Grading Manifesto – Psychology 110
Dr. Kyle Smith
8/23/05
Students and faculty each come into a class with their own beliefs and expectations about how
grades should be assigned in the class. These beliefs may often be at odds with each other, and can
therefore lead to misunderstandings. This is especially true when the grading system that is being used
in a class differs markedly from what the students have experienced previously (e.g., in high school). In
order to make my grading expectations and policies clear, I wrote this document.
The overall grading scheme
One important arena in which people may have differing beliefs is in their expected relationship
between knowledge and grades. That is, it’s very possible for two people to make two different
compelling arguments about what the criteria should be for an A in a class. For example, one person
might believe that knowing at least 90% of the course material should qualify one for an A. Another
person might suggest that being in the top 5-10% of the class, regardless of scores on the individual tests
and quizzes, should qualify a student for an A. Still another may not have any well-formed ideas about
what constitutes an A, but is still confident that the work that he or she has done should merit such a
grade. Because I’m assigning grades in my classes, it only seems fair that students are aware of what I
think the necessary criteria for each grade level are:
Grade
A
B
C
D
F
Criteria For Each Grade Level
Primary ability:
The student knows the vast majority of factual information from the class
and textbook.
Secondary abilities:
The student consistently understands the processes behind the phenomena
that we discuss, where appropriate.
The student can think critically about the material to consistently apply
theoretical concepts to real-world situations.
The student knows the vast majority of factual information from the class and
textbook.
The student can inconsistently shows some of the secondary abilities
described above
The student knows the majority of the factual information from the class and
textbook.
The student has difficulty both (a) applying the concepts covered in class, and
(b) understanding the processes that underlie phenomena
The student knows a fair amount of the factual material from the class and
textbook.
The student knows very little of the factual information from the class and
textbook.
A clarifying example
In order to make this more concrete, let’s take a specific example. Let’s say the material we’re
talking about is the abilities and deficits of split-brain patients. A prototypic question that can be asked
in this area is: If I show a picture to a split-brain patient’s left visual field, will she be able to name
and/or draw the object depicted? In order to get credit for knowing the factual information associated
with this material, students should be able to say, for example, that if the information is shown to a
patient’s right visual field, she should be able to name the object that she saw, be able to draw what she
saw with her right hand, but not be able to draw it with her left hand. Students at the C level should be
able to do this most of the time.
To move beyond the C level, students should be able to talk about the factors (in this case, neural
circuits) that cause this strange behavioral pattern to occur. For example, a student should be able to
articulate the following: Because the corpus callosum is severed, information can no longer travel from
one cerebral hemisphere to another. Therefore, if information gets presented to only one visual field,
and thus one hemisphere, the abilities of the patient will solely depend on what that cerebral hemisphere
can do. Since the left hemisphere controls language and the right hand, a patient who had an image
shown to her right visual field (and thus, her left hemisphere) would be able to say what she saw, and
draw it with her right hand, but not her left hand. (Note that ultimately this process-based answer arrives
at the same conclusion that the factual answer did. The difference lies in the knowledge of how or why
the outcome occurs). A and B students both display this level of knowledge of the material, with A
students displaying it across a wider degree of material and with greater consistency than B students.
Implications for tests
Because my criteria for A’s, B’s and C’s go beyond simple amount of factual material recalled,
my tests will have to go beyond simple assessment of factual information as well. Because I want to
know if (a) students understand the process behind phenomena and (b) students can apply the material
they learned to real-world situations, there will often be questions of this nature on the test. In order to
keep the relative weighting of these questions in proportion, I generally aim for the following pattern on
tests: 50-60% of questions assessing factual knowledge, 20-25% assessing application, 20-25%
assessing the understanding of process. Often, these types of questions will be combined. For example,
I might ask the question “Define and give an example of an agonist. Then explain one process by which
an agonist may have its effect”. Note that this asks the test taker for factual information (a definition
and an example) and asks you about process (how does it work?).
With the proportion of questions described above, I find generally that students who demonstrate
what I would consider A level mastery of the material tend to get grades in the 90s, students with B level
mastery tend to score in the 80s, etc. If, on some quiz or test, I believe that the ratio of A-level questions
to general factual questions was out of proportion, then I will consider curving grades. For example, a
group of students gets every factual question correct, and misses some of the application/process
questions. According to the chart above, this is what I would expect for B students. If, as a result of the
weighting of questions on the test, these students get in the C or D range, then I would curve the test so
that the numerical grades are more in line with my expectations.
Note three things. First, students scoring poorly on a test is not sufficient to cause me to curve a
test. If a group of students get low scores on a test, it’s quite possible these low scores accurately
measure the students’ factual learning, as opposed to a disproportionate number of process or
application questions. Second, I find that the need to curve is relatively rare, so please don’t count on a
curve to raise a low grade. Third, I will never curve scores downward. When applied, curves will only
raise grades.
Implications for your studying
Knowing the types of questions I ask should give you some insight about the best way to study
for quizzes and tests of this sort. Knowing factual information is a good start, but that’s all it is, a start.
You need to study in such a way that you not only retain factual information but information about how
and why something happens. Further, you have to be able to use the material you know to generate
examples. What is the best way to study to achieve all of these aims?
Before we talk about what does work, let’s talk for a second about what doesn’t work all that
well. First off, cramming in general doesn’t work all that well. Studying a lot the night before a test is
no substitute for studying a little bit each day in the week leading up to the test. There is a lot of
research (some of it done at Ohio Wesleyan) that suggests that distributed practice (studying over a
period of days or weeks) is much better at helping long-term recall than is massed practice (studying a
lot the night before). Cramming for a test may be effective in the short term, you may do ok on the test
that you’re studying for, but when you try to recall that information later (e.g., on the final exam), you
have a much lower likelihood of recalling it. (As an analogy think about training for a marathon. Only
the most foolish of runners would start training for a marathon the week before. Knowledge, like
muscle strength and stamina, must be built up over a suitably long period.)
Second, rote rehearsal doesn’t work very well. That is, going over the same information over
and over without thinking about it very much doesn’t work particularly well. Typical examples of this
sort of studying include reading over one’s notes multiple times and going through flashcards over and
over. A lot of people use this technique because (a) it’s one that has worked for them in the past and (b)
it feels like hard work, so they think it’s effective. While rote rehearsal may be somewhat effective at
helping you learn factual information, it’s going to be less helpful when it comes to the process-based
and application based questions, because both of those types of questions stress understanding over pure
memorization.
Finally, the most obvious technique that doesn’t work is not doing the required work in the class.
It sounds so obvious, but every semester I have at least one student who doesn’t come to class regularly
or doesn’t read the book regularly or doesn’t study regularly, and then is surprised when he or she is
failing the class. Think about it like this: the point of a test is to determine how much information from
the class a person has absorbed and can use. If a person who isn’t coming to class, isn’t reading and
isn’t studying hard can do well on the tests, that means that I’ve written a pretty poor test because the
test isn’t doing its job. If you don’t come to class, don’t read or don’t study, you should be happy when
you get a bad grade, because it lets you know that the tests are doing what they should: differentiating
students who know the material from those who don’t.
So, we’ve talked about what doesn’t work. What does? The short answer is the more deeply
you process the information you’re studying, the more you will remember it. What do I mean by deeply
processing it? Simple, the more you think about the information, the more you use the information, the
more you relate the information to things in your life, the more you try to find relationships between
what you’re studying now and what you’ve learned previously, the better. In a broad survey class like
introduction to psychology, there is simply too much information if you’re trying to learn individual
facts in isolation. What you need to do is relate the material you’re learning to things you already know.
This technique, called elaboration, will help you both with remembering facts and acquiring
understanding of the material.
Let’s take some specific examples. You can try to learn the parts of the brain by writing the
name of the part of the brain (e.g., “hippocampus”) on one side of a flash card and the function of that
part of the brain (e.g., “stores long term memories”) on the other. You can then go through the flash
cards over and over. This is obviously an example of rote rehearsal and something I’d encourage you
not to do. Instead, go through a list of the parts of the brain and their function, and try to come up with
examples of what a person with damage to that brain area will look like. “Ok, the hippocampus is
involved in long-term memory. That means people with damage to this area will have amnesia.” Try to
relate this to things you already know. “This is like that movie I saw, Memento”. Or “That’s like that
guy we talked about in class, H.M.” Or “My hippocampus is getting really full of all this good
psychology information!”  In short use the information, and it will become more memorable. One of
the reasons psychology is so fascinating is that it’s reflected in everyday life: The soda you’re drinking
has caffeine in it, a β-cholinergic agonist. You’re training your dog with the basics of operant
conditioning. You feel pressure to go out with your friends when you should be studying because of
normative social influence. Associating each of these occurrences with the phenomena you’re studying
will help you learn and remember them. In short, psychology is everywhere. Take advantage of that.
A final piece of advice I have for studying is when you study, practice the skills that you’re
going to need on the test. Just like a basketball player is better off practicing free throws than half-court
shots, so to are you better off practicing for the types of questions you’re going to have to answer on a
test. Flash cards would prepare you well, if there were a lot of “Define this term” or “Recognize this
definition” questions on the test. While there will be some of those types of question, more common
will be questions where you have to use the information you’ve learned, where you need to take the
concept and apply it, where you have to give an example of a phenomenon, where you have to explain
why something is happening, etc. If while you’re studying you ask yourself “how” and “why” and “so
what” and “how does this fit into the real world”, etc. you will be much better off when the test rolls
around.
Summarizing the Six Tips to Help You Study
1) Come to class alert and attentive. Read the textbook.
I know this sounds obvious, but if you’re not doing these things, the other tips won’t be much
help.
2) Study in advance of the test or quiz
This is the other big one. Twenty minutes a day for six days and then an hour the night before
(for a total of 3 hours) is much more effective than three hours the night before.
3) Prioritize your studying time.
If there was material we talked about in class for 20 minutes, learning that information should be
higher priority than something that we mentioned in passing or not at all.
4) Study for the types of questions you’re going to see on the test
Studying hours and hours for definition questions may leave you unprepared for application and
process questions.
5) Relate the material to material you already know, either from class or your life.
Elaborating is one of the best ways to make information more memorable
6) Studying the processes that underlie a phenomenon will help you remember factual information
If you understand why something occurs, it will be much easier for you to remember what is
occurring. See the split-brain example above for an illustration.