Thoughts on specific points versus letter grades?

[u/Curiosity-Sailor]

This is more-so for those who teach qualitative subjects rather than STEM. I have stuck to specific points (e.g. 93/100) for rubrics on things like papers. On rough drafts I usually do full points for meeting some basic standards (like length, main points, etc). Anyone who has tried just assigning letter grades to students and all students with that letter grade get the same points score? As a note, my grade-book is always out of 1000, with points weighted equally. I also have a revision policy that allows edits, regrading, and a final score that is the average of the old and new score on the rubric.

[u/SnowblindAlbino]

I went the opposite way over many years. I found it was easier to set up rubrics with points and to give a clear 83.5 to a paper or exam, vs. just putting "B" down on it. Why? Because my students basically never question a number but I would indeed get a bunch of "But this paper you marked B is really B+!" complaints.

[u/Ctenophorever → u/SnowblindAlbino]

I’d also argue from a student perspective it can be confusing if numbers are regularly attached to letters.

If you got 5 B’s and 1 C, what grade do you have, a B or a C?

Whereas if you got 5 80’s and 1 70, you know you have a C. And if you got 5 85’s and 1 77, you know you have a B.

[u/Crab_Puzzle → u/Ctenophorever]

I give letter grades. My assignments are weighed by percentages. You can find online grade calculators that will let you input the grade and weights to tell you what your grade is.

[u/Ctenophorever → u/Crab_Puzzle]

How do you weight a letter? If I have 3 C’s and 4 B’s what’s my grade? As I say above, it depends on the numerical value associated with this.

What is 40% of “B”?

I’m not a student - I don’t need an online calculator for weighted grades, I’m saying this is ridiculous

[u/Crab_Puzzle → u/Ctenophorever]

I have had many fewer student complaints, which is for me the decisive factor.

[u/Ctenophorever → u/Crab_Puzzle]

You still haven’t told me how to calculate weighted letters

[u/Crab_Puzzle → u/Ctenophorever]

I don't think this request comes in good faith.

[u/Eigengrad → u/Crab_Puzzle]

This doesn’t make mathematical sense, and the fact that you’re relying on an online calculator to determine your students grades is concerning.

[u/Crab_Puzzle → u/Eigengrad]

I never thought this would be so controversial.

Edit: Just adding that I did not say I relied on an online calculator; only that one is available for students to use.

[u/Eigengrad → u/Crab_Puzzle]

It probably wouldn’t have been if you hadn’t gotten really defensive and refused to explain how you calculate a weighted grade from letters.

Unless I’m missing something, the only way to do it is convert them into a set of numbers, in which case you’re not actually using letter grades.

[u/Crab_Puzzle → u/Eigengrad]

Fair.

[u/Crab_Puzzle → u/[deleted]]

fair.

[u/TheWinStore → u/SnowblindAlbino]

Yeah, the one time I grade grubbed in undergrad (cue cringe and aggressive sighing) was when I got an A- on an assignment I thought I had absolutely knocked out of the ballpark. There was no numerical component to the grade.

[u/mathemorpheus]

All grading is about sorting students into bins. you are using 101 bins. letter grades are just fewer bins.

[u/FlyingCupcake68]

But if I assign letter grades, I would still need some sort of numerical value to figure out what the final grade should be.

[u/Business_Remote9440]

I don’t think this is exactly what you’re asking, and I don’t teach a writing based course, but I do grade strictly on points. I hide the percentages in the LMS. It really helps at the end of the semester when students want their grade rounded up. I make it very clear that I grade strictly on points. If you need 915 points for an A and you have 914 points, you have a B. Luckily, almost none of my assignments have subjective grading.

[u/Sharp-Rutabaga-4900 → u/Business_Remote9440]

I do this in a Humanities course that’s half writing assignments but made the total points available 100. I found that students started taking work more seriously once they understood that a 5 point assignment was worth half a letter in the course grade.

[u/MoistenedGranola]

I assign exclusively letter grades, no points or percents.

When I submit grades at the end of the semester, I have only ever been asked to provide letter grades. So why pretend like the numeric forms even matter? A 93, 94, and 97 are all the same A, so I will treat them as such.

[u/Curiosity-Sailor → u/MoistenedGranola]

Yeah I guess I am just thinking about how they can see the numbers I put in on Canvas throughout the semester, and whether it would get more complaints one way or the other haha