From Forward.com ‘Hint: it’s not Shonda Rhimes. Most Yiddish speakers pronounce it as shande or shanda. In Yiddish, shande means a disgrace, a shame, a terrible embarrassment, a scandal.’ Every day’s a school day.

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It matters particularly if you're hoping to get PhD funding, where increasingly you need not just a First but a high one.

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It’s another reason why I feel a bit sorry for the current generation. In my time if you got AAB at A-Level and a 2:I at University, everyone would have thought you did quite well and it was quite a large target to hit. Now the pressure seems to be for A*A*A + a first.

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But that generally applies at the level of the degree award, not a single essay. Yes, student could be worrying about their overall average, but the reasoning does seem to be "I've got 75s for other work, I'm the same person, so I ought to get 75 for this as well", which is... questionable.

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In many courses the difference is that 75 is a first with distinction (rather than just a first), and can be a criteria for further progression (eg to a PhD or for a scholarship, or a competitive job where ranking within the cohort matters).

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