Grades

A section of an 1856 Chemistry class grade roll.

From the 1976 Garnet &Black

"In the first fifty years of the college there were no standard grading or testing procedures. A student would be orally quizzed before his professor and the grade would be recorded on a sort of pass-fail basis. However, in 1852, President Thornwell visited Harvard and Yale and returned with the idea of utilizing a written examination. No formal grades were devised until 1883, when President McBryde, in an effort to raise the standards of the second college over those of the first, developed a numerical grading system. Out of a possible 100 points, students who achieved 90 or above were deemed 'honors,' 75-90 were 'distinguished,' 60-75 were 'proficient,' 40-60 were 'conditioned,' and those below were 'failures.'

"In 1906, when the third South Carolina College revised itself and became the third USC, the trustees revamped the grading program whereby the passing mark was raised to 75.

"In 1914 a grade of 65-74 was 'deficient' and that below 65 was 'failure.' The students were allowed to do make-up work if they placed in the 'deficiency' category, but often professors did not require it and passed them anyway. In 1922, the passing grade was placed at 70.

"Students received recorded grades as numerical values from one to seven (seven being the highest). In 1957 a new system was establised whereby one received an 'A' (95-100), 'B' (90-94), 'C' (85-89), 'X' (absent from exam), 'I' (incomplete), 'W' (dropped), 'FA' (failure for absences), or 'NC' (no credit).

"Those grades were modified in 1971 with a 'B' ranging from 87-93, a 'C' from 76-86 and an 'NC' from 0-75. Recently the 'NC' has been dropped and the 'D' and 'F' re-instated.

"Grade-point ratios were computed on a 6.0 basis until 1964 when the maximum was changed to the nationally recognized 4.0."