The plan is now under consideration of abandoning the present system of indicating a student's rank in his courses by the letters A, B, C, D, and E, and of substituting for it a broader division into three general grades. The change would be for the better, just as formerly the change from per cent. marking was doubtless an improvement. In estimating a student's work it is almost impossible to draw very fine distinctions between the different grades. When it comes to a variation of a few per cent., the absurdity of attempting it is apparent; and the difficulty of that form of estimate extends, though in a less degree, to the system of marking by letters.

At the best, any system of graded marking is likely to prove not wholly satisfactory. On the border line between two grades there must always be a number of men whose proper rank it is extremely difficult to determine. Even assuming, what it would be unwise to assert, that examinations are absolutely reliable tests of a student's attainment, there would still be the danger of his suffering from some unintentional injustice in the marking; and upon a doubtful decision of the mark in a single course, may hinge the really important question as to the grade of the final degree.

Obviously a misleading estimate is more to be feared where the marker must decide between many grades of narrow compass, than where he decides between few grades of broad compass. A three-grade system, for instance, would do away with the difficult distinctions between A and B and between C and D. When first adopted, it would of course be some what difficult of adjustment to the present conditions which determine the award of degrees with distinction; but in operation it would more than repay for any temporary disturbance it might cause.