Rank Inflation/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • How did "S" come to mean "above A", anyway? I must be missing something.
    • I think it means super, but that's just a guess.
    • Supreme
    • Special? That what I thought when I read Naruto.
    • There are a lot of Super, Special, Stylish, Superlative, Stupendous, Spectacular words that begin with "S". Some games have a Star instead, further justifying it.
      • Also, Devil May Cry 4 (and other games in the series) spells out what the ranks stand for, providing some examples. Deadly, Carnage, Brutal, Atomic, Stylish, Smokin' Style, Smokin' Sick Style.
    • Sugoi, Japanese meaning "amazing" or "wonderful", etc.
  • Why is there ranke E? F is for failing, but at least you passed. Should there be a D?
    • If you're asking why a "traditional" American-style scale (A B C D F) lacks an E, my best guess is that the folks who originally came up with it A) wanted F for Failed for obvious reasons, B) wanted each letter to be its own 10% block, for simplicity, and C) decided the pass-fail boundary should be at 60% for whatever reason. Deciding between fulfilling their requirements and including an E for completeness's sake, they opted out of it. But (while it makes sense) some other derivation could be the right one..
    • A still occasionally used and almost certainly older grading scale had "E" for "Excellent/Exceeds Expectations" as the highest grade. Presumably, schools didn't want kids to have confusing grades (among other things, lying about which scale it is when they get an E. When I was graded on this scale in elementary school, it ended in an "F" for "Failing", so that wasn't a problem).

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