Why Do Grades Cause Stress? Essay Sample

It keeps happening again and again. Janely Reyes Vargas, a student at Fugett Middle School keeps watching her grade book like a hawk waiting for a change to happen, but that’s not going to change anything. While Janely waits her mind keeps racing with negative thoughts. Thoughts like “what if I didn’t get a good grade...What if I fail the test or assignment or BOTH?!”, “My parents will kill me if I get an inadequate grade”, “What if my mom asks my teacher to talk?”, All these what-if questions cloud her mind. She wishes for her grades to just go up. To start magically becoming 100’s and A+’s. “I can’t do this anymore, this is just too much for me” is what she keeps telling herself. What if Janely had asked her teachers or parents for help or even support? Could this be any different for her?

This story reveals that students are indeed put under stress from grades. Students frequently focus on "the gap between their outcomes, measured in grades, and their input, measured in the effort", says an article about grades. That's as useful as rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s evident that over these past decades grades have been nothing more than a stress system. Hence why they put grades before anything else. Pratibha Signh seems to disagree, a speiclist, “I’ve heard many people saying grades don’t matter and also “a single sheet of paper cannot decide your future”. Make sure you score maximum grades before saying this. Grades do matters and good grades will lead us to first-class universities, first-class colleges, and job applications which concludes our future success". This leads me to my next point, why are kids worried about their grades?

Kids and teens are extremely worried about their grades. School has been more of a place for grades than learning. Students often self-evaluate themselves based on their grades. Grades haven’t even existed for 100 years but they still have such a large impact on the students and education system. Imagine how much of a larger impact it will have on future generations.

This ordeal normally starts when kids get into 4th grade. As the material starts getting harder the students start looking at what their grades are and not what they’re learning. They start stressing over the material being given to them at a faster pace. In a survey conducted about grades, 76.9% of students said grades stress them out. Another survey held showed that the majority of college freshmen (80%) stated their self-worth was influenced by their academic performance and competence. When a student obtains a low score, he or she may take such matters personally and be unable to cope with the stress, 

Experts agree when students also say that grades take their creativeness away. “Grades create an environment that restricts innovation and creativity. They have lost their original purpose, imply failure, and undermine personal relationships” says a specialist. Grades were originally just supposed to be a feedback system but they have been made into a much bigger issue over the years. Grades have a hold on students and their mental health, they’re so concerned about school and grades that they have started to view themselves as a person based on a 1-100 scale.

Experts have deepened their understanding and found out even more facts about grades. Grades, which were originally intended to be a useful tool for learning, have evolved into a goal itself. Grades push students to memorize the facts they need to pass an exam, often at the expense of an actual conclusion of the material. The student's personal development becomes an afterthought in this process, overshadowed by the critical importance of grades. The major goal of education should always be to expand one's understanding and knowledge so that they can use what they learned in real-life circumstances.

It’s reasonably unsurprising that grades still play an important role in the educational system and we can’t imagine a world without them. Though this means grades have a huge toll on the students. Research conducted shows how grades aren’t helping students but are working against them. “Grades can lower one's self-esteem and make them feel more like a number out of 100 rather than a human. It is important to learn from your mistakes, but also not dwell on them. Additionally, many students may receive punishments from a parent/guardian which is another issue” says Max Petrik, a student at HMS. Ansh Gombar another student at HMS says “Graded assignments do not teach the material, teachers should. Graded tests do not display your knowledge, you are to regurgitate information and that is considered learning? This is all to the fault of the education system and grades being the hallmark of it.” It turns out these stories are only one of many examples of how grades play a greater role in a student’s life and mental health than it is shown. Students, like most, have worried about their grades once in their lifetime. Imagine if Janely had instead asked her teachers or parents for help or even support? 

Experts say the stress of grades is so huge these days that it’s making students disconnect from their social lives. To change this kind of behavior take steps to ask for help on how to manage grades or even become organized. Make it so that grades aren’t your number one priority but your number one goal. Goals are hard to work up to but having a mindset that doesn’t make grades above everything else is important. You don't have to become Albert Einstein to get good grades, you just have to study and set goals.

Help is given when asked for and help could reduce your stress of grades by a lot. Most parents and teachers support you when you ask. Even if you’re shy or introverted and think it’s embarrassing to ask for help it isn’t. If you think this idea is not suitable for you, be organized instead. Organize your classes and assignments on how hard and easy they are. Make sure to organize your study time in every class so you don’t get overwhelmed by it. This way you can manage your social life and grades at the same time. Giving up your social life for grades isn’t gonna make your grades go up and have an impact, instead, it will bring you down as a person and will make you feel boxed in from the world around you. 

"List what you have going on, and list how much time each thing is going to take," Stiffelmen suggests. "Chunking things down makes them feel more manageable and less anxiety-inducing." If this doesn’t help you, then I hear parent-teacher conferences don’t take up much of your free time.