Your Initials Can Affect Your Grades

Researchers have found that the lower your initials are in the alphabet, the more likely you are to receive lower grades. The University of Michigan team analyzed over 30 million student records of evaluations, and the underlying pattern was uncovered. The quality of grading decreases as the examiners go through the tasks. As a result of alphabetization, it is more likely to receive lower grades if your initials are with the last letters of the alphabet. Alphabetized surnames led to names with initials A-E being graded 0.3 points better than randomly selected surnames. Students with surnames starting with U-Z received 0.3 points less in alphabetical grading than in randomized grading. It was found that regardless of alphabetization, the first ten rated tasks received about 3.5 points more than the 50-60 rated.