‘Tis the season of final exams…

And the season of those ever-anticipated final grades.

With students’ rising anxieties over their GPAs, a welcome gift has appeared in this year’s Christmas stockings: grade inflation.

Now we here at USDemocrazy are students, and we too enjoy getting the gift of good grades.

But should we be happy if our top grades are being awarded for substandard work?

Recently, a Harvard professor spoke out against his institution’s tendency to hand out As. Harvard College, one of two schools within Harvard University, hands out more As than any other grade. At Yale, 62% of their grades in the spring of 2012 were A’s.

Some may argue that Harvard and Yale, being Ivy League schools, are blessed with an abundance of over achieving students? But there is a disturbing trend here…

From 1991 to 2007, American colleges and universities, public and private alike, saw average GPAs jump from 2.93 to 3.11.

Some Ivy Leagues have adopted new grading systems to respond to the rising inflation. Princeton, for example, instructs professors not to award more than 35% of their students with As.

As you study for finals and anxiously await the fate of your final grades, you can guarantee this Harvard grade calculator will be a nice self-esteem boost.

Students argue that they need high grades to remain competitive for graduate schools. But is this worth it when students have to put in less work for a high grade? What do you think?