As my first semester of college ended and I got my grades, I realized one thing. School can be so unfair. Don't get me wrong, if you work hard and study, then you deserved the good grade. But I am speaking on behalf of those who do the working and studying, and still get a below average grade.
Letter grades should not define who we are. My GPA is how well my teacher taught me. My GPA is Intro to Sociology and Intro to Theatre, neither that are important to my ultimate career goal. My GPA is the nit-picky things my teacher tore apart in my papers. When you take a step back and see everything that is going on, you see that there is so much more to learning that cannot be captured in our grading scale.
Personally, the one class I had this semester that actually worked me towards my major was one of my worst -- grade-wise. I want to be a journalist when I grow up and here, I have my teacher telling me my writing was sub-par. I conversed with some classmates and they felt the same way. Working hard in and out of class, just to be given low Bs.
I understand college is harder than high school. But when teachers are handing out different grades for the same type of work, it frustrates me. I know I am a good writer, so why should future jobs look at my GPA and judge me; all because one or two teachers did not like my comma placement?
In high school, I stressed so much about my GPA. I always had to have it over 4.0. When I got to college, my perspective drastically changed. Yes, I knew I still had to work hard, possibly even harder than the year before. However, I turned my focus to experience rather than grades. I wanted to expand my horizons with extracurricular activities.
I joined four "clubs" this past semester and still came out with As and Bs. Although there was more Bs than As, I am still heavily satisfied with my success. As a writer, I significantly built up my portfolio and participated on my school's TV program. I hope that's what my future employers look at.
So stop stressing about that perfect A and focus on learning the material for yourself. I understand there are GPA standards to meet for some majors and by no means disregard that. Just don't run yourself over a cliff in efforts to boost your GPA.
What I learned is that sometimes you just get stuck with the difficult professor. You get stuck in a harder class than you expected. Roll with it. In the end, I believe, it all comes down to experience. And for the rest...remember, C's get degrees.
