Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

Dear archanacherian,

Is this YOUR five point scale, or one you've acquired from somewhere else? And if it's THE five point scale, who is to say that it is any more accurate than someone else's ideal five point scale?

I would think the difference between 1 and 2 is obvious: someone either has at least a grasp of an idea or they don't.

And the difference between 3 and 1? Well again, it's not possible to have a neutral understanding: one either has knowledge or one does not, so the "neutral" might serve you better by being "moderate".

However, might all this be moot? I'm asking this because one person's idea of good understanding might be another person's idea of excellent understanding.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

3 might better read as "average understanding"
Is the scale for a product/service that's easily measurable? By your questioning, I'm not sure what the difference is between "excellent" and "good". If you're measuring understanding, why not offer a quiz on the subject matter, and let the quiz score determine their understanding. Study after study have shown that people are quite bad at self-grading themselves.