Grading the PDF

Don't you have a final that you should be studying for?" "Nah, it's okay — I got a B+ on the midterm and I'm PDF-ing the class." Such is the typical attitude of students toward the current pass/D/fail system.

As this dialogue shows, the current rules encourage students who PDF a class to invest the least amount of effort possible. The administration's philosophy behind the PDF grading option is simple — it is a safety valve of sorts that encourages students to venture beyond their academic sphere of comfort and enroll in challenging classes without the usual concern for GPA. But what if a student majoring in math finds herself doing unexpectedly well in the gender studies class she signed up to PDF? If she has a change of heart late in the course, the PDF option cannot be rescinded.

Students like this one have little incentive to put time and energy into the class during the remainder of the semester. Instead, they frequently resign themselves to a "pass" grade which both discourages learning and fails to reflect their potential performance in a given class. The current deadline discourages students from fully participating in classes since after an arbitrary date, students cannot earn a grade that rewards their efforts. It essentially punishes students who choose to consistently apply themselves in classes where they have chosen the PDF option. In a perfect world, learning alone would be enough of a reason for students to work hard in all of their classes, regardless of the grading option. However, the number of competing demands on the time of Princeton students encourages students to cut corners when corners can be cut.

This reality is also inconsistent with the University's liberal arts principles. Students should be encouraged not only to take interesting classes that they do not anticipate excelling in, but also to excel in those interesting classes long after the PDF safety net has been cast.

The PDF grading option should be a limited-use safety net that can be retracted at any point when the student feels confident enough in her ability in a course. Professors and peers alike will be rewarded by a more enthusiastic atmosphere. When the PDF option becomes a sentence, the initiative to learn is removed.