I’ve never really been offended by assessment, however, so long as there are relevant and thoughtful comments left by the teacher. My objective is to learn so the comments is what I desire. Pretty hard to leave good comments on hundreds of short answer responses every week though isn’t it?

The genuine tragedy [or is it comedy?] is that some posts here seem to point in that direction.

Well, don’t we all need some external motivation from time to time? Many academics I know, who are very motivated, say they submit abstracts/papers to conferences to give them an incentive to finish their research. How is an 18 year old deciding that they’ll sign up for a class, as per tracy w at 31 so that they have an incentive to learn any different?

Good thing, too—otherwise, you’d get a cup of hemlock instead of a diploma . . .

Well as someone who is personally hopeless at providing internal motivation to do anything hard, it would mean I would have dropped out of school, or alternatively spent the rest of my life there, and therefore not had the interesting mass of information in my head that provides me not merely with comfortable employment, but lots to think about in my off hours. I don’t know why, but unless I have a deadline I utterly avoid thinking about anything I find mentally difficult, which is extremely weird as thinking about things that I find mentally difficult is in the long run one of the most rewarding things I can do in my life, and I also know that if I don’t do any hard thinking for a couple of months I get desperately bored (but not bored enough to make myself sit down and do some hard thinking).

If there are a significant number of other people like me, in having a grave tendency to procrastinate, then unis stopping awarding grades would cause a problem.

This may be true in Australia, but is definitely not true in the US.

It is perfectly legal for an employer to hire only students with a 3.5 GPA or better from a top ten school. It is illegal for an employer to give a test that isn’t tied to job-specific skill and make that a condition of hiring.

Above a commentator notes: “Funding follows school ratings, and if your students are failing, it may well be considered your fault.” Well, yes and no. Ratings of a department are not determined solely by undergraduate student achievement (even if some UK league tables do take into account the percentage gaining 2:1 or above). Students can “fail” and a department can gain funding if the department’s reputation for research is exemplary. Instead, this commentator reminds me of the ol’ “No Child Left Behind” legislation in the US where schools are punished if their scores do not improve year after year. Of course, it is the very best schools—- those schools where 95% or higher of students succeed—- that are punished most by such a system, as (a) there isn’t much room for any improvement and (b) 100% is near impossible to achieve, especially in schools that cannot vet students prior to commencing studies.

Well, what about the students at schools like New College in south Florida where students don’t receive grades, but instead get written evaluations, or Reed College, where grades are withheld as long as they get a C or better. As a student, I know that I’d rather get evaluative feedback than a letter or number.
(By the way, I don’t got to either of those colleges, but judging from their reputations the lack of grades hasn’t affected the student’s work ethic.)

Also, to the degree that you’re right in saying that grades are there so students do work, I’d say that ultimately that serves the colleges more than the students. It’s easy to have a class without grades; it happens in just about any opt-in teaching situation ever. I’m currently learning karate from someone and learning quite well without grades. But the only students who attend classes of that kind are people who have their own drive and don’t need extrernal motivation. Colleges that only appeal to that market will quickly find themselves in the same financial predicament as anyone trying to sell art.

It seems that it is more important which university you got to, so all of the pressure is on entrance exams and then finding a job. This looks like an interesting article although I only started to skim it.