Good Questions

BB12

 

Do grades stop college students from trying different things?

            I think that grades do stop college students from trying different things because we are so worried about our gpa that we only take classes that we think we can do good in. When I read Joyce Lau’s article Two Views on Liberal arts she says “The first semester for every student at Swarthmore is pass/fail. You cannot get an A (or a D, for that matter). Professor Chopp was frank about her own less-than-stellar academic beginnings, so maybe she is particularly forgiving of freshmen who are finding their way. She said that this system encouraged risk-taking — not something all academically driven students are wont to do. With a pass/fail system an aspiring doctor can try an art class, with no fear that it will bring down his or her grade-point average, or an artist can try a science class.” I thought this was very true. I would take a lot of different classes in all kinds of areas that I am interested in but would never take because I am afraid they are too hard for me and I won’t do well. I could take an art class or science class if I wasn’t worried I would do bad and get a bad grade that would hurt my gpa. Your grades are the most important thing when you are in college and you have to have good grades if you want to get a job. I am a very bad test taker and worry about grades all the time so I think it would be great to take a class just to learn and enjoy learning without having to worry about passing a test to get a good job. I would also try new things if I did not have to worry so much about grades so I think classes without grades would be a great idea.