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  • - That's such a weighted question.

  • - [Voiceover] Most of a person's young life

  • revolves around school,

  • waking up every day at the crack of dawn,

  • carrying an ungodly amount of books,

  • and working towards good grades

  • that will theoretically help them

  • get into a good college and a good job.

  • Students are constantly asking,

  • "Do good grades actually matter?

  • "Is my life predetermined by the grades I get in school?"

  • - I think they matter

  • in a sense, but I don't think people

  • should be obsessed with them

  • and think that they measure intelligence.

  • - I should have done better in school.

  • Probably would have made things a lot easier.

  • - OK, I think I guess high school grades matter

  • because they get you into college.

  • College grades don't matter.

  • - [Voiceover] A 2013 NPR poll found that nearly 40%

  • of parents believed their high schooler

  • feels high levels of school related stress.

  • Some symptoms of grade anxiety might be

  • increased heart rate, sweating,

  • and decreased appetite.

  • Being a kid should be fun, right?

  • The National Institute of Mental Health

  • reports that anxiety in children and young adults

  • has been increasing since the 1950's.

  • According to some researchers

  • The increase in standardized testing

  • may contribute to this.

  • The SAT is the subject of millions

  • of high schooler's little malleable minds,

  • always there over their heads

  • like some sort of dark cloud

  • filled with math.

  • You know what I mean.

  • This also begs the question,

  • do standardized tests truly measure intelligence?

  • - Oh God, no.

  • Load of BS.

  • - Like the thing is,

  • I consider myself a pretty intelligent dude,

  • and I just got an average score on the SATs,

  • so I think there's something wrong with the SAT.

  • - The SAT's bad because it measures how well

  • you can take a test

  • rather than how much intelligence you actually have.

  • - [Voiceover] One school of thought

  • is that these tests are unable to account

  • for important areas, like critical thinking,

  • collaboration, and imagination.

  • Will memorizing vocabulary entitle you

  • to a better future?

  • According to a survey by

  • the National Association of Colleges and Employers,

  • 78.3% of employers

  • claim to screen future employees by GPA.

  • However, 63.5% of employers

  • only use a 3.0 as a GPA cutoff for employment.

  • So, pushing yourself to be above average

  • may not mean much in the long run.

  • There's also the worry that schools

  • are formulating their curriculums around the test.

  • This is believed to be a result of incentive systems

  • put in place by the Department of Education

  • that rewards schools with higher test scores.

  • A proposal by New York governor Andrew Cuomo

  • would have 50% of a teacher's evaluation

  • correlate to the result of their student's scores.

  • Education should be fluid and expressive,

  • tailored to student's needs and wants,

  • not based around a system of points.

  • What if you just want to paint some stuff

  • or write some stuff?

  • So, do grades matter?

  • Yes and no.

  • If you're looking to pursue a path of higher education,

  • then yeah, they do matter.

  • But don't stress about grades.

  • Everyone's path is different,

  • and chances are you won't even remember

  • your SAT score in five years.

  • Whatever you focus on, just try

  • to the best of your ability,

  • whatever that may be.

  • The amount of effort you put into something

  • will always say more than a letter on a report card.

  • ("Remember (Nostalgia Machine)")

- That's such a weighted question.

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