Grades, many people care about them and a lot of people don’t. But everyone should care about their grades.

A grade can be a way to show how smart one is. With some classes being exceptions (gym, advisory, lunch) most of them go off how many questions you get right.

Most tests go off what you know, not much else. The higher test scores plus the grades can lead to getting extra things from the school, and praise from teachers.

Even if you don’t think that grades don’t equal smarts, they do show work ethic. What else can say ‘I am very determined’ than keeping a 97 in a class all year?

Good grades also open more doors than bad grades. If an employer is looking at someone’s grade and sees a 1.37 in the GPA, the employer will most likely pick a different person for the job.

According to the Washington Post, some colleges primarily look at high school grades instead of the SAT. The reason why is because grades are a much better predictor for college success, and the SAT is a one-off thing while the grades are measured over a year.

Bad grades are a bad thing, but we should try and encourage people to strive to do better. People will already get detentions for having too low a grade, along with no prom, no snowball, no sports, and no parking.

There is no reason to want to get bad grades, it makes the future harder for them and displays a terrible character now.