Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Educational Research 2327-6150 3 4 2015 04 06 Student Self Grading: Perception vs. Reality 450 455 EN Tara L. Crowell Public Health, Stockton University, Galloway, NJ, USA EDUCATION20153410 10.12691/education-3-4-10 2015 03 18 2015 04 01 2015 04 06 The purpose of student self-grading is explored to discover not only students' perception of grades but their experience with self-grading in college. Before student self-grading may be deemed a valid practice of accessing student learning, it is important for researchers to define how students perceive letter grades. Data was collected via a brief email survey from 144 undergraduate Public Health majors at a mid-size liberal arts college. Results indicate that students used three major categories in defining their perceptions of what each letter grade represent - Knowledge, Effort and Assignment, along with three minor categories - Learning, Critical Thinking and Success. Results also indicate that only about a third of participants actually engaged in self-grading in college and out of those who, do about 65% indicate that they graded themselves harder than their professors. These findings have implications for the discrepancies that may exist between professors vs. students' perception of grade representation and ultimately the effectiveness of student self-grading in the classroom.