Grading System & the Groupthink Philosophy
As far as I can recall, with absolute grading system every student knew his target to get a good grade and we used to help each other out, sharing knowledge and helping others in need. No matter how tough the assignments were or how challenging the course project seemed, we performed because we were forced to perform. Get busy doing or get busy dying [Shawshank Redemption].
Maira Rahman, an Alumnus from Batch 2002, wrote in her article (Till Death Do We Part) in the Interface Magazine 2007-08, “In a battlefield, the survivor is that group who works as a team, and survives the pressure … united we stand, divided we fall. It was like a battlefield and everyone was in a battleship, and now the ship has reached the shore after a lot of hard work. The times were tough but together we made it. I always believe that when people are going through the same thing, they tend to come together. And when the time passes they disperse.”
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With the introduction of relative grading system the concept of getting something extraordinary out of an individual and to explore his unexplored potential, seem to exist no more. The cons of relative grading system seem to have out-performed its pros, leading to a continuous deterioration in the quality standards of FAST graduates.
Now the question is that why has the relative grading system not been able to improve, or at least maintain, the quality standard of FAST graduates? The answer to this question, in my opinion lies primarily in the groupthink philosophy in a highly cohesive group of people—a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment that results from in-group pressure [Irving L. Janis].
The relative grading system, which was supposed to create a competitive environment failed to affect the heritage of cohesion amongst students making way for group/social psychology (of encouraging loafing and dejecting hard work) to prevail. As a result the collective seriousness of students towards their education decreased.
This group psyche developed because of multiple reasons, but mainly because of the [dash] mentality of just not giving out good grades which would have otherwise encouraged students to continue working harder. Plus the communication gap and Who-Cares attitude de-motivated further the average and the above-average student, making him feel like Mr. Nobody, his educational experience less inspiring and his stay at the University even lesser exciting.
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[These are my personal views. Everyone has the right to agree or disagree.]
7 Responses to “Grading System & the Groupthink Philosophy”
June 24th, 2009 saat: 12:07 pm
Agreed to everything.
Apart for the above issue , there are other factors contributing to deteriorating quality FAST grads like low/sub quality intake(admissions), not much “qualified + good” new faculty, etc
June 28th, 2009 saat: 3:02 pm
Only true for FAST.
Relative grading is a resounding success everywhere else.
July 9th, 2009 saat: 12:05 am
I think relative grading has one major flaw. If a large portion of a class has done good and they would all get good grades according to absolute grading, relative grading will still distribute them in different grades possibly in lesser ones as compared to the ones they would be getting according to the absolute grading. One’s grade should be according to his/her one performance and not related to grades of his/her class-fellows in my opinion.
July 9th, 2009 saat: 7:00 am
Omar, if we go b your argument then suppose in a class of 45-50 students , around 12-15 perform very well (more than 70-75 % lets say). Can we really believe that we would be getting 15 A’s in a class. Especially a senior teacher may not approve of that. Also, some people may argue that the standard of FAST has gone down and now its easy to get an A grade. Thats where relatve grading comes into play. Not only it promotes more competition among the students, it helps raise (or keep) the grading standard in a class.
July 9th, 2009 saat: 7:35 am
The point is that Boosting Morale of a student has never been a priority. It’s the “they-versus-us” attitude and the lack of proper appreciation of hard work that makes a student gradually lose interest in his studies.
July 10th, 2009 saat: 2:08 am
i agree. The goal of any university system should be to help and guide the students, not to de-motivate them or put extra pressures on them.
September 13th, 2011 saat: 1:26 am
I agree being part of this relative grading system i rarely got benefit out of it e.g passing a probability course below 50 . while on the other hand i got d+ in O.S at 65 absolute , i got B+ in history at 91 absolute , few b- at above 70 and teh list goes on . If university is tough at giving grades thats ok but atleast they shall make some effort and make it more public like the IITs and other indian universities say and everyone in U.S knows if a guy is from IIT his 50 percent will be like 70 somewhere else
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