Pass/Fail: Doomed to Fail?

By  WILLIAM INOUE ‘27

“So, what were your fall term grades?” my mother asked. I had just spent an hour explaining to her how we do not get grades; preps either pass or fail a class in the fall. I couldn’t answer her without saying, “I don’t know how I did; I just know I passed.” This single exchange made me realize how flawed the Pass/Fail system was and how it can harm students more than benefit them. 

The Pass/Fail system, in its essence, is a grading system implemented for the first term at the Academy. Instead of traditional letter grades, you are assigned a “Pass” or “No Pass” during your first term at Exeter and other similar elite boarding schools. Unless a significant amount of work is not completed or students struggle to grasp the material, receiving a “No Pass” is highly unlikely. The E Book states that “All courses taken for credit in the fall term of the ninth grade will receive official grades of ‘Pass’ (P) or ‘No Pass’ (NP). Students, advisers, and parents/guardians will receive unofficial grades from the 11-point scale at the end of the Fall term. These unofficial grades will not be included in the GPA calculation nor displayed on the transcript or report card.”

According to the school and many students, the Pass/Fail system is in place as a way for students to adjust to the academic rigor of Phillips Exeter Academy, focus on extracurricular activities such as clubs and sports, and simply adjust to boarding school life without a large concern for school work. The school claims that by making classes Pass/Fail, students can prepare themselves better for the Winter term when grades are no longer Pass/Fail. The school’s main argument for going Pass/Fail is that it gives them a chance to try out methods of studying and have time to develop good habits and learn about themselves before grades start “mattering.”

The idea that Pass/Fail is in place for students to adjust to Exeter is absurd. I understand the concept of the school implementing this; however, the effectiveness should be reflected upon. Personally, it did not help at all. I still had the same academic pressure to do well regardless of whether or not the grades would affect my cumulative GPA. When talking with friends, I found that the general trend was that students who score high during Pass/Fail, score high in winter and spring terms, and those who score low often have a hard time bringing it much higher. It should be clear from the difficulty of raising your grade Winter term that from an academic standpoint, the Pass/Fail is ineffective in increasing a student’s GPA in subsequent terms. Students who score high in the latter two terms often already score high in their prep year’s Pass/Fail term.

This brings me to the accustomization aspect of Pass/Fail. As an only child from a family where I was often left alone in the house, it was a difficult and dramatic change for me to adjust to a dorm with 40 other people and a roommate. While, in hindsight, learning to live with others was a positive change, it took me some time to become comfortable with it. However, this positive change did not transcribe my academic experiences during my first term at Exeter. My general life and academic life did not need to be mixed, nor did the school need to make my first term easier to help me acclimatize to a new environment. From personal experience, it does not work. 

It is wise to consider the harm that Pass/Fail may bring and why some schools, such as Phillips Andover, do not have this system. The most obvious reason is the negligence of their grades some students would have due to their grades not “mattering,” or being marked on their transcript. I would have to admit I am guilty of this myself. As the Fall term concludes, finding motivation for finals becomes increasingly difficult since the grades do not matter in a Pass/Fail system. This, in return, makes the Winter term the time for accustomizing as the academic pressure and realization hit. 

In general, I think that the Academy should seriously reconsider the Pass/Fail system and remove it if necessary. The harm it could bring to students far outweighs the benefits it may provide. However, this is not to say that there should be no resources in place for students in the Fall term to acclimate to the harsh academic environment of Phillips Exeter. 

Alternative options for Pass/Fail are plentiful and have the potential to be better acclimation opportunities for new students. The first is to increase the number of “midterm” grades to three. The second one is where the actual “midterm” will be handed out. This means that METICS will be conducted simultaneously with every other grade –A METIC being a “Midterm Effort To Improve Class,” where it is a chance for both students to give feedback to the teachers and the teachers to give feedback to students. Increasing “midterm” grades will allow students to grasp their academic track better than receiving only one “midterm” grade halfway through the 10-week term before the final. The idea behind the increase in students’ grades is to allow them to reflect and develop studying strategies that work best for them. 

The increased “midterm” grades should be administered with mandatory student-teacher conferences, regardless of a student’s academic situation. After every grade is released, teachers should open sometime in their schedule to meet with students depending on their needs. These should be mandatory, encouraging and informing new students that meetings with teachers are possible and should be done often. 

These two changes aim to increase the student’s knowledge of their academic situation and teach them about the resources and “help” that Exeter has to offer. These two solutions, when carried out simultaneously, would almost guarantee that students will acclimate better to the academic rigor of Phillips Exeter than on the Pass/Fail system, as they would familiarize students with the same academic pressure that all other terms would have, but in a manner that teachers can support.

The concept of Pass/Fail is flawed. While, in theory, the Pass/Fail benefits students by giving them time to acclimatize to Phillips Exeter, the execution is often lackluster. It provides little to no benefit for most students. Providing students with two more “grades” and mandatory meetings with teachers solves many problems that Pass/Fail has caused in a manner that is easily integrated and manageable by all teachers.