U of T law school adopts new grading system

After 2 years of studying how to make stressed-out students worry less about marks and actually enjoy their studies, the University of Toronto's law school is considering a proposal to scrap its letter-grade system in favour of 5 broader categories of marks: High Honours, Honours, Pass, Low Pass, and Fail. The school may also start telling faculty members roughly how many students should fall in each category in order to avoid wild variation in grades from class to class. "We’re trying to shift the culture and give students permission to really follow their interests and not just focus on what marks they get in a course," says the law school's assistant dean of students. It’s part of a larger effort to address mental-health issues across Canadian universities, she says, "and quite frankly, it’s good advice for your career as well." Stress-busting initiatives include yoga, foot massages, and "Doggie Day," where law students can play with and walk pooches on hand. One student says she appreciates faculty efforts to reduce the stress "that can sometimes run amok because of the competitive group of students law schools attract." Toronto Star :  U of T law school adopts new grading system

I am so terrified that this is actually happening. Apparently major educators such as Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and Yale, have already dropped letter grades and use the "title" method of grading.  Of more problem is the administration having any say in how many have to fit into each grading category. That means that a student may fail because there aren't enough failing this year, not because that student doesn't know the material. Or alternatively, a high honours student gets dropped to honours since there are already too many in the high honours category! At the end of a year you may have high honours students knowing less than 50% of the course material because they have to fit in the categories and not mess with the scale! How rediculous - and terrifying.