Is Self-Grading the Answer?

Abstract

The article entitled Self-Grading: An Experiment in Learning by Peter G. Filene, which appeared in the June, I969, issue of the JOURNAL,' is a clear example of a trend that is gaining in acceptance at many colleges and universities. In order to test an hypothesis that had interested me for some time, I employed a similar method in a class in introductory psychology during the summer school session of I969 at the University of Windsor. I was of the opinion that if students had the chance to assign themselves their own course grade they would give themselves a lower mark than would the professor. On the last day of class, during the final examination, which as a graduate assistant and grader I happened to be proctoring, I requested the students to write on the back of the last page of their exam the mark that they thought they deserved and, in two or three sentences, the reason why they felt they deserved that mark. I made it clear that this was completely voluntary and that if they preferred not to participate, it would not be held against them. As a matter of fact, the professor