Oct 19 2008
Do Marks Matter?
Well duh… of course they do!
How much depends on how neurotic you are though - and on what your long term goals are.
There tends to be a huge difference in how kids just out of high school and mature students perceive grades.
Among many of the young ‘uns I’ve talked to, they’re pretty happy with anything that is a pass. Yikes!
Me, I’m high on the neurotic scale - and my long term goals include convincing other people to pay for me to keep going to school, so that works for me. In order to even apply for most of the government scholarships for grad school here, you need to have an overall average of 80% or better.
You can be damn sure that I make sure that my overall average never gets below that cutoff.
Which is not to say that every single one of my marks will be an A. Much as I might prefer that, in some cases, it just isn’t possible.
Some profs just don’t give high marks, for starters. I’ve had some that considered 85% to be the highest possible marks. I do not like that much!
Some subjects just are not my strong suit. I was thrilled when, in my first semester of Computer Programmer Analyst, I managed a 66% in Algebra - I worked harder for that 66% than I’ve ever worked for any of my As in English. I SUCK at math! Well, not so much at the basics… but Algebra is so not my thing.
How important are your marks to you?
It’s hard down here because, at least in high school, making 4.0 is almost a requirement to get into a good college. That doesn’t leave much room for error.
However, IN COLLEGE, things seem much more lax. If a student isn’t self-driven, they can end up tanking in a hurry. Seen kids with scholarships and everything going for them throw them all away because they didn’t have any sense of discipline.