Throughout school, students often associate grades with defining how good they are in a subject. As I am finishing high school, however, I realized that maybe I actually am comprehending the information, but the tests are just more difficult. When I began to take AP Psychology, my grade wasn’t that good, but I knew the information that was being talked about. The quizzes just happened to be a little difficult. Tests do not validate how good you are in a subject.
Q: Do good grades always mean you truly understand a subject?
A: Essentially, grades are used to evaluate a student’s performance in class. If a student has a 90 or above, it could represent that they’re doing well on tests, quizzes, and projects. Grades can be represented by a letter or by a number. When you have a bad grade in the class, it can show that you don’t do well on a test, but it doesn’t truly show your class effort, how well you participate, or how well you try. A bad test grade can continue to harm your grade and lower it. Faith Gallishaw ‘25 says, “I don’t think so because when you do the work, you’re doing it just to get it done, and the teachers aren’t truly explaining the work for us to understand.”
Q: Can someone deeply understand a subject but still perform poorly on a test?
A: I believe they can. When I started to take AP classes, I saw myself doing better on labs and projects, and I participated in class often. My grade would always be high until I started taking practice quizzes, then my grade started to go down. The truth is, quizzes and tests are essentially supposed to be more difficult to see how much information you retain, but in my case, it showed that I didn’t know much. Krystal Torres ‘25 says, “Yes, I agree because I can understand math, but when a test comes, I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Q: Are we prioritizing memorization over true learning in our grading system?
A: Throughout school, my studying time was more like “memorization time.” I would go through flashcards and make sure that I could say them word for word, and say that I had studied. But the truth is, in school, you feel like the only way to do well on a test is to remember what you learned instead of applying or studying to actually retain knowledge. Rhasiem McNeil ‘27 says, “I feel like yes, because realistically we don’t study, we just try to use our memory and hope we do a good job.”
Q: How might grades discourage a student from wanting to try harder?
A: During my time of taking AP Psychology, I did have the desire to try my hardest. I would read the chapters, take my notes, and actually study and watch videos about the subject. When a quiz came, I would approach it with confidence because I knew that I had actually studied. When I got the test grade back, I saw that I didn’t do as well as I expected, and it made me feel discouraged. Xariyah Mitchell ‘25 says, “To be honest, I feel like when you put your effort into your grades and you don’t see it, it makes me not want to try because I’ll think I won’t do good on the next one.”
It is important that teachers make sure students actually understand the information before giving tests or final grades. It is important that for students to have good grades, there should be more study groups, projects and also maybe progress checks, so that students can see how well they know the material. This would help kids improve their grades and also use the information in real time.
The Raider Press 