tnfifn Posted May 6, 2011 Report Share Posted May 6, 2011 Why is there such a huge diference between the GPA assigned to the percentage grade vs. a letter grade? Consider a student from UofT and a student from McMaster. On the transcript, the former shows the percentage recieved and the latter doesnt. In first semester both recieve teh following grades: Course 1 — A 88 Course 2- A- 83 Course 3- B – 75 Course 4- A- 80 Course 5- A 86 For the McMaster student the GPA would be the following: 4 3.7 3.3 3.7 4 Average: 3.74 Same student at UofT will get: 3.88 3.60 3.18 3.48 3.76 Average: 3.58 Clearly, there is a huge difference between a 3.74 and 3.58, which is a result of the system used, and not the actual grades. In order to be fair, shouldn't only the letter grade be used? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pubert Posted May 6, 2011 Report Share Posted May 6, 2011 Ditto for UBC undergrad. It annoys me quite a bit how the conversion from percentage grade to letter grade works, especially when an A with an 85 at UBC translates to only a 3.70 at UofC. The letter grade and percentage are on the transcript, so why not just take the letter grade? The letter grade is a more equitable representation of relative position on a normal grade distribution than the percentage grade anyways. However, UofC did mention that there is a subjective component to their GPA calculation, so hopefully they take some of that into account. Maybe some day all of the universities will smarten up and adopt standard grading practices and then we won't even need to have this discussion. Can I inflame a few people by suggesting that my UBC courses were harder than comparable UofC courses? JUST KIDDING UBC Grading Scheme Percentage (%) Letter Grade 90-100 A+ 85-89 A 80-84 A- 76-79 B+ 72-75 B 68-71 B- 64-67 C+ 60-63 C 55-59 C- 50-54 D 0-49 F (Fail) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 blame OMSAS - lots of people complain to them about this Their answer? "It's the best job we can do" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
February*Rain Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 i'm at u of c and for my program, we need 90+ for an "A" as well...and A+ is pretty much impossible because we need almost 97%!!! and when our gpa is converted to OMSAS gpa, it becomes even lower because an "A" from u of c is only 3.9... so i guess there are a lot of inconsistencies around and for me, i'd rather they looked at my percentage grade! Ditto for UBC undergrad. It annoys me quite a bit how the conversion from percentage grade to letter grade works, especially when an A with an 85 at UBC translates to only a 3.70 at UofC. The letter grade and percentage are on the transcript, so why not just take the letter grade? The letter grade is a more equitable representation of relative position on a normal grade distribution than the percentage grade anyways. However, UofC did mention that there is a subjective component to their GPA calculation, so hopefully they take some of that into account. Maybe some day all of the universities will smarten up and adopt standard grading practices and then we won't even need to have this discussion. Can I inflame a few people by suggesting that my UBC courses were harder than comparable UofC courses? JUST KIDDING UBC Grading Scheme Percentage (%) Letter Grade 90-100 A+ 85-89 A 80-84 A- 76-79 B+ 72-75 B 68-71 B- 64-67 C+ 60-63 C 55-59 C- 50-54 D 0-49 F (Fail) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkles3288 Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 i'm at u of c and for my program, we need 90+ for an "A" as well...and A+ is pretty much impossible because we need almost 97%!!! and when our gpa is converted to OMSAS gpa, it becomes even lower because an "A" from u of c is only 3.9... so i guess there are a lot of inconsistencies around and for me, i'd rather they looked at my percentage grade! Same. And I specifically had proffs that would not give out A+'s as they felt it was only for insanely exceptional work, so they just gave out A's since at UofC, it's all the same but not else where . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobs Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 Same. And I specifically had proffs that would not give out A+'s as they felt it was only for insanely exceptional work, so they just gave out A's since at UofC, it's all the same but not else where . Technically, at U of C, A+ is reserved for a small number of students whose work is determined to be exceptional - I haven't got my transcripts handy, but it says something about that on the back on the official transcripts. I remember for a lot of my classes, the profs only gave out 2 or 3 A+s. I don't think it is necessarily tied to a specific percentage, since grade scales vary widely from class to class (at least they did in my day! I graduated in '09). It reallllllly sucks for OMSAS calculations!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkles3288 Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 Technically, at U of C, A+ is reserved for a small number of students whose work is determined to be exceptional - I haven't got my transcripts handy, but it says something about that on the back on the official transcripts. I remember for a lot of my classes, the profs only gave out 2 or 3 A+s. I don't think it is necessarily tied to a specific percentage, since grade scales vary widely from class to class (at least they did in my day! I graduated in '09). It reallllllly sucks for OMSAS calculations!! Same here, and I also graduated in 09. I wish UofC realized that these grades may need to be converted to other schools, not just in medicine but other fields. Why can't Canada have ONE grading system?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 Same here, and I also graduated in 09. I wish UofC realized that these grades may need to be converted to other schools, not just in medicine but other fields. Why can't Canada have ONE grading system?? Because that would be too easy. But % vs letter grades has always been an issue that I don't see being resolved anytime soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pubert Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 Has anyone ever published an analysis on the relative merit of a particular grade at Universities in Canada? ie. The percentage of each graduating class that achieves a given GPA/Letter/Percentage. I'm sure the Universities would be totally opposed to a study like that but it would definitely be interesting to see. It would be like a Big Mac index for Canadian university grades. Cheapest place to get an A+ is... UofA? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnfifn Posted May 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2011 What I don't understand is how the precentage grade would give some a higher GPA than a letter grade. Why do some people prefer that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pubert Posted May 8, 2011 Report Share Posted May 8, 2011 Totally understand what you're saying, but I don't think the problem with fairness is due to the scale that is being used. It's the conversion between scales that is the problem. In reality, percentage probably is the best scale if everyone employed it and published their grade distribution so that the grades could be normalized across all applicants. However, that is not going to happen, so the next best solution is to use published letter grades for everyone that has them available, thus avoiding any inequity with differing conversions. I also can't see any reason why someone would support using percentage grades in their current format (converting to GPA) versus using letter grades. The only people who benefit from that are the ones that (a) consistently get in the upper half of their letter grade range without jumping to the next grade (ex. if A = 90-95 they always get 93<<96) OR ( go to a school that inflates percentage grades. There is no way to really tell if grade inflation is happening at a specific school, and I'm willing to guess that most people do not consistently trend one way or another in their grade range, so there is no advantage in supporting the current percentage grade format. I'm also not really buying the argument that "it is tougher to get an A+ at UofC than your school". I think A+ is reserved for a select few at every University. If more people at UBC get an A+ (which I don't think is true anyways), then maybe it's because the admission average is higher to begin with. The only conclusion that you can draw from getting an A+ is that you kicked @$$ in your class, regardless of what school you got it in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnfifn Posted May 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2011 I agree that the precent scale is better than the letter grade. As yo umentioned, using two different systems depending on the notation on the transcripts gives some an unfair advantage. I hope this is resolved for students applying next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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