JOANNE JACOBS talks about grade inflation. We have blind grading, meaning that I just found out today (I wasn’t in the office on Friday) who got what grades (the exams come with random ID numbers on them, and we turn in grades keyed to those numbers). It’s always sad — I don’t like giving low grades, though I gave more than usual this time, as I used a new exam approach that was either harder, or less prone to encouraging my sympathies (the students thought it was harder). I’m sure that if each exam had a name on it I’d be inclined to go softer on the low end. Anonymous grading doesn’t put an end to grade inflation, of course — you still know that someone will be unhappy with a low grade even if you don’t know who — but it probably helps.