We have proposed an alternative to the present Grading System that we feel does promote an environment that reinforces this purpose. This proposal is open to public inquiry, rebuttal and reformation. These considerations often distract students from in depth intellectual pursuits as they worry about their grades and not the material that they are being taught. We observe students spend their limited time bickering over insubstantial points, worrying about their grades and their GPA, and worst of all, becoming intensely physically and emotionally stressed before exams. And these pursuits are quite valid because, under the current grading system, grades matter.
Grades can incite false incentives to learn.
When students are constantly considering their grades, often students will succeed in a class because they are being graded and not because they want to learn the material. We observe students learning nothing up until a test, cramming for the test, and forgetting the material thereafter. Not only does this activity hurt these students' intellectual pursuits, it inhibits those students in the class who are their simply out of interest. Grades can incite false incentives to take classes. Under the current grading system, students will often choose classes based upon anticipated grades, i.e., students will choose classes that are known to be easily graded or choose the less intense version of a class, simply because they are afraid of receiving a poor grade.