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Comment by Zircom | Hacker News Reader

Typically failing the course, homework was 30% of your entire grade at my middle and high school.

Oh, interesting. We seldom had homework count towards grades when I went to school in Germany.

Though 30% seems still pretty doable. I assume you need 50% total not to fail? You could get by without, (or more realistically by concentrating on doing a few pieces of homework with a high percent / effort ratio).

Yes, that seems to be a mainly US thing, I've never seen it in the UK. GCSE (13-16) 'coursework' was 20-30% of the final mark, but that was completely separate from homework and only done in the last year or two.

You need a 70 to pass with a C, so if homework is 30% of your grade then you have to do absolutely perfect everywhere else to just barely pass the class.

Scoring levels: 100-94: A 93-85: B 84-70: C 65-69: D 64-0: E

D is generally considered unsatisfactory, although you might be able to get away with 1 or 2 here or there.

> D is generally considered unsatisfactory, [...]

In what sense? I mean, what happens if you get too many Ds? (Or even Fs?)

You have to repeat the grade. If you got straight Cs with a couple of Ds you would probably be passed up, but mostly Ds with Fs would have you held back.

As someone mentioned above, in the US you generally need 70% or better to pass a class. You can skip out on homework but your tests had better be perfect. More typically, students will turn in some homework.

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