I was on medication for nausea the last two weeks of my high school career. I thought something was really wrong with me, but I had so much to accomplish before graduation that I didn't even have time to go to the doctor. I remember sitting in a desk on the last day of class rushing through my final test; my palms were sweaty, my head was spinning, and I was nauseous beyond belief. I thought to myself, "I'm too sick to finish. I'm not going to graduate and I don't know what's wrong with me." Thankfully, I did finish and I graduated a week later. A few days after graduation, the nausea stopped.

This was my first experience with the physical effects of stress. My friend and I were doing independent study for math and, due to miscommunication (and maybe some procrastination), we ended up with two weeks to finish a semester's worth of work. If we didn't finish, we didn't graduate. Obviously, this lead to some added stress in our lives. Soon after graduation, I discovered that my elusive "illness" was actually stress.

Now that I'm in college, stress is beginning to cause more mental damage than high school stress ever did. In high school, all the pressure came from wanting to get into a good college; well, I'm here. Now, it seems that every decision will affect the rest of my life. The next steps after college are so intense and important, there doesn't seem to be room for failure.

I've discovered that due to the pressure and stress that comes with trying to succeed on the letter grade/GPA scale, I haven't actually been learning much. What is all of my stress earning me? A's in my classes, which will hopefully eventually provide me with an opportunity to get a good job in the future. But am I actually retaining information that will help me in my future job? I'm not so sure.

The letter grading system seems to inspire pressure and stress amongst students. We do everything we can to get an A, and this often results in study habits that are results-based and not retention-based. However, there are other grading systems out there.

Cappex, a resource for information on colleges around the world, posted a blog that highlights 7 schools that use alternative grading systems. Most of them are narrative evaluations of a student's performance in a class. Instead of having letter grades on their transcripts, these students have personal evaluations from their professors, advisors, and sometimes even themselves; this also means no GPA.

Although it may seem unorthodox, this system can be beneficial to students. It makes them stand out when applying to graduate school, and it also encourages better performance in class and communication with professors. Instead of doing just enough to get the grade they want, or on the flip side, worrying that their hard work won't be enough, these students can focus on actually retaining material and growing in knowledge throughout the semester.

I believe that a change in the grading system would result in decreased stress levels and an increased passion for learning. Instead of campuses being filled with conversations riddled with complaints and concerns, they could be buzzing with chatter about new ideas and concepts being discovered.