19 out of 20 - Numberphile
In French culture, it is traditional for all grades to be out of 20 - and many teachers will NEVER give full marks! More links & stuff in full description below ...
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PAUL SMITH: Well, I've got one other very big difference that you find, and it's something that being in education as a university lecturer I'm very aware of, and, of course, working with the French and working in the English system, and that's the way that the French mark work. Here at the University of Nottingham, we use a system of marking out of 100. But in France, right across the board, throughout the education system, whether it's at university or at school level, you're not marked out of 100, you're marked out of 20. And I think that this goes back to-- and again, the actual reasons aren't really known, but I think it goes back to the medieval period when people used 20 as a base number, as a base for counting. And they would count things...
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PAUL SMITH: Well, I've got one other very big difference that you find, and it's something that being in education as a university lecturer I'm very aware of, and, of course, working with the French and working in the English system, and that's the way that the French mark work. Here at the University of Nottingham, we use a system of marking out of 100. But in France, right across the board, throughout the education system, whether it's at university or at school level, you're not marked out of 100, you're marked out of 20. And I think that this goes back to-- and again, the actual reasons aren't really known, but I think it goes back to the medieval period when people used 20 as a base number, as a base for counting. And they would count things...
