Did you understand the concept of "grades" as a kid?

[AspieWatchmaker]

I probably started to understand grades around fifth grade. I started school a year late, and math was always my best subject. Except for the ability to do division without a calculator. I don't know how people do that unless it's an obvious whole number you can work backward from. I would also get bored and not want to do all the hours of homework when I already understood something. Homework is a sham.

 

[tree]

I was oblivious to getting grades the first year we started having report cards.
I didn't realize it was part of school.
School up until then was really just a thing we had to do.
That was 4th grade when I was 9.

By the next year I understood.
I wanted to get A's. I liked A's for two reasons.
1. They were the best grade.
2. They looked like triangles.

I liked A+'s, too.
I got some of those.

 

[Ylva]

We only had grades in middle and high school. It was number grades, so I never had that no E problem, although I wondered when I watched American shows.

I shifted between hating the teachers for passing judgment on me and pretending it was mathematical, just feeling stressed out about them, and being resigned and indifferent towards them since I couldn't do anything about their existence. What really irked me was the behavior-and-order grades. Who do they think they are? My parents?

 

[tree]

Oh, @Ylva thank you for reminding me about the Behavior grades.
We didn't start getting those until we went to the big school.
7th grade.

One time my mother had to go have a conference with the Spanish teacher.
I had a 5 for Behavior in Spanish.
That was the lowest Behavior grade: "Parent teacher conference required."

The problem with my behavior was lack of attendance in Language Lab.
I didn't know how to operate the equipment, so I didn't go in the whole
6 week marking period. I was also a little afraid of the older upperclassman
who tended the Language Lab.

My mother explained that to the teacher.
The teacher showed me how to use the equipment.
The rest of the year I got 1's for Behavior in Spanish class.

Fortunately, there was no head lice outbreak that year.
I think that would have put me right back to getting a 5.
Head lice in the head phones.

 

[the_tortoise]

I understood the concept of grades as a kid. I think the only year I didn't have formal grades was kindergarten.

School was like a game to me .......a horrible, horrible game that I didn't want to play but for as long as I had to play it, I wanted to win (get through every level....i.e. get passing grades) and I wanted to find every secret mini-game and bonus level and collect all the collectable objects along the way (i.e. get 100% on assignments and tests) -- or to at least get a high score (nothing lower than a 'B' -- usually meaning nothing below 80%).

 

[fairy_girl]

I didn't really understand the concept of grades till about elementary and middle school, all I really know that getting an A+ and an A was good but a B was alright as long as I tried. I try far more then I should have in my favorite classes but I got burned out badly from that and just coasted till I graduated enough to get out of there for good.

 

[Karen S.]

I understood the Grade Concept all too well and that I would Never Win with it! Kindergarten at the Public School went very well, so they thought I could handle our Catholic School. They held me back in first grade for being immature and School just kept getting worse from there! School was painful for me, when I mentioned it, "I was complaining too much, and I cried too much"! I kept going because I did Not want to be held back again! I knew my teachers resented having me in their class!

I loved learning, but it was sooo hard to do so in a classroom! I have speech difficulties, so reading out loud is a challenge! I could actually read quite well, but they didn't believe it and I was kept in the "Boring" reading group, very frustrating! The Standardized Testing scores were above average, but they didn't believe them either! I did stink at math, no debate there!

One year (5th Grade) we were doing Native American Studies and I built a lovely Iroquois Long House. The Teacher did not believe that I could possibly have built it myself! I was heartbroken, I was so proud of it, it was my best project of all time! They gave me a mediocre grade and barely believed my parents that I had built it 99% on my own! Sixth Grade was horrible as well, the teacher was the Main Math Teacher for the School, so I just couldn't win with her at all. I left that School halfway through 7th grade, My Parents Finally had enough with their treatment of me!

We had no idea I was Autistic back then, (We blamed my difficulties on Congenital Hypothyroidism that wasn't caught until I was three months old) it was late Seventies and Early Eighties, but they shouldn't have been so nasty for any reason!

 

[WildCat]

What is meant by "concept" here? Is there some deeper meaning to it? Just curious, there was a scale of A to F - A being top marks, B, C, and a F being the lowest. Then you had conduct grades, I think it was simply satisfactory and unsatisfactory behavior (S and U). Pretty simple stuff there.

I understood this since I began my first year of school, the teachers made all of this very clear to each and every student. I don't know the system in place now if it has changed since then, but that was pretty much it.

 

[VioletHaze_03]

i didn't really think about grades, i just really liked school as a kid. grades didn't matter as much to me, what was important was my parents not getting angry because i was doing badly. maybe it's just because where i am, we use number grades instead of letter ones.

 

[xudo]

I'm in the UK, and we had grades for things like homework and then later coursework and obviously exams.

I knew that getting a better grade meant you'd done the job at hand better. For the classes I was interested in, the grades meant more and I would actively try harder to get better grades. For classes I was less interested in, or ones that I knew meant nothing for me personally (like P.E. or technology - neither of which were things that would be impactful or useful to me in later life) I didn't care. I was terrible at art for example, and I knew it wasn't something that I wanted to pursue, so getting a good mark on work wasn't something I aimed for.

 

[Judge]

It's just a little weird at times to look back and realize that at least in my own case, from kindergarten to the university grading in general tended to be terribly subjective.

At times reflecting irrelevant benchmarks involving everything from the color of my gym shorts or drawing grades from a box to my gender either influencing or outright determining a grade.

And not a damn thing I could do about it.

 

[Ylva]

It's just a little weird at times to look back and realize that at least in my own case, from kindergarten to the university grading in general tended to be terribly subjective.

At times reflecting irrelevant benchmarks involving everything from the color of my gym shorts or drawing grades from a box to my gender either influencing or outright determining a grade.

And not a damn thing I could do about it.

Same. Or, similar. I may not have been certain at the time due to incessant gaslighting, but now I see clear as day that the difference between a 5 and a 6 (or an A and a B) was whether the teacher liked you.

 

[SchrodingersMeerkat]

What is meant by "concept" here?

What I meant to say was "Did you understand why these things the teachers gave out and called "grades" were something to get upset about? I know I didn't. It was just a letter. I could write my own letters. Why was I supposed to be motivated by the teacher writing a letter or number on my paper? Why was I supposed to be motivated by a letter in the first place? Give me some candy already, lady! (Actually, I was very skittish about accepting candy from my teachers. My teachers still registered to me as "strangers".)

 

[WildCat]

@SchrodingersMeerkat I meant no offense with my previous post BTW, I asked that because there are some "concepts" that even I'm still in the dark about. Even now at 30 years of age, many seem to have long gotten certain things - most of them having to do with anything social or emotional - that I just can't figure out. I probably should have elaborated before, but eh...

Grades weren't one of them, fortunately...I think, but reading the posts on here I probably need to reconsider...but I can definitely see where you're coming from now that you explained it...yeah, I don't think I'd want "strangers" meddling in my business either.

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

The British system doesn't have 'letter' type grades until high school, years 1-9 have 'levels' with a numbering system, and I can't remember ever not understanding that the higher a number you get the better it is, but I never paid much attention to it until year 9 anyway, because my parents told me that exams don't matter until your GCSEs (year 11).

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Was told you needed four at grade c to get a job.
A was highest, D was fail.

Didnt see the point of an A.

Later in 3 hour exams I left after an hour and a half. (15 mins checking answers)
I would answer 3 questions out of 5, aiming for 60%, allowing for margin of error.
Left 2 unanswered no point.
Coursework needed 60%, exam only 40%. Lots of leeway to ensure success.

Got the pass, got the raise.

Eventually went mad and the job and i came to an arrangement :
I gave it up and it gave me up.

 

[Crossbreed]

Eventually went mad and the job and i came to an arrangement :
I gave it up and it gave me up.

What kind of work/job?

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

What kind of work/job?

For a local authority/council in the uk.