That’s even better, since you get a 0 (zero) in the ABCDF system if you don’t turn something in
At my school, the passing grades were:
O = Outstanding
E = Exceeds Expectations
A = Acceptable
and the failing grades were:
P = Poor
D = Dreadful
T = Troll
To proceed to a N.E.W.T., a student usually needs to have achieved at least an E in the O.W.L. of the same subject, although some professors insist upon a grade of O.
You certainly wouldn’t want a system where E = excellent and F = fail. It would be too easy for a sly student to convert an F to an E with a little bit of doctoring using a pen…
Yeah… that would be much easier than the F to a B bit… That never worked.
^
Wondered when that would come up
Most of the Australian Universities use a system whereby the grades are (Highest to lowest):
High Distinction (84%-100%)
Distinction (75%-84%)
Credit (65%-74%)
Pass (50%-64%)
Pass Conceded (Usually around 47-49%)
Fail (Below 47%)
When I was at school in NZ, anything less than a “C” (50%-60% or so) was considered a failing mark, and even with a C you’d still have some explaining to do to your parents (unless it was in PE or Home Economics or another subject widely acknowledged “not to count”). I know that “D” and “E” marks did exist but you’d basically have to be bunking school and listening to your Walkman all day when you did bother to show up for class to end up with an E in any of the “Real” subjects.
My high school in Illinois used an “A, B, C, D, E” system in the 1980s.
My university used a “1, 2, 3, 4, 5” system (“1” being the highest grade) up until the 1970s or so, but by the time I got there they had switched to the “A, B, C, D, F” system.
In both my high school and my university, grades A-D could be modified with a “+/-”.
My middle school used the A-E system, as well as other experimental stuff that was eventually dropped. I don’t think any of us ever liked the “E” = Fail idea. It clearly wasn’t the first letter of the word and it seemed somehow better than an “F”, like it wasn’t “really” a failing grade.
I think the “f means fail” is possibly coincidental, as I’ve seen report cards of my father’s, where they worked on a system of A-F. There was one where he had “E” as the grade on some subject or another.
I suppose on other scales the “worst” letter could be made to say other things:
A-E scale: “Extremely Stupid.”
A-G scale: “God DAMN, your kid is stupid.”
A-H scale: “Holy shit, I’ve got a goat that can do algebra better than your kid. A goat!”
Don’t remember elementary school, but my intermediate school and high schools used E’s instead of F’s as well. This was the Blue Water Area and then Southeast Michigan. Oh, we also used “intermediate school” but these days, they’re started calling them “middle schools” for some reason.
I thought that ‘K’ stands for “key”, which has some meaning in traditional printing. But I suppose those could both be true.
I always thought that we used the “A, B, C, D, F” system because the designers were just as illiterate as the students!
I don’t think the Pass/Fail/Incomplete grading system is as old as the standard letter grades. It seemed to become popular during the '60s. Of course, in education there is nothing new under the sun, so it may well have been implemented long before, but that is when it became widespread. Until it went out of fashion. Again.
In an elementary school that I went to (Virginia), the grades for early years were
O - Outstanding
S - Satisfactory
N - Needs Improvement
Later (perhaps 4th or 5th grade), there was a switch to an A B C D F system. I think one of the ideas is that little children can’t be failures, they just have to improve.
Don’t think that didn’t happen, in different color ink no less, yes he got caught, and that’s how I and the rest of the class knew about the ink color.
When was this? I’m pretty sure this is no longer the case, although UM does have a very weird grading system. (I recently tried to enter my GPA into an automated form and was told to enter a valid GPA. sigh)
I went to a private catholic school in Canada, and I don’t remember any serious emphasis on letter grades. I think it was when I got into university that I really noticed people cared about A vs B+ or C vs C- and all that crap. Of course, the schools and common culture talked about letter grades, so we knew about them - they just weren’t mentioned much in our school.
Basically, we had percentages, which were tallied up from an amalgam of your tests and your final exam - so you pretty much knew how you were tracking all year long. You got 66% or 87% or 92% or whatever. 80% and over was A or good. 70’s was B, 60’s was C, 50’s was D and under 50% was fail. Or maybe it was 66% to 75% was B… etc. Who cared? 81.5% vs. 79.5% was more important an average than A vs B.
When the university switched from percent-as-letter to the GPA system, out of 4 (or was it 4.5?) it just made life more interesting. You had to translate percent to letter to GPA points. A+ was 85 (or was it 92?) to 100, and that was a 4.5 or something…
The whole point as I saw it was this “educating is a job for professionals, you parents just sit back and let us take care of it and don’t ask questions or interfere…” This process started with things like “new math” and whole word reading, to ensure parents could not accidentally teach their kids the “wrong” stuff. The more confusing and unknown the system could be for outsiders, the better… and the more justified the teachers’ professional-level salaries would be.
The reverse grade system kids in my day tried to convince their folks was accurate
A - Awful
B- Bad
C- Could do better
D - Dandy
F - Fantastic
Never worked of course but tell it to your six year old, he’ll try it anyway, at least once 
Reminds me of what my family often did with fuel gauges. Originally it was:
F = Full
E = Extra Full
Later, F changed to Freakin’ Empty or a variation.
My parents were only mildly surprised when, instead of doing Excellent work, I started doing Fine work. 