[benfranklin]

[ QUOTE ]


How do you determine who the very best students are?



[/ QUOTE ]

Why do you need to? It's not a game where you need to keep score.

[ QUOTE ]

all the letter system really does is restrict the profs options.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I was teaching as a graduate assistant, I never felt constrained by using letter grades. If someone understood the material, they got an "A". If I was grading 2 very good exams, I wouldn't care which was better, and I certainly wouldn't want to have to figure out which was worth a point or two more than the other.

And I would absolutely not want to have to listen to students whining about getting a 93 when they felt that they deserved a 95. What difference does it make?

[ QUOTE ]


Well unless they switch over to letter grades in Grad school (and they don't)

[/ QUOTE ]

When I was in grad school, we got letter grades for our classes and the comprehensive exam were pass/don't pass. And the class grades were usually just A, B, or C. More than a couple of C's and you generally were out of the program.