A’s are not just doled out for nice tries

In college, there is no “A” in “effort.” That’s at least according to some professors who believe that showing effort does not necessarily guarantee an A in class.

Though students attempt to define effort either by quantifying it through the number of hours you study or by how much exertion went into the completion of assignments, it is the mastery of the material that actually determines how much someone has learned.

A recent study done by researchers at the University of California, Irvine found that of the students surveyed, one third responded that they expected Bs just for attending lectures, while 40 percent stated they deserved a B for completing the required reading.

Moreover, instructors like English professor Marshall Grossman at the University of Maryland complain that students think that just by having completed the required reading assignments for a class, they deserve an A.

However, grades should be a reflection of how much one has learned ““ not how much of the reading you managed to complete. Unfortunately, some UCLA may students feel the same as those polled in the UCI survey.

But what such students with these expectations fail to understand is that putting in effort doesn’t necessarily equate to “A” work. Assessing how much you understood the material should be the ultimate determinant of your grade, regardless of the amount of time you spent staring at your notes or attending class.

And though this concept may be shocking to some, grades should represent how much has been learned not how hard you’ve worked for it ““ however “working hard” is defined. While this may seem like an obvious definition of grades, it is something that many students appear to have forgotten.

For example, some students may take longer than others to understand a mathematical formula or may have to write more drafts in the process of completing an A paper. But who is to say that the student who took longer put in more effective effort? Since effort can neither be quantified nor qualified according to such standards, grading cannot be based on such a concept as effort either.

Moreover, tests and rubrics for grading are needed to distinguish the better students from the average students who do the minimum, such as only attending class to get by. The purpose of attending college is so that one can demonstrate higher learning and receive feedback. Without tests, papers, labs or whatever other method professors use to evaluate student learning, students wouldn’t fully benefit from what attending college has to offer.

Second-year undeclared student Ben Pezeshki, who is studying to go to medical school, said, “Grades should be based on how much you’ve learned and if you can demonstrate what you’ve learned. Tests are important to see if you can take that knowledge one step further and apply it in a new way, because you can go to lecture and do all the readings but not really digest it.”

Seeing students complete all their readings on time is good ““ not just for their own sake for having escaped the last-minute cramming of 10 weeks’ worth of reading into one frantic weekend, but also because they demonstrate that they can meet a professor’s expectations. Moreover, demonstrating mastery of course material is also important. Just because you read the words doesn’t mean you understand them. And just because you attend lecture and can sleep with your eyes open while pretending to listen doesn’t mean you’re taking in the material. It is as if a doctor had perfect attendance in medical school but couldn’t diagnose an illness if his patient’s life depended on it.

Furthermore, unlike in high school, as college students we have the option of completing majors and minors of our choosing. Though universities like UCLA have general education requirements, we generally take courses that we’re interested in and actually want to learn about. In other words, we should be putting effort into courses because we want to learn about them, not for a grade. Grades should assess how much we’ve learned in a class of interest instead of justify how much effort we put into that course.

Maybe the problem lies in the transformation of how we have defined grades since our childhood. While some students have come to attribute the need for good grades to parental pressures, others feel the need to maintain perfect scores in order to get into the top schools. For others still, grades have been used as a bargaining tool in which an A can be traded in for a material reward such as an iPod.

However the idea of grading has evolved thus far, we need to revert back to its original purpose and meaning: Achieving an A should depend on how much a student learned. Because in the real world success depends on how well you can apply your knowledge, not how long you spent not learning anything.

If you think changing out of your PJs to attend class justifies receiving an A, e-mail Tehrani at [email protected]. Send general comments to [email protected].