Why I’m Against A+

I am reading (and grading) amazing course papers—many that I find inspiring! So why do these papers receive an A and not an A+ grade?

My rationale begins in the UIUC grading scale, which (like many others) officially awards these point values:

A+       4.00               A         4.00

Now, that is dishonest. Ask anybody if an A and A+ are different, and they’ll say yes—A+ means something like superior, and A means something like excellent. Fair enough … but why doesn’t the university provide a meaningful numerical bonus? 

The answer is that the university really means that an A is the best grade you can achieve.

But there is important symbolism in an A+, right? Yes, there is.

But there is another way for a professor to express admiration for an “A+” paper: Write to your student. Tell her or him that they were outstanding. It might mean more than the plus sign.

But my reason is deeper. My students are about to launch their careers. If they get meaningful mentoring, they’ll receive a mix of positive and need-to-improve reviews. They will never hear their mentor or boss say, “You’re doing A+ work.” It’s not that the workplace is mean-spirited—it’s just that’s not how organizations evaluate performance.

A+ is like candy—it is sweet and fun to give out, but it has potential to create decay.

It signals that there is no room for improvement—and that is simply not the case. No matter how much we excel, there is room for improvement. The A+ grade is the new A, making an A a de facto A-, and so on.

Many of my students are A+. I will tell them in so many words, personally. But they’ll rarely if ever have a performance review with A+ on it. We need to set realistic performance review expectations.