[joris]

Yes, in Holland students know they can simply fail an exam and usually know that’s on them.

In the US, students can literally complain to the dean who then puts pressure on the professor. And they do, so professors know to err on the lenient side.

In fact: the average grade at Harvard has been an A- for some years now. So grades from Harvard are basically meaningless.

[throwaway32479]

> the average grade at Harvard has been an A- for some years now. So grades from Harvard are basically meaningless.

I won't deny grade inflation, but Harvard allows students to drop classes very late in the semester. For "hard" classes, it wasn't uncommon for less than 25% of the students present in the second week of class to still be around to take the final. I never saw anything like that at the public university I went to as an undergrad.

Some amount of the high average grade is because the students not doing so well in the course drop with little to no penalty.