Grades and the significance behind them Q&As: Ava Redmond

Name: Ava Redmond

Grade: 12

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the word ‘grades’?

“Hard work, studying, and tests.”

What advice you would give to someone who stresses about grades for grade levels below you?

“Work your hardest, [because] at the end of the day, if you don’t get the grades you want, let it go. Your work ethic and commitment to success show much more about you than the grades you receive.”

What has your experience been like with grades from freshman year compared to now?

“My classes have gotten much harder. Although my grades have gone down slightly over the years, I think I have improved as a student, [because] I [can] work harder than I used to, and I take much more pride in my work and grades than I did freshman year.”

Why do you think grades are/aren’t important?

“It’s not that grades aren’t important, because they are. That [is] what colleges look at, and I think that has continuously weighed me down. But while grades are important, so is your high school experience. It’s important to be a teenager and to have fun, so if it comes to it, sometimes we have to choose our mental health and happiness over our grades.”

How often do you check PowerSchool?

“I check PowerSchool almost every day [because] It’s hard to avoid it being as grade oriented as I am. There have been weeks where I’ve checked it so much that I’ve had to delete it to stop.”

What is one word to describe grades?

“Unnecessary.”

Are there more important things in life than grades, and if so, what and why?

“Yes, by having fun, being happy, spending time with family [and] helping others. You can and will be successful in life without that B+ [or] without that A. Not everything is reliant on grades, and sometimes, it seems like it is but it’s not.”

To what extent do you think GPA is important?

“I think GPA is a better understanding of who you are as a student because of it being a collection and average of each grade. However, your GPA is dependent on your grades, so they are similar.”

Does GPA tell you how smart someone is?

“Not at all. Some of the smartest people I know have lower goals because [they are] taking harder classes. GPA also doesn’t show how intelligent you are, [because] logic and general understanding of the world [does].”

Do you think the grades you have right now will matter in college?

“[My grades] right now, no, last year, yes. Colleges seem to stop looking at your GPA after junior year, which is why ‘senioritis’ is such a real thing, [because] seniors find it [so] hard [nowadays] to care about their grades when they can’t alter your future.”