When students were moved to a full remote schedule last term, some changes were made to the grade scale. In order to get an ‘A’ in a class, a student only needed an 88 as opposed to the more common 90. For some students, like senior Victoria Stanley, the adjustment had no impact on her personally, but she still believes it was a necessary change. 

“Personally, I did not need the grade scale to change. However, I know many people, especially freshmen who are not accommodated to high school in general, that struggled with their grades last term due to online learning. So keeping this in mind, I would say that it was necessary for the majority of students,” Stanley said. 

Junior Lauren Sayler has a similar outlook on the change in the grade scale. She believes that this grading scale could improve learning something over memorizing or stressing about always being right. 

“I prefer the new grading scale because it makes it easier to pass and allows students to focus on learning the material rather than obsessing over their letter grade,” Sayler said. 

Both Sayler and Stanley believe the change took some of the pressure off of students while trying to be an online student. 

“The changes in the grade scale impacted me, sure, but not as drastically as I would have initially thought. One positive factor would be the fact that they gave me some more leniency which was nice being in the college and AP classes I am,” Stanley said.  

Sayler believes having the grade scale changed was beneficial because there are unknowns with online learning that students may need help adjusting to. 

“I do think it was necessary in order to assist students in making the transition from in-person to online as help was less readily available and it was more of an independent learning style which not all students thrive in,” Sayler said. “I think the grading scale is back to normal because now that we have been transitioned to online school for over two months, we are able to work more independently and know how to use our resources to help us enhance our learning.”

Sayler and Stanley both believe that whether or not the grade scale impacted their grades, it was nice to have in place because a lot about online learning is new. But, the new grade scale is believed to be taken away for this new semester of learning.