a sense of joy and then a panic

How do you measure the difference btwn. schools in terms of grade inflation? How hard is it to get an A? And I know profs sometimes don't give any A's in a class. Like, if they think the whole class is average, then it is so. It seems especially difficult when no grade can possibly mean quite the same thing at one school as at another. And I say I have to put in zero effort to get C's, but I see other people busting their asses for C's and B's (although I do have to put some effort in for B's), so 'effort' is relative too. I'm just rambling, but it seems like a hard thing to quantify.