Translation is an imperfect process, a statement to which anyone who studied a foreign language at any level can agree. Concepts are muddled, and there are always slight nuances that are left behind. 

Take, for example, Albus Dumbledore’s instructions to young Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. “It does not do well to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that,” Dumbledore said. Then take that sentence, and use Google to translate from English to Spanish, then back to English. You’ll get, “It does no good to insist on dreams and forget to live, remember.” It gets the same message across, sort of, but the result leaves something to be desired. 

For as long as I’ve been going to school, I’ve been graded based on points. Whether filling in the subject of a basic sentence in Kindergarten, or finding the derivative of a function, my success results in points. Each point collected is compared to all the possible points I could have earned, resulting in a percentage for that assignment. Depending on the class, all the assignments are either added together in a raw total, or categorized based on the type of assignment, be it a quiz or an exam, a paper or a presentation. 

Throughout the grading period, those points will continue to accumulate, and as technology has advanced, I could check that number anytime I wanted, but there was a letter grade now attached to the number. When I was in elementary school, seven percentage points separated each letter grade. Here at AU, it is 10 percentage points, with pluses and minuses throughout. 

Then, in high school and college, that letter grade is translated back into a number to figure out a grade point average, a single number that aims to tell your academic story. It goes on your resume, it goes on grad school applications, and it decides if you will graduate with honors. That number matters.

Translation is an imperfect process. Going back and forth from that number to a letter grade is going to cause some problems with figuring exactly what a student has earned in a class. Here at AU, a student who earns a 94 percent in a class ends up with the same grade as someone who didn’t miss a point.

Last semester, I earned a 92.99 percent in a class. A fine grade, one I was comfortable receiving. The uncomfortable part, though, was that single one-hundredth of a point that kept me from an “A” in the course. That one one-hundredth of a point translated into a third of a grade point.

Once I saw the final grade, and realized how close I had come to earning an “A”, I took my case to Facebook, as any college student might. I received some comments from those outraged the professor didn’t round up. Another was confused as to why the professor took the grade out to the hundredths place. Both complaints have some merit, since it isn’t unheard of for a professor to bump a student up who was so close to the grade line. That didn’t satisfy me, though. I earned what I earned, down to the smallest decimal point. I had no reason to expect an extra point, no matter how close I was to earning a higher letter grade. 

It is a bit absurd, though, that such a small difference carries such a disproportionate weight. A third of a point for three credit hours can sound like a small detail, and, to some extent, it is. That won’t be the difference between me getting the job or not, or getting into grad school or not, but that doesn’t change the ridiculousness of letter grades. Earning an “A” puts you in a range, just like earning a B+ or a C-. It groups together students that earned roughly the same grade, inflating the accomplishment of those at the bottom of the range, while cheating those at the top. 

Everyone knows there’s a difference between 100 and 94, in every facet of life. Why do we disregard that difference when it comes to grades? 

It wouldn’t be that difficult to fix, either. We could still preserve the four-point grade point average system, while properly rewarding each student’s work. Rather than creating intervals to evaluate students, have each tenth of a grade point mean something. A 4.0 student earned a perfect score in the class. A 3.9 is a 99 percent, a 3.8 a 98 percent, and so on. This would give a more precise picture of a student’s work, and avoid situations like the one I found myself in at the end of last semester. A student’s GPA would reflect a more exact average, rather than the collection of intervals a student was placed in. Rather than earning an A, or a B, a student has a percentage, a 95 percent, or an 84. It is simple, it requires no further mental math, and it reveals precisely what a student earned in the class.

Translation is an imperfect process. Everyone knows this, so why not avoid doing it where it isn’t necessary. Eliminate letter grades, and move towards a simpler, more accurate percentage average.