Hard? Hell in the public university system in many countries lots of courses are downright impossible to nail; even a passing grade is worthy of honor (and we're not talking about first-year filter courses, just solid, important subjects).

Degrees would be much more valuable if they required more than mere competence to pass. I'm not claiming this should be the modus operandum, but it's certainly something to ponder about, instead of believing that a difference of a few hundredths of points in a test have any real-life meaning.