by Marcus Green.
I don't know is my answer. The system I was describing uses refer,pass,merit and distinction. The fact that these map to numbers internally is just how it is implemented. The way I see it is that the total points for the assignment is not 4, just that the highest grade is a distinction. It's a bit like a phone number as symbolism, does adding all the numbers in two phone numbers give you a bigger more impressive phone number?
By the way that is just how my thinking about how grading scales work, it may not map in any way to how the gradebook sees things.
