In the real world, there are no grading curve and there are no letter grades.

FORBES: Would You Rather Get Into Y Combinator, 500 Startups, TechStars...or Harvard Business School?

In addition to a new numerical scale, at least one company is assigning letter grades to those scores.

NPR: Credit-Reporting Agencies Create New Scoring Format

And school-district officials in Oklahoma complained recently about how test scores are factored into controversial new letter grades assigned to schools.

WSJ: Seattle Teachers Protest Exams

Kinder words replace letter grades, to soften the truth of impending mediocrity.

FORBES: A "Generation of Sissies"

Between inspections, violations and fines, having to earn letter grades and the soda ban plan, the cost of business is too much, he said.

WSJ: New York City Soda Restrictions: Ounces of Outrage

First we look at how well funds have performed over four market cycles, from Jan. 31, 1994 through the end of July 2005, using our letter grades.

FORBES: How We Find The Very Best

The ban would outlaw such drinks larger than 16 ounces at restaurants, food carts and any other establishments that receive letter grades for food service.

CNN: New York ban on sugary drinks goes to public comment stage

Since sometime during season one he has rated each episode using academic-style A-F letter grades not only on its plot, but on the quality of its medicine.

FORBES: The Most (And Least) Medically Accurate Episodes Of 'House, M.D.'

The problem here is the psychology of letter grades.

FORBES: Why Video Games Should Adopt Film's Five Star Rating System

The New York Times looks today at what factors go into the scorecards that produce the letter grades that, for about a year, New York City restaurants have been forced to display in their front windows.

FORBES: Restaurant Letter Grades Make Your Food Worse