summergirl Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 Hi, Would someone please explain to me the advantages and disadvantages of going to a school that gives letter grades vs another school that gives number grades in the application process? I wish I can explain my question in a bit more detail except I don't really know much about schools that give letter grades in general which is why I'm asking this question;) I.e., if you had a free choice of undergrad universities in Canada (everything else being equal) and wants to apply to med school, would you go to a letter grade university or number grade university and why? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robinre Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 i preferred number (although u of t gave both) just because it gave me a better idea of where i sat - for instance some schools say that an A+ is anything 85 or greater, which is quite a range. in this case it's kind of bad because you may think that you know everything really well and got 100% when you actually got 15% of the material wrong (ok still not so bad but you get my point). one advantage for medschool that i know of is in the case of calgary - if you go to a letter grade school they will convert it into a GPA number that is greater than if you went to a number grade school for some strange reason. i had a problem with that when i applied last year because i was mad that my score was lower for them simply because the school i went to published percent grades. anyway, this is the ONLY difference i know of in all of canada and i wouldn't really consider it much of a dealbreaker either way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legion Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 i preferred number (although u of t gave both) just because it gave me a better idea of where i sat - for instance some schools say that an A+ is anything 85 or greater, which is quite a range. in this case it's kind of bad because you may think that you know everything really well and got 100% when you actually got 15% of the material wrong (ok still not so bad but you get my point). one advantage for medschool that i know of is in the case of calgary - if you go to a letter grade school they will convert it into a GPA number that is greater than if you went to a number grade school for some strange reason. i had a problem with that when i applied last year because i was mad that my score was lower for them simply because the school i went to published percent grades. anyway, this is the ONLY difference i know of in all of canada and i wouldn't really consider it much of a dealbreaker either way. AFAIK Calgary actually lets you pick the conversion that gives you the highest GPA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachaso Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 I prefer letter grades since you don't have to be obsessive compulsive about aiming for that 100% - there's no difference between 100% and 90%. Also, the prof has less incentive to put tricky questions on the test so that no one gets 100%. This is just something I've observed... The bad thing is the prof decides the grade scale. Some classes could have 85% = A and others could have 97% = A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frenziedmalady Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 Wow that's quite awful. I never come across a prof who does that (making their own grade) and thankfully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdy Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 I like number grades because I'm a numbers person, simple as that. Plus my little inner competitive streak delights a little at seeing 97 in a class that has a 68 average. A+ in a C+ average class just wouldn't feel as awesome. With the OMSAS scale, 90 and up counts as a 4.0 for my school, and the schools that use their own conversions for the most part will convert my grades that way anyway, so I don't see any particular benefit of letter grades for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolelol Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 My average last semester was like 97%..... that's definitely not reflected in a 4.0 If you get 4 high 90s, blotch a course and get a B or something it will destroy your GPA and even though your % is still higher than the guy that got 5 91's, the other guy just got ahead. It's pretty unfair IMO, trivializing your grades to a range.. I really don't like the clumping of grade ranges system but my opinion is heavily biased and the next guy's will be too lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarshMellow Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 My average last semester was like 97%..... http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/281/2/a/me_gusta_by_megustaplz-d30cns2.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lolelol Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/281/2/a/me_gusta_by_megustaplz-d30cns2.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarshMellow Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 That...was awesome. Me gusta hermano, me gusta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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