Written by Mehvish Farooqi
Edited by Anahitha Raffe Sofia
Last year, I cried over my honors chemistry class—multiple times. Over and over again about the same 87 in PowerSchool I would see increase and decrease time and time again. I would have frequent mental breakdowns in my sister’s room. It was practically a routine every two weeks after my test grades were released. I was so keen on getting an A as if it would dictate my future and I believe a lot of people at AK are also scared of any letter grade other than an A. But why?
The motivation for a lot of students could range from parental pressure to academic validation, deriving one’s self-worth from their grades. From my understanding of our school, I feel the case for a large portion is parental pressure that eventually leads to academic validation and likely the fear of not getting into their dream university. All of these can lead to students being willing to do practically anything to maintain a 4.0.
The pressure of feeling like you have to get an A in a class can oftentimes lead to students doing things they shouldn’t. For a common example, let’s start with cheating. Whether that be getting the answers for tests or just copying your friend’s homework answers, both are done so you can avoid having a low grade in PowerSchool and dock your GPA. While it can be frustrating having to study for a boring class or having forgotten to do an assignment, it’s better to just take the bad grade than risk having an honor code violation on your transcript which can actually impact whether or not you get into your dream university.
Another approach some students take is a physical assault on the teacher whom they likely blame for their bad grades. I’ve heard of incidents where a student threw their chair at a teacher or just others where students attacked their teachers. Luckily, I haven’t heard of any time this has happened at AK but I think it just goes to show that grades have a significant impact on students and their well-being because attacking a teacher for a low grade is not something a person who isn’t worried about their grades would do.
Now, I can’t even lie, I would likely still be upset over a B but I don’t understand why I would need to be. It’s not like I would still think about my high school grades in 10 years. I know you’ve likely heard this often but it’s important for students, myself included, to remember that grades don’t define you. Just because you have a C in a class, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. You are so much more valuable than a percentage average.
And if you’re worried about college applications, remember that having a lower grade in a couple of classes will likely do little to change the college application readers’ decision. They aren’t going to say “We can’t accept this person because they got a B in two classes.” If you aren’t accepted to a university, it’s not because you got a B in honors chemistry.
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