The lamplight shone upon the papers scattered all over the desk. Previously completed homework, worksheets, and quizzes all flew out of order. The alarm beside her bed blinked 11:30 PM.
A student of Hillsborough High School, fifteen-year-old sophomore, Diana Voronin, furiously scribbles over her paper and pulls at her hair, trying to solve number five on page fifty-three.
Frustration and tears overwhelmed her after half an hour of worrying at the same problem. She became even further irritated when she wasn’t able to view the problem through her blurred vision. Eventually, after calming herself down and finding motivation within her, she figured out the problem.
I have to do better than this. I must get a hundred on that test tomorrow, she …show more content…
“I tend to get really worried about [grades] because I 've attached so much of my self worth to grades, even though I know I shouldn 't,” Voronin states. “I just get very stressed out about grades, and that sucks away the fun in learning, even though I recognize why grades exist.”
The main purpose of grades is to rank students for colleges, according to Marni and Susan Neiburg Terkel in What’s an “A” Anyway: How Important Are Grades. Grades are designed to be a punishment and reward system - if a student works diligently and studies efficiently, or if a student is lazy and irresponsible, their grades reflect as such.
However, there are always faults to every system. Valerie J. Janesick discusses in her book how there are teachers who constantly impose practice tests upon their pupils so their students would learn tricks and patterns to the answers such as, “Three in a row, no, no, no.”
Additionally, there are teachers who specifically “teach” for the test, drilling test answers into students’ heads so they would perform sufficiently. In this manner, students only learn how to answer test questions instead of learning about the subject that the test is
A student of Hillsborough High School, fifteen-year-old sophomore, Diana Voronin, furiously scribbles over her paper and pulls at her hair, trying to solve number five on page fifty-three.
Frustration and tears overwhelmed her after half an hour of worrying at the same problem. She became even further irritated when she wasn’t able to view the problem through her blurred vision. Eventually, after calming herself down and finding motivation within her, she figured out the problem.
I have to do better than this. I must get a hundred on that test tomorrow, she …show more content…
“I tend to get really worried about [grades] because I 've attached so much of my self worth to grades, even though I know I shouldn 't,” Voronin states. “I just get very stressed out about grades, and that sucks away the fun in learning, even though I recognize why grades exist.”
The main purpose of grades is to rank students for colleges, according to Marni and Susan Neiburg Terkel in What’s an “A” Anyway: How Important Are Grades. Grades are designed to be a punishment and reward system - if a student works diligently and studies efficiently, or if a student is lazy and irresponsible, their grades reflect as such.
However, there are always faults to every system. Valerie J. Janesick discusses in her book how there are teachers who constantly impose practice tests upon their pupils so their students would learn tricks and patterns to the answers such as, “Three in a row, no, no, no.”
Additionally, there are teachers who specifically “teach” for the test, drilling test answers into students’ heads so they would perform sufficiently. In this manner, students only learn how to answer test questions instead of learning about the subject that the test is