- I hope I can improve my pumpkin grades by the end of the year.
Pumpkin Grades (1)
noun; compounding
Grades given during the middle of the semester, during October, near Halloween, thus the use of the word pumpkin, which are typical festive decorations and associations to Halloween. Pumpkin grades are only given to freshman, as it allows to guage how well they doing, since they are just adjusting to college life.
Etymology : Compounding of the word pumpkin, associated with the time of year the grades are given out, + grades, from Latin gradus, meaning "step, degree of measurement"
Source : Rice Webmail saying pumpkin grades were up on ESTHER.
Last modified: 1 December 2011