Ohio, Oregon, Washington: grades or P/F?

[LivestockDoc]

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Do any of these schools use grades for most classes, or is it P/F with a ranking system instead?

 

[ORvetgirl]

Oregon uses grades, don't know about the others.

 

[karmapple]

Ohio State uses grades, although some of the electives are pass/fail.

 

[Allthingsequine]

WSU is pass/fail. The percentage needed to pass does seem to vary from course to course (this semester it's usually somewhere between 70 and 80%). We do receive class ranks, but they are not made public and you actually have to ask to see your class rank. The idea is that it decreases competition between the class, which so far seems to be working. We haven't even had our first exam yet though, so we'll see how it goes!

 

[twelvetigers]

Ooh, I like Washington's method. As long as you can properly assess how you are doing in a course, I mean. Competition for ranks is bunk!

 

[LivestockDoc]

We do receive class ranks, but they are not made public and you actually have to ask to see your class rank. The idea is that it decreases competition between the class, which so far seems to be working. We haven't even had our first exam yet though, so we'll see how it goes!

I can see how that would reduce direct competition between classmates if you don't know the rank of the people around you, but I would think it would still be frustrating for overachievers who bust their butt to get close to a perfect score on a test only to receive the same "grade" as the classmate who barely passed. I'm not sure how difficult that would be for me.

 

[eringobraugh]

I can see how that would reduce direct competition between classmates if you don't know the rank of the people around you, but I would think it would still be frustrating for overachievers who bust their butt to get close to a perfect score on a test only to receive the same "grade" as the classmate who barely passed. I'm not sure how difficult that would be for me.

I don't know if WSU does this too but at CSU we are on the ranking system also and you still get grades for tests, assignments, quizzes etc but your final grade is just listed as pass/fail. So you still get to see how you did on each test.

 

[Allthingsequine]

I don't know if WSU does this too but at CSU we are on the ranking system also and you still get grades for tests, assignments, quizzes etc but your final grade is just listed as pass/fail. So you still get to see how you did on each test.

Yep, at WSU they do tell you how many points you earned out of how many points possible, anyway. They tell us we shouldn't try and apply those percentages to undergrad letter grading scales, but I think that is much easier said then done after having such scales rule my life for all those years.