Now I’ve been going to CSU for two semesters; summer and fall.  I took a database course in the summer and got something like a 98.5% and it was recorded as an A.  I took Object Oriented Development (CS414) and Parallel Programming (CS475) this semester.  I know I got something like an 88% in 414 which turns out to be an A-.  That’s an A MINUS!  Same thing in 475, A-.  So my 4.0 is now a 3.7ish.  My problem here is two fold: The new +/- system sucks but there is no reward to do exceedingly well and get an A+.  I can do no better than a 4.0 so A is as good as it gets.

Now to truly appreciate this you need to know me as a young college kid the first time around.  I didn’t valiantly march through school with nothing but honors.  In fact, I barely made it through…it was more or a battered and bruised half-hearted slide to home plate.  I have a saying that Cs get Degrees.  I racked up more Cs than anyone around.  I had one lone A in my ASU undergrad.  ONE!  And it was a group project and we had some idiot savant who had it done in the second week of a 16 week course.  We spent 14 weeks going through the motions.  I had a D too, in MAT342, linear algebra.  Wasn’t a core course, so it was kosher.  I had some Bs, in fact my CSE421 class with Dr. David Pheanis was my crowning achievement.  I had the third best grade on the final in a course which was widely considered the hardest course in the ASU undergrad curriculum throughout the school, not just the CSE program.  Anyway, I wrapped up that degree with a 2.42 or so.  No one ever asked for my GPA, so Cs still got degrees and jobs!

So, now I’m doing better, I appreciate it more, I understand the material better now that I’ve worked in the field for almost 8 years.  I care, I don’t know why, but I care.  I want to do well.  I was happy to see two As, even if it was tempered with disappointment for seeing a minus next to both.  And on a side note, I see Dr Pheanis isn’t teaching anymore which is truly a tragedy.  I never understood why he did what he did or the reason for many seemingly pointless assignments.  I always thought he was an ego maniac and a jerk.  He’s not, he was one of the most skilled professors in the CS department at ASU.  Between 421 and 438 I learned how to write, not perfect but I got a lot better.  All the while I learned the fundamentals of a computer.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve explained the fundamentals of a switch/case statement to “Software Engineers” who have no idea how it’s implemented in languages like C as they deal in VB.

So +/- grading systems, thumbs down.  Dr Pheanis and the teachers like him who have a method to their madness even if we can’t see it right away, thumbs up.