adam L. Cohen '96. "B's are easy. A's and C's are hard." Lump says that "the concept that a person would put off all their work until reading period and get a B+-- which is the same grade that a lot of people will get who have consistently done their work--just illustrates the incredible range of quality that's found within...
...Lump groans over all-encompassing nature of the grade. "I think you can do lackluster work and get a B+. Likewise, you can do work that is incredibly close to A work and get a B+. It's a catch-all grade. I think...
What isn't discussed, however, is the downward pressure on grades exerted by grade-inflation paranoia. "The B+ is kind of caught between the crossfire of this," Lump says. "It's used in response to upward grade inflation, and it's also used in grade deflation. You're trying to deflate grades, so you give someone a B+. You know they're doing work that in another class might get them an A or an A-, [but] you can get away with that. Whereas if you give them, like, a B, they might seriously start to think they'd been...
...Jain '94, a government concentrator, concurs with Lump. She recalls the semester when she took a course in political philosophy taught by Mansfield, and claims, "In that class, TF's gave a lot more B+'s than A-'s when A-'s were deserved...