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Show page 2 lessons, Fail 2003 High Grades: What is the Hype About? BY RUBY WANG PHOTOS BY VANESSA SORENSEN Grades, grades, grades. Are high grades really as important as everyone believes them to be? What is a "high" grade? An A? An A-? Some students may be satisfied with a B. Every student has different standards. Low grades, however, have become an insult. Some students find it easier to earn higher grades than other students. Why? What motivates some students to earn good grades and how does the grading system reward certain behaviors? For many students grades mean everything. Maintaining a high GPA increases opportunities for scholarships and for being accepted into graduate, medical, or law school. Many students also believe that getting high grades guarantees a decent paying job as well as social status and success. But, do grades really reflect one's intelligence and potential for success? "It has a lot to do with learning styles and classroom settings because some students are just smart and can memorize concepts faster or better than others, but it doesn't reflect their level of intelligence," said Erin Reser, graduate student and instructor in the department of communication. Reser adds, "There are simply two reasons why a student does well and earns high grades, they enjoy the materials being taught and are willing to spend time on it." Getting good grades does not guarantee that someone is smart or that they have learned anything. Sometimes, students who work hard and spend long hours studying outside of class don't necessarily get the highest grades while other students don't study or invest much time in their homework and still get A's. People typically equate getting an "A" with being intelligent. Some students' only goal in a semester is to get all A's. However, nobody seems to stop and think about why they want to earn a high grade anymore. Is it to simply show that they're smart? Or maybe to demonstrate that they have been paying attention and doing their homework well enough to regurgitate the materials presented to them? "I think sometimes it also depends on the teachers, like whether or not they're easy graders," said Jeremy Patterson, a sophomore in music. According to Patterson, "Some people just have longer attention spans," he believes some students have, "the desire to be great, so they'd rather use their time more effectively by doing homework rather than going out and having fun." Patterson's observation perpetuates the stereotype of straight-A students. Straight-A students are often viewed as "nerds" or "bookworms" or even "kiss-ups." Likewise, students who do go out and have a good time are labeled as "slackers." Why don't "slackers" bother to engage themselves more or change their behaviors to earn high grades? Sophomore Sharee Martin believes, "They just don't care and feel that it's not important because they probably have their priorities on other things like work or partying." For these students grades are obviously not everything. Nevertheless, in today's society grades do play a role in evaluating one's skillfulness and credibility. Perhaps some students have yet to understand that getting good grades and earning a degree is important to employers. "To a lot of people, school is just a means to an end," said Erin Reser. Indeed, people who are easily satisfied tend to think that they're just here to get a degree so it doesn't matter if it's an A or a C since both are acceptable passing grades. "They believe that grades won't have a big impact on their overall life, but little do they know that they're sorely, mistakenly wrong!" Reser revealed. Moreover, many students merely go to college because "it's what everyone does after high school" or because their parents want them to and are willing to pay for tuition. While some students are better prepared and motivated to work hard, others don't see the value in higher education and therefore never become motivated to "care" about school. According to Alan Smith, professor of philosophy and science in the honors department, some students just "aren't sufficiently motivated to work hard and excel academically" because they are either "lazy, bored with the classroom situation, ill-prepared for college, or easily frustrated with heavy work loads so they give up attempting to achieve |