“We worked hard to smooth the grades among the sections,” he said. “We put a lot into the course and we wanted a lot back.”

Kishlansky said he felt that the slightly lower mean grade this year, around a B-plus, was the result of this increased attention.

And students in 10a said they felt the extra pressure.

“My TF told me that grading would be more difficult,” said Damien T. Wint ’05. “I got the sense that grading was a work in progress...and that they weren’t quite sure how to adjust the grades.”

TFs in other courses said they were also aware of attempts to strictly monitor grading practices this fall.

David L. Kaminsky, a first year TF for Lit. and Arts B-51: “First Nights: Five Performance Premiers” said that he felt strict pressure to keep the mean in his class at a B-plus.

“The professor told us they they breathe down his neck if the average gets too high,” he said.

But Shanthini Kasturi ’04, a student in “First Nights”, said she did not feel grading practices were unfair—despite students’ murmurs of grade deflation.

“I haven’t heard any specific news, but there have definitely been rumors that TFs and professors are not as willing to give you higher grades,” she said.

Kishlanksy too said that he has detected the heightened student concern—and it does not surprise him.

“[Students] didn’t get into Harvard by not caring about grades,” he said, “The idea that [they] get into Harvard and not care about grades is to erase their memory banks.”

And despite the recent decline in grades, Kishlansky said students have little to fear.

“I don’t see how they could much go down...we are not in the business of giving C’s,” he said.

—Staff writer Jessica E. Vascellaro can be reached at vascell@fas.harvard.edu.