# Origin of grading system skipping e? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 19, 2006, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-grading-system-skipping-e/348969 "2006-03-19T04:11:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-grading-system-skipping-e/348969/21 "2006-03-20T02:13:19Z")
e is needed for mathematics. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-grading-system-skipping-e/348969/22 "2006-03-20T02:20:02Z")
In public and high school (Ontario, Canada, ending in 1981 for me) we had A, B, C, D, and E, no F. These were for both individual tests and assignments, and for courses as a whole. C was a minimum pass (as a percentage, 60-69), B was average (70 to 79%), and A was 80% and above. D was 50 to 59% (if you bust your butt and it’s early enough in the semester, you can still bring your marks up and pass), and E was anything below. Once I managed Straight A’s in high school. Just once. When I hit university, I discovered F’s. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-grading-system-skipping-e/348969/23 "2006-03-20T02:44:20Z")
When I was in school, some non-academic items like attendance and phys ed were graded as “Excellent,” “Satisfactory,” or “Unsatisfactory,” which were abbreviated as E, S, and U. For the other classes, they used A, B, C, D, and **F** to avoid confusion. Later, the E S U grades were replaced with A-F grades. Phys Ed was pretty much an automatic A. I don’t think anyone I knew ever got lower than a B. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-grading-system-skipping-e/348969/24 "2006-03-20T03:10:11Z")
My high school used F and to rub your nose in it, marked the F in red ink on the report card. My most useful high school subject was typing and I got an F. I could type pretty well and did well on tests but didn’t complete the various projects. I didn’t need the credit to graduate and could type so I didn’t see the need to grind out all those fake business letters, invitations, etc. ---
**Author:** ![shamrock227](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@shamrock227](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shamrock227)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-grading-system-skipping-e/348969/25 "2006-03-20T05:04:43Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > My high school used F and to rub your nose in it, marked the F in red ink on the report card. I was told that the “F” was in red so you couldn’t try to change the grade without it being really noticable. But don’t take my word for it, my school gave number grades with the score being between big fat 0 and 100. I never even saw a letter grade until college. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-grading-system-skipping-e/348969/26 "2006-03-20T15:26:47Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > When I was in school, some non-academic items like attendance and phys ed were graded as “Excellent,” “Satisfactory,” or “Unsatisfactory,” which were abbreviated as E, S, and U. For the other classes, they used A, B, C, D, and **F** to avoid confusion. Right, and this is the real reason, I think. For the first couple of grades we got “Excellent” “S” or “U”. Now on a A, B, C, D, E, ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-grading-system-skipping-e/348969/27 "2006-03-20T15:28:52Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Right, and this is the real reason, I think. For the first couple of grades we got “Excellent” “S” or “U”. Now on a A, B, C, D, E, only the E is repeated and that is nto the worst grade instead of the best grade. Parents were confused and fast tlaking kids could sometimes con their parents into thinking a bunch of “E” meant Excellent. Thus, E was skipped to F. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-grading-system-skipping-e/348969.md?page=1)