Grading inflation, in essence, is when somebody receives a grade that is higher than what a previous student would have received,” said Max Checketts, vice president of BYU-I.

Vice President Checketts said that to find out if grade inflation is a problem at BYU-I, data is looked at from previous years, data usually goes back 20 years.

If a student in 1994 got a B and a student in 2005 got an A while both did the same amount of work, it is evidence of grade inflation.

Grade inflation does exist at BYU-I and there are very few places that do not have grading inflation, said Vice President Checketts.

“The goal of this university is to create leaders and disciples. If teachers are just giving out A’s, then we are not challenged, and we are not prepared. Then the institution isn’t fulfilling its goal; its just handing out a diploma instead of an education,” said Scott Carr, a freshman from Boise.

Vice President Checketts said that grading inflation is occurring at BYU-I for three reasons: one, students self-select classes, they can select the easy classes and choose to drop out of the hard class.

Two, when students are in their junior and senior year their grades improve from the previous years because they are interested in those classes. This explains why grades go up as students move up through freshman year to senior year.

Three, because of the unique environment of BYU-I students and teachers become close and a type of family unit, sometimes making it difficult for teachers to give out the grades students deserve.

There are a few solutions being considered to stop grading inflation. A solution used by some colleges is to have a forced curve.

A forced curve is when teachers can give out only a certain number of A’s, B’s and so on.

“It’s true that some classes are a lot easier, but at the same time I don’t agree with teachers giving a certain amount of A’s. If people deserve an A, then they should get an A,” said Tyler Markus, a junior from Nampa, Idaho.

President Checketts agrees that the forced curve may not be the best way to go.

One solution the administration is considering is to educate the faculty and students about grade inflation and find ways to focus on what is learned, not what is graded.

“The mindset of students is very grade oriented. Instead of learning for learning sake they are more interested in a letter grade,” said Sharon Morgan in the Academic Learning Department.

Another considered solution from the administration goes out to the students of BYU-I. If students feel that the grade they received on a test was unfair they should not go into the teacher and whine, they should think of what they have learned and why the test did not go well.

President Checketts also suggests that students should do their very best and work hard.

“If we have grade inflation it cheapens my degree and yours. Grade inflation hurts the student because if you have a C paper you should know that it’s a C paper so you can improve,” said Morgan.