Congratulations! You have, right in front of you, a treasure. From within these pages you will be able to pick up a good collection of reformist ideas and concepts, endowed with the potential to bring about an epoch making impact on all kinds of assessments or evaluations in general, and in the academic performance evaluation of students, in particular. Once it so happened that Prasad was moved by a real life encounter with one of his long time friends who shared with him her sour experience as a student in a premiere educational institution. It seems that when she inquired with the professor who gave her a B grade in a course in which she expected an A grade, she was called to a side and explained that it was indeed a very high B, and that after all the difference between a low A and a high B is only marginal! However, that marginal difference had resulted in her missing an admission into an elite graduate program, which was her cherished dream unrealized. Prasad was ruminating on that episode during one of his casual walks on the sandy beach side off the Institute campus, on a beautiful Thursday evening of the Eighth of August Two Thousand Two; when he was visited by the slippery idea of SQUIDS fl owing over the tidal waves from the salty waters of the sea swashing on and off the sandy beach front. Yes, that is it! SQUIDS (singular) has indeed come as a unique blessing in disguise. Here, SQUIDS stands for Scale Quantum Unit Interval Domain Size that is the most fundamental basis for the design of a measurement scale. SQUIDS defines the scale precision. SQUIDS is the key concept used in resolving the mystery behind the unacceptably chaotic behavior of the Letter Grading System, and also in developing an alternative system design as well. The proposed design for a novel Students Academic Performance Evaluation System has a tremendous potential to usher in a conceptual paradigm shift in all kinds of assessments or evaluations. The mathematical fallacy that is mysteriously implied in the design of the letter grading system has been well brought out and resolved here. Although the problem has been well analyzed and even a solution has been proposed herein, there remains a substantial amount of work remaining! The next stage is the task of convincing (and/or getting convinced by) the concerned stake-holders in academia, that can then facilitate a smooth implementation of this novel proposal. You are urged to take a pro-active leadership role in the entire exercise, to bring about the needed changes.
