Recently, the incoming SciTech administration rolled out their revised grading policy for the 2023-2024 school year. While the Phone Policy has been getting a lot of attention, it’s important to look closely at the Grading as well, since it’s likely more important for students’ academic futures. The policy itself is worded and presented very similar to the policies of previous years, but with a few seemingly small changes that seek to radically change the way the system works. Alongside the previous MIN system, a new grade has been added to the books: Z. Assignments will be graded Z if they have not been attempted by the student, whereas MINs are given when not scoring above 50%. Z grades require a student to arrange their retake, as well as potentially forfeit any teacher feedback and be forced to study on their own. This is an effective attack on retake over-reliance, where retake potential is severely handicapped if a student does not try the first time as well. Another attack on retake over-reliance is introduced in a stipulation that all retakes must be done within 2 weeks of an assignment’s original due date. This is an attack on people doing a bunch of retakes in the last few days of a grading period and seems to be encouraging students to be more on top of retakes, rather than waiting until the end of the quarter. The policy, however, also affirms that all graded assignments must have at least 1 available retake. It also specifies that teachers may have work requirements before doing retakes, which anyone who took a language class will recognize. Likely the strangest change is an apparent attempt to bring back behavioral grading. Despite saying that behavior will not impact grading, the policy outlines 10% of a student’s grade to be given based on “learning habits” and “collaboration,” which seem like thinly veiled ways to say “behavior.” This policy seems to be an attempt to encourage student-teacher cooperation, promote timely retakes and reduce the overall amount of class time devoted to them. It also seems like an attempt to find a compromise between the forgiving grading policies of recent years and the policies of the more distant past. The soft re-introduction of behavior-based grading may be a concern, but it appears to be part of the effort to clamp down on students who over-rely on retakes. If implemented properly, we can hope that this policy will reward students for working hard and on time and close some of the loopholes to avoid doing just that.