grades

Grades Will Make or Break the Job
What do grades really mean to some people? Grades to me are not correct. I think that it should either be pass or fail and none of the A, B, C, D, and F or the normal grading system they have going on now. This grading system lets kids procrastinate and pass through their grade level even though they don’t deserve it. Grades should be made first priority to students and either be pass or fail. David Koeppel says that grades are very important and should be taken more seriously by students than they really are. Not a lot of kids know this but grades can make you a great job or they can give you a terrible job. David Koeppel did not believe it either so he decided to investigate for his job and write an article on this subject and publish it in a New York Times article which is “Those Low Grades in College May Haunt Your Job Search” published December 31, 2006. He goes into depth in this article and really grabs your attention while reading this. He also gets information from employers, employees, and experts on this. For example, if you ask Johnny C. Taylor Jr., senior vice president of human resources for the IAC/InterActiveCorp, the factor that matters most when companies are looking for employees is their GPA or grade-point average from college. When employers are looking for people to hire they are wanting the smartest and the ones who have the best problem solving skills says Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor says that in his 15 years as a professional human resourcer (which is Mr. Taylor’s career) he has found that students GPA is the best single predictor for job performance in that students first few years of employment. Mr. Taylor is not the only one who believes this; he says that he went around asking companies and they absolutely agreed with him. Companies were saying that they would be less likely to hire students with a GPA less than a 3.0 which is a B average. But there have been instances where students who don’t make the GPA cut off still get looked at for a job all because of their leadership skills, how hard they work, and all the extracurricular activities that are done by those students. Always remember that if your GPA doesn’t meet the requirements do not stress because there is always another way you can achieve your dream job. The first way to where you still can get your dream job is by playing up your GPA. Expert Trudy Steinfield says to never put your grades on to your résumé if it is under a 3.0. When a person plays up there GPA they take their junior and senior year of classes and use that GPA as their normal GPA and that is what they call playing up your GPA. It is a very simple task but in my personal opinion I think it is just about easier just to stay up on your grades and keep moving forward no matter what. It is always better to be a little ahead but it’s always a pain trying to play catch up. The second way to get your dream job if you don’t have the GPA is to tell about all the extracurricular activities that you do. Always tell them how you helped the community and half the time the will reason with you since you were helping take part in society. If you don’t believe Ms. Steinfield why don’t you just ask Justin Kirk? He was a student who went to New York University and had a GPA of 3.3 in his major which was economics. This GPA was considered below standard for the investment banking company that he was applying for, they are looking for students who have a GPA of 3.5 or better. But what helped Justin Kirk was that he was accredited by people saying that he was a hard work and will take leadership any day of the week. Justin Kirk states, “Someone like me might not have the grades but I have all the extracurricular activities and always busy that it stands out more.” There is also one more way for you to achieve your dream job. That is to always start at the smaller companies and just learn the ropes and work your way up from company to company and make yourself known through the work you put in says expert Mrs. Corey Black. On the other hand author Mary Sherry had similar views but also had her own beliefs in her essay that was published in News Week Magazine. The essay was called, “In Praise of the F Word”. This essay was wrote by a school teacher to show a perspective from a teacher to her students and the students’ parents. Sherry says that she actually likes the grading system used now a days. She thinks it shows a student’s progress in the class and lets students know when they are failing. She has a past experience with her own son almost failing and how it changed his attitude towards school. Sherry said that her son was a failing a class his senior year and had work to make up before it came time to graduate. So Sherry walks in and tries to talk to the teacher well the teacher seemed to have cared less if she failed her son or not. The teacher said that she likes to fail kids their senior year because it makes them realize that school is not a joke. You go to school for an education and you go to school to learn and kids may not realize it when they are in high school but reality hits when they are in college. The teacher just doesn’t let anyone sail through her class. She wants the kids to learn and understand the course and how it was meant to be understood. The teacher wanted the kids who earned the right to graduate and the ones who didn’t earn that right got flunked that simple. Well after Sherry heard all that she was in the same boat as her sons’ teacher. She told her son that if he was going to pass he was going to do it right so he got on his work and got it in to that teacher. I have had plenty of experiences like this. I have been in classes where they are just way easy and they shouldn’t even be considered a class. For example, my senior year I took a Statistics class that was not even worth showing up to. The teacher marked everyone present even if half the class was missing. She gave out word searches every class and you had to just read the chapter and this was a repeat every week for a whole semester. I got an A in this class but really the class should not have even been an option for a class. All you had to do was be enrolled in the class and you passed it with an A. It never makes me feel accomplished when I take a class that isn’t even worth your time taking. In my opinion kids need to go to school to learn and not for a social life. Kids now a days go to school for fun and not for an education. They do not realize that their grades determine their future and will determine on how good of a job you will get. I believe that grades should be made pass or fail not the 5 letter grade system that they use now. They should set the pass percentage at 80% and stick with that. That would raise the bar for our education but in my eyes it will raise the bar for the future of this country. This country would become way more successful if everyone were to care about their grades and realize that their grades determine their future.