The following report is from Campus Reform:
The University of Maryland announced that it will allow undergraduate students the option of being graded on a pass/fail basis instead of receiving a letter grade. As the U.S. approaches nearly one year of remote classes, students are still able to choose the pass/fail option for up to 7 credits this spring semester.
According to The Diamondback student newspaper, the decision to offer a pass/fail option for students was originally a policy available during the spring 2020 semester when classes began to transfer to online platforms but ended at the start of the fall 2020 semester.
For months, undergraduate students have debated whether the pass/fail option should be re-implemented. Some University of Maryland students used surveys in December to show the administration that many students support the policy, according to The Diamondback.
Since then, UMD has once again begun to offer the option to choose between a pass or fail grade for up to 7 credits, which nearly half a typical semester course load. Students will have access to the university’s web portal to decide if they will opt-in to pass/fail. In order for students to be able to pick the pass option, one must first earn a C- or better which differs from the original policy that allowed students to choose the pass option when obtaining any grade above an F.
According to The Diamondback, close to 80% of undergraduate students opted to use the pass/fail option during the spring 2020 semester and saw a 0.09 percent increase in grade point averages.
University of Maryland pre-dental student Robert Ugalino told Campus Reform that he personally has not opted to use the pass/fail option because he thinks it would reflect poorly on his end, but said that he has thought about it.
There are points and times where I was considering switching from letter grades to P/F for specific classes last semester. I think some classes have a hard time transitioning to online and could warrant the change to P/F. Other classes are a lot easier online and would just boost your GPA so might else well take the A. If I wasn’t prudential [sic], I don’t think it would affect my degree that much considering a lot of Ivy institutions have done the same.
Robert Ugalino
In some cases, he says that the policy makes sense.
I think it all depends on the professor, some outwardly make the class harder bc it is online and more or less open notes for most exams. That’s when I would do p/f.
Campus Reform reached out to the University of Maryland and was directed to a memo announcing the new policy. The memo describes what Provost Mary Ann Rankin sent to the UMD student body detailing the latest pass/fail policy.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
[19] For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. [20] Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? [18] Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. [19] For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 1 Corinthians 1:19-20, 3:18-19
I am reporting on this because it demonstrates yet again how big of a scam “higher learning” is. Many parents were protesting against the universities for ridiculously high tuition fees while the student are doing all their work on a computer at home since the lockdowns, so logically one would wonder, “Why I am paying these rates to be on the computer? I could be doing that already for free and virtually learn the same things…”
But now we have these colleges (that were already giant wastes of time and money) dropping the standards again. Now there is incentive to not try as hard to pass the tests: just as long as the student gets a mediocre grade, they “pass.”
The WinePress does not endorse the modern medical establishment, but for sake of argument, imagine getting a doctor operating on you and he only “passed” his class by an inch. Just as I said in our report about Dictionary.com redefining words yet again, the intellect in this country will steadily drop some more.
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