KATHMANDU, Jan 25: Grade XI results were published under the letter grading system this year. Under this evaluation system, students’ results are categorized in nine different letters — from A+ to E. “Grading system is a worldwide system in which students are jugged based on their theoretical and practical knowledge. As much as 60 percent marks cover theoretical knowledge while the remaining 40 percent is allocated to evaluate students’ practical knowledge, which includes class performance and involvement in other activities,” said Yadav Chandra Neupane, exam coordinator at Mega College. 

Since this is the first time that the results were published in grades, My City team talked to some Grade XII students of Mega College to know their understanding of the system. Following are the edited excerpts of their conversation.

Misha Shakya, 17 
Though there were rumors that the results of Grade XI would be published under the grading system, we were not officially informed about the same. Hence, I was not prepared for this. No one failed under this system and those who scored D+ can give supplementary exams to improve their grades. So, this may be an advantage for weak students. However, I personally don’t like the grading system as our results do not contain GPA and it is confusing. 

Kiran Bhusal, 17 
I was not expecting that our result would be published under the grading system as we were not informed about this before exam. I am not so happy to see my result in grades. I would know exact marks if it was published in marking system, but now I can only guess the number. As no one fails under the grading system, this might be good for weak students. I think the range of marks between two grades should be decreased, and GPA should be added in the letter grading system to make it more systematic. 

Sushma Regmi, 18 
I am happy with the implementation of this system because this is an international standard, and no one should pass or fail in exams. However, I prefer the marks system because there we could notice even small improvement or downfall in numbers whenever we got the results. In grading system though we cannot say how much exactly we scored in an exam. Even a single score can bring changes in your grade, so I don’t like this system. As the result of our Grade XII exams will also be published under the grading system, this time I want to focus on subjects that I am weak in. 

Sanjay Gautam, 18 
Basically grading system means a way of jugging students in terms of letters instead of percentage or number. Hence, I love the concept as nobody will ever hold a failed certificate under this system. I am happy to see my result in grades, but I still think it is incomplete because we don’t get any number to evaluate our result. Unlike the GPA system, letter grading is quite confusing. Earlier, I used to focus on a particular subject to up my percentage, but after the implementation of letter grading system I am conscious about all subjects. But as the results do not announce anyone as failed, I believe suicide attempts among students after the results will decrease. 

Bhawani Prashad Khanal, 18 
Marks system is far better than grading system as we can notice the progress or downfall in our performance in the former. As it was not sure if our results would be published in grading or marking system before our exams, I was expecting my result to be published in marks. Due to the absence of a proper evaluating method like in the GPA system, this result is like a blood report for me. This difference of ten marks between two grades is too large, so I think this should be reduced to five in order to evaluate students in a proper way. 

Kamal Raj Neupane, 18 
Grading system evaluates students with letters instead of numbers, but I think marks system was far better. Due to the number and percentage in marking system, students used to focus on study to score better percentage. But after the implementation of grading system, I think the students’ reading habit will diminish as they are jugged in terms of grade instead of marks. I am no satisfied with grading system as I can only guess my marks. Moreover, no one fails in this system so I think this will produce weak manpower in our country.