A lecture room filled with three hundred students: no time for learning names, showcasing personalities, or building personal relationships.

How, then, do you get to know someone? The simplest and most common way is by their exam grades.

Yes, grades can tell you a ton about someone. The question is, which of the ton is right?

The ones who get 9/150 (6%).

These people clearly did not do well.

One of them did not study at all or come to lecture; lazy and unmotivated, they bs-ed the exam and did not guess well. Another one did come to lecture and studied all night, but could not focus the next morning because they were too fatigued to concentrate and use mental power. Yet another came to all the lectures and studied all night but simply could not absorb or comprehend the material. Maybe they understood the material and can apply it, but the exam tested only unequivocal facts. Someone else across the room studied the wrong concepts, while another person memorized the answers to practice problems but could not apply the concepts without memorization. One of these people is burdened with emotional issues at home, and they have not had adequate sleep in the past month, let alone any free time to focus on schoolwork.

The ones who get 35/60 (58%).

These people barely understood half the material—or rather, half the exam.

One of them bs-ed the exam and was able to guess relatively well for not studying a single word. On the other hand, the person sitting next to them stayed up all night reviewing the material, but has been too overwhelmed by their five other classes to channel energy into this one. Another one completed several practice exams and understood the concepts, but the questions on the actual exam were completely different. Yet another person studied just as hard, but battles test anxiety. Maybe the exam was graded strictly or relied heavily on multiple-choice, so partial credit was nonexistent and/or not proportional to the amount of material that the one who answers all the questions in class actually knew.

The ones who get 22/25 (88%).

These people achieved almost-perfect scores.

One is surprised to have received such a higher grade than expected, with lucky guesses on multiple-choice and the luck of having studied what was on the exam unknowingly, while another is surprised to not have received a perfect score after feeling confident on all the practice questions and the actual exam questions. Someone is beating themself up internally (and later, externally to friends) for making careless mistakes that slipped their double, triple, quadruple-checking. The pressure comes from within for them, but for some others, pressure stems from their parents, who expect nothing less than perfect. Still, another is satisfied to simply have gotten above the average score. One seat over, someone is satisfied, too, but more so for having not been caught copying their neighbors’ answers.

The ones who get 103/100 (103%).

These people (also known as the ones responsible for ruining the curve) performed well above satisfactory.

Unsurprisingly, the genius in the class got this and obnoxiously shares that they hadn’t even studied. While this may be true, they don’t have much else to worry about. The low-key genius prefers not to brag; they, by contrast, have too much on their plate, and studying is their mental escape. Someone you wouldn’t expect to perform well is the same person who’s taking this class for the third time.

Have you figured out which description best fits you or your classmate?

Chances are, none of the above descriptions are spot-on, maybe only partially at best.

We tend to make certain assumptions about people based on how they perform academically, especially if that’s all we really know about them. When there are several contributing factors in test performance, it’s unlikely that our assumptions are correct. For all we know, anxiety, grading style, exam layout, sleep deprivation, unfortunate timing, and/or simply a bad day can factor in at varying degrees.

With the end of the semester coming up, finals around the corner, and finalized grades released, we need to remember to loosen up our judgment of ourselves and of other people. There’s more to a number grade than one’s intelligence, and more importantly, there’s more to one’s abilities than a number grade.