Thursday, May 21, 2009
About GPA Homogenization
During exam period, I had lots of idle brain time to think about many issues that have cropped up in my mind. One of the stark issues that I have a grouse with is about something that I term GPA Homogenization. Is GPA homogenization far?
What is GPA homogenization? One might ask. Well GPA is a standard grade that is used to gauge the academic performance of all students in tertiary education. It is calculated in a simple manner as such.
Each module the student takes has an academic weightage. In NTU it's called AU or "Academic Units", for example a very taxing subject such as "Organic Chemistry" has a weightage of 4AU, a simpler elective module has a weightage of 3AU or a really simple module like a laboratory session has a mere weightage of 1AU, in contrast, a heavy industrial attachment easily has a weightage of 10AUs or more and a final year project (FYP) has a weightage of 20-30AUs. A general guideline is that the number of AUs a module has is the number of hours a week that the module entails lessons for. E.g 3AU module = 3 hrs per week, it could be 2hrs for lecture and 1hr for tutorials. So if a student has a 23AU semester, he spends no less than 23hrs a week in class based on time-table. This number doesn't include self-study, extra-lessons, reports, project time and etc etc.
The grade the student achieves for the subject has a value to it, for example an "A+" has a value of 5.0 (max), "A's" give 4.5, B's give 3.0-3.5, C's give 2.0-2.5, D's give 1.0-1.5 and a fail gets a 0 grade.
The GPA is calculated by (module AU x module grade) / total modules taken. Let's explore an example, let's say student X takes 4 modules, each with a weightage of 3AUs, so he's total AU taken for that semester is 4x3 = 12AUs. If he get's B's for all the subjects, that's [4 modules x (3AU x 3.0) ]/ 12 (total AUs taken) = 3.0GPA. Which is pretty straightforward so far.
Lets say the same student gets 2 A's and 2 B's, so
{ [2 x (3AU x 4.0) ] + [ 2 x (3AU x 3.0) ] } / 12 = 3.5 GPA.
Now what is GPA homogenization?
Lets take 2 students, one in engineering, taking very heavy academic subjects with over 21AUs per semester, (it can be up to 23-26AUs), with five or more core subjects of 4AU or more in weightage.
And let's take another student in business school, doing a mere 14-18 (16 on average) AU per semester with less weighty subjects of 3AUs each. (an example would be economics as compared to Applied Physics).
The student spends much less time studying for less subjects which in turn are less academically demanding and heavy and as a result, able to focus and concentrate on lesser subjects, which translates to a better academic performance per module. So lets say this student gets an A for all the subjects during his/her semester and gets a 4.0GPA.
What about the engineering student who works just as hard, if not harder? Engineering subjects are extremely time-consuming to understand and assignments and tutorials are very mentally taxing. Engineering modules in general require much more time to study and understand in depth as compared to a business module and not to mention the modules have a greater weightage, require more time and are very academically heavy. A student can study all day for his/her 23AUs and still not get A's for the subject due to the bell curve for the entire engineering cohort.
So lets say this engineering student studies 45 hours a week on top of class schedule of 23 hours, and gets B's for all his 5-6 heavy-weighted core subjects (which is actually rather good), he still only scores a 3.0GPA. As compared to a student from business school who say, studies 30 hours a week and scores a 4.0GPA
So the engineering student gets 3.0GPA and the business student gets 4.0GPA. Does this mean that the engineering student is LAZY? Or Stupid? Or Can't-be-bothered? Does that mean the business student is SMART-er? Clever-er? More hardworking?
On paper yes, but if you break down the individual components as I have, you would see that that's not true. The engineering student worked just as hard or harder but did not get the same recognition as the business student and this is the first level of judgment that the outside world has of any graduate.
So the engineering student got a 2nd-class honors and the business student got a 1st class, so that means the business student is smarter or more hardworking right? It might make sense and sound logical, but that would be a very myopic view of the academic system.
I am merely citing an example between an average/general business vs engineering student and not suggesting condescending remarks to either party both ways. If insulting insinuations can be inferred from my text written above, it is not meant to be. This is merely an example of what I term "GPA homogenization" and can be applied to any student from any school anywhere which uses GPA as an academic gauge.
GPA is a convenient way for academic authorities to gauge student performances, but it is NOT a fair way of judgment at all. I am sure for all the brains and PhDs in renown institutions all around the world, there can be a fairer way of academic judgment. But until then, GPA is still used as the academic gauge in institutions all around the world.
But then again, my thoughts could be flawed and myopic in itself if the system has been in place for so long without review or question by higher-authorities, and I am open to suggestions of improvement or critique to supplement my current understanding.
Posted by MK at 2:12 PM
