As the new school year rolls along, it brings a drastic change in the grading system. Starting this year, Montgomery County has changed to a much more lenient method for calculating semester grades. While this change was meant to benefit the students, this new addition to Montgomery County Public Schools has so far caused mixed feelings among the student community.
With this new change comes many new advantages and disadvantages. As I see it, it’s an advantage. The only disadvantage, which only affects students later on, is the fact that they will not be prepared for how colleges manage grades. In addition, due to good grades being easier to get, students will be able to focus more of their attention on learning the material instead of learning just what is on the test. We can finally learn the curriculum in detail instead of worrying about what’s on tomorrow’s quiz.
However, it appears that most students viewed this change negatively.. Some students have expressed how much easier it is to obtain an A, but they emphasize how it doesn’t show their true intelligence. “Upfront it seems great,“ junior Julia Kochman said. “It’s not fair for someone who gets a 79.6 and an 89.6 to get the same grade as someone who gets two 98’s.” However, not all students are completely against the idea. ”There are some positives and negatives associated with it.” Rachel Pollock commented.
As most know, junior year is extremely important, so getting good grades is on everyone’s minds. Most students want to earn good grades,however, in a fair way. The amount of effort you put in your school work should show in your grades, but this new grading system requires less effort from students to get the same grades.
Change can be hard for people and I think that this new system causes a lot of stress for the students affected, especially juniors. Even though people might think of this more as a disadvantage, I still stand behind my original stance. Curriculum are being changed all the time and they’re finally going to be changed for the better.
Article by MoCo Student staff writer Erin Ramos of Richard Montgomery High School.