We all have questioned the purpose and effectiveness of grades: Are they necessary, or are they just letters in an alphabet to measure a student’s learning capacity?

The answer: They’re necessary.

They are what keeps us motivated and determined to keep working hard. That doesn’t mean students should overly stress about grades, but those who aren’t a little more concerned about their grades should focus more on them.

“Grades are important– it helps the student rank their ability and make them push themselves. It allows us to see a better version of what we are capable of doing,” said Yaxeni Sanchez, senior.

While grades may not define our personality, they do show our work ethic. As a result, grades are important because they show how much work we put into our education.

Not only will grades most likely matter to your first few employers (starting a career out of college), but they should matter to you. You should care about your grades because your grades reflect your dedication. Like anything in life, you get out what you put in.

I cannot stress this enough. Good grades do not only gauge your intelligence and ability to retain knowledge, but they also gauge your work ethic.

“I believe grades are important if you want to be successful; to have good grades, it will get you to go to college and be ready for the future,” said Marissa Richards, senior.

Grades play a big role for part of our life. Once we get to high school, that’s what many of us don’t realize.  We don’t realize that we should focus a bit more on grades other than worrying about being the most popular kid in school.

The Huffington Post April 16, 2013, blog article “Why Grades Don’t Really Matter That Much After All” by Lauren Schuhmacher, stated, “Grades have their place. They’re a necessary part of education. What they aren’t a necessary part of is self-esteem. They don’t really matter because they don’t define us: what defines us is the changes education makes within us.”

Many others believe the same; grades may not be the main aspect that defines who we are, but they do encourage us to work hard and to learn.

“Grades do and don’t matter– there is many points where we students stress enough about having the perfect grades and that shouldn’t be our main focus,” said Jennifer Aguilar, sophomore.

While we tend to stress about having perfect grades because our parents tell us to do so or maybe because we just want perfect grades for our benefits, we should really stress more about whether or not our grades reflect our effort.

We all want a 4.0 GPA, and we tend to believe that end result is all that matters, but what is really important is how hard we worked to get close to that 4.0 GPA, not whether or not we actually achieved it.

For example, if a person who usually gets Ds and Fs now puts in hard work to at least get Bs and Cs, that student is also demonstrating a work ethic, just like a student who often gets As and Bs.

“I believe grades matter a lot; it is the one thing that keeps us motivated to become someone in life– it helps us achieve our goals and reach our limits,” said Melanie Aguilar, senior.

Working toward good grades, then, helps build a student’s mental capacity for doing and achieving.  Grades aren’t the only aspect that matter in school, but we need to realize that we have to put in hard work to achieve our goals in life.

Even if you don’t care about making the money, or you don’t plan on attending college, do the right thing NOW.  That way if you ever change your mind, you have the opportunity to get the job you want or go to college.  There is just four years of high school, so you might as well take advantage of aiming for good grades so that as you work toward that goal, you become a better version of yourself.