I had the pleasure of hosting a dear friend this last weekend, who was grading undergraduate exams in a STEM field. One particularly egregious answer included a discussion of how climate change can "alter space and time". This is now what passes for adequate quality work at an elite university. *facepalm* (Now, perhaps this student took a cue from a senior statesman in Canada, who previously suggested we need to rethink concepts "as basic as space and time".)
My friend theorized that a shift to a pass/fail grading system in non-major classes was eroding the quality of students' work, and wished she had a list of the status of the student's enrollment (major v. elective), because grading abysmal work is time-consuming.
