Re: Are 'we' too negative?

On 06/09/2024 16:37, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Blame American school system.
 Once upon a time, it was decided that an "average" student should be
able to answer 70% of the problems on a test. If they answered fewer
correctly, that meant the student was struggling; more meant the
student was 'above average'. This decision rapidly codified into the
grading system every American child becomes familiar with. A grade of
60% or less was a sign of failure.

When I did my O and A levels in the UK many years ago the system was based around your score vs. the score of everyone else who sat the exam. So, can't remember the exact numbers but it was something like the top 5% got an A, the next 15% a B, then the largest portion was C, and that was considered average, and the then D and E were the opposite of B and A.
That changed at some point to purely on your mark and that's when grade inflation took hold and you started getting silly amounts of people getting the top grade so much that they had to introduced an A*. I think it's now changed again back to some numerical system.