When the safety of the public is at stake, it is particularly relevant for licensing and credentialing exam agencies to use defensible standard setting methods to categorize candidates into competence categories (e.g., pass/fail). The aim of this study was to gather evidence to support change to the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing-USA…

Decisions about progress through an academic programme are made by Boards of Examiners, on the basis of students' course assessments. For most students such pass/fail grading decisions are straightforward. However, for those students whose results are borderline (either at a pass/fail boundary or boundaries between grades) the exercise of some…

The author's community, which includes parents of the 62,000 students who attend schools in Volusia County, Florida, has been baffled over the conflicting nature of Florida's school grading system of A, B, C, D, F based on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, and the federal system of pass or fail. While many of the 80 schools in her…

College students' categorical perceptions of numeric and alphabetic grades were examined by assigning participants to one of four conditions: numeric grades alphabetic grades, numeric non-grades and alphabetic non-grades. They were then asked to give ratings for each possible grade or non-grade, using a 10-point scale. Factor analysis revealed…

While measurement precision is relatively easy to establish for single tests and assessments, it is much more difficult to determine for decision making with multiple tests on different subjects. This latter is the situation in the system of final examinations for secondary education in the Netherlands and is used as an example in this paper. This…

First year students' academic performance in three Life Science courses (Botany, Zoology and Bioscience) was compared. Pass rates, as well as the means and distributions of final marks were analysed. Of the three components (coursework, practical and theory examinations) contributing to the final mark of each course, students performed best in the…

The Honors-Pass-Fail (H-P-F) grading system was introduced experimentally in the fall 1971 semester to replace the traditional A-B-C-F grading system in graduate courses in education at Herbert H. Lehman College. The purpose was to determine if H-P-F discriminated more sharply between exceptional and average student achievement than the…

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University implemented a pass-fail grading system two years ago. The procedure in use appears to be working smoothly and suffers little abuse. Aside from physical education, courses taught under this system primarily are taken by seniors. The number of courses elected for pass-fail grading is small: 3.3…

The following advantages are regularly cited for traditional grading: it is in common use and allows relatively standardized information about students; it enforces academic discipline; it serves numerous administrative purposes; it prepares students for the competitions of life; it motivates students; and it is a fairly reliable index of academic…

The benefits and weaknesses of mastery grading and grading on a curve are examined. (DE)

If pass/fail and other nontraditional grading systems are to remain a part of the academic process, other evaluative methods must be adopted (professional recommendations and comprehensive exams) so that students are not short-changed when applying for entry into the marketplace or further education. (Author PG)