kintyred and andyy. The best two posts on the thread. You don't have to chop to maintain standards, that's total bull. Why? Imagine that by coincidence, the ten students on a course we're the top ten students that went through for decades. Do you chop a star just to look good? That is why you judge against course standard. If need be chop everyone........ Or no one.
You can't judge how someone will perform in combat by assessing them in a circuits sortie. You can be hard on someone without being a bullying knob as well. There is no place in a modern fighting force for bullies, there is no place for someone below standard either. When I chopped a student, they knew that they had been treated fairly and honestly. That isn't too much to ask.