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Originally Posted by soccerchamp76
Well, while most have the pass/fail system, they go a bit further. I didn't elaborate before, but some have fail/pass/high pass, or honors. I would disagree with the statement that it promotes mediocrity. The rationale is that it reduces competition among students fighting for extra minute percentage points, or trying to score higher than their neighbor. It promotes learning for the sake of learning.
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Promoting learning for the sake of learning is wonderful and feel good, but its often just lets people be lazy. I wanted to specialize, which meant I had to work my ass off since I knew the competition I'd be facing (the program I was accepted to had 600 applications for 3 spots) and I was FAR better doctor than my fellow students who just wanted to pass because of it.
The problem with pass fail is where they set the fail at. Right now most schools are too easy on students and grade inflation has crept into even the medical fields.
The speech I would have had back in the old days of dental school was 'look to your right, look to your left, in 4 years one of them won't be here.', on the other hand my class lost about 5 students total and only one was due to flunking out, the rest quit not due to grades. I also know that our enterance requirements were LOWER than those days of high flunk outs, so either the teaching got better (ha!) or they were being much easier on us in terms of passing. My fellow 'high achievers' used to lament on some of those late nights how much easier it would be if we just wanted to pass. I would not have spent as many sleepless nights, so many weekends in the lab, and so many hours in a book if I just had to pass.
So while I'm not opposed to a pass fail system per say, we need to bring what is a 'pass' up a few notches first. The same applied to the med school at my university (we often had the same professors).