Grades

Throughout our lives we are told constantly how important school is. We are told at education is a privilege and something to grab by both hands. All the learning, revising and effort put in and for what? Those precious final grades.

I would like to mention that I am writing this post following results day. The dreaded day for ex-year 11's all over the country. Decision day for people's futures. The fate of your entire life folded up in a white envelope.

So, grades. Are they really as important as everyone makes them out to be? I think they are highly overrated and yes, it's good to have good grades but, honestly, what do they show? They are a way of determining how well you can read and remember facts. It makes our generation believe that this will be a crucial skill in life, is it really? Are people going to be tested on that number one issue of memory? Isn't there more to life and to jobs than this? Things like confidence, empathy, social skills, management skills.

Personally, I was amazed by my results. I am aware I did no where near as good as some people expected but, to me, it doesn't matter. I think I have mentioned before about how rough I found the exam season but it truly was a horrible time for me. Somehow I managed to get C's and above in every subject which really made me so happy.

I'm not one to 'attention seek' by telling the whole world my problems so few people were aware of what I was going through. To me, I was so shocked I managed to pass everything. Many reasons had crossed my mind why I wouldn't do well. I was going through a fair bit at the time. I found the papers hard to undersand. I ran out of time.

But, at least I can say now that it was worth it. To some poeple, anything below a B or even an A is not good enough. I have think people have always expected more of me to be quite honest. I've always been predicted such high grades, expectations set at levels far too high. Knowing for quite some time that it would be a miricle if I were to achieve even one of my target grades.

I don't think people understand personal achievement. To me, it seems like schools especially look way past perosnl achievment when it comes to exam results. They look for the best results. The A* students who will make them look good. Yes, the school will have an impact on it but, isn't the overall success mainly down to the individual? It seems so preposterous to base so much on one-time results.

The issue is mainly personality. Personality is not looked upon highly enough.npeople invest too much intrest in things such as grades and being a genuinely nice person is overlooked. Grades are far too focused on and it really is ridiculous. When people I barely know ask what my grades are, why would I want to tell them? So they can judge me on them and only them? Some may think my grades look bad when they don't know the whole story and the issues I went through.

For some people, achievment is about getting straight A's. That is fine, it's acceptable. But, what is not acceptable is putting someone down because they didn't meet the expectations set for someone else. People, whether that be students, parents or teachers need to learn that achievements are specific to an individual. It is completely unfair to judge a whole range of people with one task. Each person has their own talents, their own weaknesses. It can't be seen as fair if one persons weakness happens to be a non vital subject such as art and another's weakness is maths.

Each person has their own strengths. Each person finds the same task more or less challenging than the person before. You can't be celebrating someone who has done so much better than everyone else and not even acknowledge a person who feels they did their absolute best.

To be quite honest, that's exaclty how I'm feeling right now.  A lot was expected of me. Too much in my opinion. And my results, while I am ecstatic with them, it's clear that it will appear to some that I failed. Because that's the two alternatives. You either do exceptionally well or you fail. There's no in between as far as school is concerned.

Personal achievment really is everything. It really does matter how you feel about how you've done. Grades don't define you. It doesn't matter if you have the grades if you have nothing else to go with it. If you are happy with how you've done that's all that matters.

Your life will carry on no matter what results you get when you are a teenager. Yes, effort should be put in but not to the point of exhaustion and misery. Grades are very important but the are not everything. Makes sure you don't miss out on living for a few final grades.

--- Aimee ---