Grades are probably one of the most important aspects of a student’s life. Work completed in school amounts to a letter grade, which determines a student’s GPA, and overall academic success. However, there are many pros and cons to this system. Receiving grades has become a massive stressor to students worldwide, affecting academic performance and study habits.  

The traditional grading system trains students to strive for an “A”, the highest attainable letter grade. However, throughout the year, coursework becomes increasingly difficult, and high-achieving students might not be seeing the results they like in terms of report cards. This can lead to negative feelings towards school and can put extra pressure on students who already aspire for excellence.

From one perspective, the grades a student receives can also be dependent on their teachers. Some teachers have more lenient grading policies, while others enforce a strict code on their students. A number of teachers accept late work and grade based on completion, contrasting other teachers who do not tolerate late work and grade entirely on the quality of work. This can give an unfair advantage to students who happen to have less strict teachers, as they don’t have to put in as much effort as the ones who have to follow strict conduct.

This is also recognized by the students, as 9th grader Daniela Campos says “Sometimes teachers can be fair with grading, while others are really critical.” 

As for a student perspective on NPHS’s grading system, Campos thinks “the grading system is a bit stressful as teachers give too much work and it piles up.”

Certain teachers tend to assign a large quantity of work to be completed in a short period of time, and when multiple other teachers do the same, this can lead to a stress overload for some students. This can also lead to students performing poorly on academic assignments, due to the initial panic to just complete them all at once. Time will be spent just getting the work done, rather than taking the time to focus and actually understand the meaning of the assignment. That strategy leads to below-average test performance because if students don’t fully understand the material, they will not do well on the tests. A poor test grade will bring down a student’s grade and add to overall stress. The cycle will repeat and this leads to students having negative feelings toward academia, which will affect them negatively in the future. 

Grading systems everywhere are not as straightforward as they seem. What the score reflects isn’t the best way to measure a student’s intellectual level. Grades are simply a way to score a student’s work ethic and how much time they put into learning and memorizing material and subjects. Students are not defined by the letter on the paper or the number on the report card, and overall intelligence cannot be measured by standardized tests and quizzes.