Many students at Sequoia tend to be talking about their grades nowadays, and now that Finals are approaching in the next few weeks, the pressure is on to achieve the best grade possible, an A. What if I were to tell you that the grades you receive in high school don’t define you as an academic individual? It doesn’t measure how intelligent you are, all it measures if you can follow directions from a teacher and see if you can listen to the teacher and take tests when your teacher tells you to take them. So if you are worried about your grades, don’t be, because they don’t mean anything involving how intelligent you are. 

    Students in higher level classes such as IB and AP are especially under pressure to perform well, because both AP and IB weights your GPA at the end of the semester. It could also be argued that in many highschools throughout the United States, students tend to forget learning material just after they took a test on it, which proves that students aren’t intending to master the material, they are hoping to get a good grade on their exams. So where does the learning come in? It doesn’t, because getting good grades is a top priority today than actually learning. 

     Many think that good grades ensure that you will get a good grade. What if I were to tell you that companies such as Google think that an individual’s GPA is a worthless criteria for hiring? Google and other companies look for people who can think creatively and critically to be able to do their jobs. So if your parents or administrators tell you that your GPA does matter in order to get hired, they are completely wrong. If you can be creative and critical thinker, it outweighs any grade you ever received.