As a third year student in NUS, my result slips have often given me surprises which made me feel incredibly lucky or incredibly disgruntled.  It's an experience that perhaps many students will share with me.

The question "how did we get this grade?" appears to be unanswered.

I have often been told that teachers are not supposed to release 'real numbers' to students, but rather, an approximate grade which indicates to the student his/her position on the bell curve. However, I find it difficult to appreciate the secrecy behind such actions.

The lack of transparency of one's actual grades poses potential problems.

Firstly, it could be abused. Students are unable to verify if the grades which they have acquired on their term papers or tests correspond with the final result that is recorded in the system. This could result in abuse as tutors/lecturers can give a higher grade on a student's test or term paper and then give the student a lower grade without the student's knowledge. Moreover, the lack of transparency does not allow students to check if there could be possible human errors or technical glitches in the processing of a student's grades.

Secondly, a large portion of the grades remain 'unseen.' Students are unaware of their performance for 'class participation' and are thus unable to contest the given grade.

Thirdly, it appears to me that most NUS students are very competitive academically. In adopting the bell curve, does it penalize students who have done well, but just not well enough in that semester?

I am, however, only hypothesizing as the lack of information does not allow me to make an informed decision. Moreover, in considering the bell curve, one could make the thought experiment that in a class of Einsteins and Newtons, someone has to end up with a bad grade. Would that perhaps be fair?

In a related issue, what should a student do if he/she feels that he/she is being treated unfairly by the professor? Is there an outlet of redress?

Personally, I feel that as a student, I should not be kept in the dark and remain in a constant state of oblivion about my academic grading. Merely accepting grades at the end of every semester appears to undermine the notion of inquisition that our NUS education purports to give us.

Yours,
Joshua Sim
Third Year Sociology Major