Notes on grade inflation and dumbing-down 

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Math competitions used to be uncommon or an excuse to skip class, but are now increasingly high-stakes. This has given rise to tutoring services and coaching in an effort to increase one’s score to advance to higher levels of competition. If anything, the problem is not dumbing-down, but that the existing curriculum–even AP courses and taking calculus in high school–is not good enough anymore. To have any hope of distinguishing oneself requires good placings on difficult competitions. This directly contradicts the common narrative on Twitter that prospective college students are unprepared. In reality, all evidence suggests that today’s incoming freshmen, especially at top colleges, are the most academically prepared and qualified of any generation.

A frequently cited statistic of grade inflation is the rise in average GPAs, suggesting that coursework or grading standards have become easier. However, an alternative explanation is that students are earning higher GPAs because they are smarter and better prepared, thanks to the increasingly competitive and selective admissions process at these institutions: