Why do grades skip E?

In the 1930s, as the letter-based grading system grew more and more popular, many schools began omitting E in fear that students and parents may misinterpret it as standing for “excellent.” Thus resulting in the A, B, C, D, and F grading system.

rd.com - Why There's No E in the Grading System | Reader's Digest

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A, B, C, D, F... wait, what?

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If you’ve ever wondered why you’ve never gotten an E on your report card, you’re not alone. Most grading systems in the United States typically go by A, B, C, D, then F. So, what did E do to be skipped? As it turns out, E used to be a standard grade. (Here are the secrets of straight-A students that all scholars should definitely steal.) According to the Washington Post, “The first letter grade ever given in the United States, according to historical records, was a B received by a Harvard University undergraduate in 1883. There is no indication of how he felt about the grade, but that simple way of judging student work quickly became popular.” After that, other institutions started catching onto the concept of grading with letters. In 1887, Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts was supposedly the first school to continue the use of a letter-based grading system. An A was equivalent to 95-100%, a B was equivalent to 85-94%, a C was equivalent to 76-84%, a D was 75%, and an E was anything below a 75%—which meant failure. A year after Mount Holyoke’s grading system was put into place, they changed each letter so they represented different percentages. According to todayifoundout.com, “B became anything from 90-94%, C was 85-89%, D was 80-84%, and E was 75-79%. Below that, they added in the dreaded F.” In the 1930s, as the letter-based grading system grew more and more popular, many schools began omitting E in fear that students and parents may misinterpret it as standing for “excellent.” Thus resulting in the A, B, C, D, and F grading system. According to mentalfloss.com, “Recent surveys show that letter grades are [now] the most common grades used in elementary and secondary schools and two- and four-year colleges and universities.” Just reading the history of letter grades probably boosted your GPA, but are you smarter now than you were in high school? Take this quiz to find out!

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What is the highest female voice?

Soprano Soprano: this is the highest singing voice, with the highest tessitura. It is also the most common female voice.

operavision.eu - Voice types - OperaVision

Some voices are high-pitched. Some voices are low pitched. Some voices have incredible agility. Some voices are rich and heavy. Some voices are difficult to categorise! The spectrum of the human singing voice is very broad. This makes each voice unique, but also makes it difficult to manage for composers. A composer thinks of a voice mostly in three terms: its specific vocal range, its vocal timbre (that is, the colour of the voice, whether it is for instance soft or hard, woody or metallic) and its vocal weight (whether the voice is light or heavy). In the European classical music tradition, systems have been developed to classify the different voice types. Classification is used to associate voices with potential roles: whether hero(ine) or foe, young or old, voices are typified and tend to play always the same kind of character. The most basic system of classification is based on the vocal range of the voice, most specifically the range where the voice is at its most comfortable (its tessitura, which is Italian for ʽtextureʼ). Voices are ranked from high to low. Women’s voices are divided into three groups: soprano, mezzo-soprano, and contralto. Men’s voices are divided into four groups : countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass.

Female voices

Soprano: this is the highest singing voice, with the highest tessitura. It is also the most common female voice. Sopranos are given prominent singing roles, and are often the protagonists of the opera. They can sing from the middle C to two octaves higher (that is, an interval of 15 full notes in total).