At TCU, grading systems are a bit of an enigma. There is no set grading system. Rather, it is left to the teacher’s discretion. You want an 87.5 to be an A? I’ve had that. Oh, but a different teacher wants a 94.5 to be an A-? I’ve had that too. Personally, I feel that one of the most frustrating parts of this school is that there is not a universal grading system.

In fact, grading systems are not even department-wide. Instead, each grade is determined by class, by teacher. Some classes are purely letter grades, while others employ the plus-minus system.

There is much debate over which system is better. On one hand, the plus-minus system can favor students who worked hard to get out of the rut of a grade but weren’t quite able to raise their grade to the next letter.

For example, last year I was in a religion class that was more difficult than I had expected it to be. I didn’t work as hard as I should have on the first paper and ended up with a 79% as my paper grade.

I worked the rest of the semester to come back up from that grade, and hoped to bring it up to an A-. However, at the end, my grade was only good enough for a B+.

In that situation, I was glad for the plus-minus system because the B+ is better than a regular B, so it was like proof of my hard work. However, had I done even better and gotten the A-, I would have preferred a non-plus-minus system so that I could have gotten the 4.0 A for the grade.

That being said, I find it very interesting that TCU does not utilize a universal grading system throughout all classes and departments. I wish it were not up to teachers’ discretions. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep track of what I’m aiming for in each class on top of all the other information I worry about.

Sometimes it feels like the plus-minus system is unfair, because in some places a 90 is always considered an A. I don’t necessarily care if TCU is plus-minus or not, but I do wish that the university would make a standard rule.