EXAMINATIONS, GRADES AND CREDITS. 377 



Or, if the grades were standardized on the lines here proposed, the 

 percentages would become: 



It would also be possible to introduce the principle of giving extra 

 credit for good work in a less radical manner, for example, by allow- 

 ing a credit of three points to students who receive the highest grade 

 in at least five courses. The application of the principle in any form 

 would be an important educational advance, but a method such as 

 this would not lie nearly so fair and accurate as the plan here recom- 

 mended. It would affect only a few men and would be more de- 

 pendent on chance. The amount of credit in the plan recommended 

 can be so adjusted that a given percentage of students can receive 

 any credit desired; those receiving the highest grade (the first ten per 

 cent, in the long run) could be awarded, on the average, an extra 

 credit of 2, 3, 5, 10 or 20 points, as may be decided, and all others 

 would receive credits in proportion. 



I see no serious objection to the plan. The aberrancy of grades 

 in different subjects would be a drawback, but not so serious as the 

 existence of 'snap courses' under the present system. The adoption 

 of the plan would tend to the standardization of grades, and the ap- 

 parent objection might prove to be a real advantage. If it is objected 

 that it would lead students to work too much for grades, this would 

 simply mean, if grades are properly assigned, that it would lead them 

 to do better work. The present method, where the grade is simply 

 a kind of prize or punishment putting one man before another, seems 

 to have objections; I have some sympathy with the students wdio 

 call ' C ' the ' gentleman's grade.' But if grades had some real mean- 

 ing, they would be no more invidious than the payment of a salary of 

 $3,000 to one man and of $5,000 to another. If it is said that the 

 method is unfair because grades can not be given in accordance with 

 exact deserts, it may be replied that this is true of all salaries and 

 the like. Although a single grade is subject to a considerable probable 

 error, the error of the average of a number of grades decreases as the 

 square root of the number. Thus, if the probable error of a single grade 

 is one place (that is, if a man receives C, the chances are even that he 

 deserves a higher or a lower grade), the average of 25 grades (about 

 the number of college courses taken for the degree) would be subject 

 to a probable error of only one fifth of ;i place. Lastly it may be 



VOT,. LXVI. — 25. 



