How do you usually do on report cards?

[GG_Guru]

Re: How do you usually do on report cards?

Course / Teacher / Mark

01PreIBEnglish 11 | Alemian | A
04Active Physics | Collins | A
05Algebra 1 | DiPirro | B+
06Weight Training | Everett | A
07 Gourmet Foods | Sullivan H | A

[MrRubix]

Re: How do you usually do on report cards?

Getting As at school doesn't necessarily mean you are applying your skills. I have been through plenty of classes where if you memorized your notes and your textbooks, you can pass the tests because questions come straight out from it. You don't actually need to understand how mathematical formulas work as long as you know how to plug in numbers and get an answer. Even out of school, you aren't going to be successful just because you know how to apply the chemistry you learn at school.

~Tsugomaru

What I mean is that you can either get A's in school by memorizing ****, or you can actually try to understand things. You need to be self-sufficient -- the earlier you can start learning material and understanding how to use and apply it without having your hand held, the better. A lot of people who get all A's are workaholic grind-machines, no doubt, but that isn't what I am getting at. Like Reach said, you have a huge chunk of people, by definition, in the middle, and I assure you that this chunk is not homogeneous in nature in terms of how those people performed in high school. Your statistic is horribly overstated, in my opinion.

One of the most valuable things that you can learn is how to problem-solve. It's a skill that is more than mere memorization, and is one of the most powerful tools you can try to develop before leaving high school. It's about thinking critically and being able to adapt to situations that may lack structure using a variety of relevant tools. In the real world, things aren't structured like they are in high school. Oftentimes, it's the case of "So, what's the best way for us to achieve this goal or solve this problem?"

During interviews for hard job positions in the financial/science/computer/etc sectors, oftentimes the interviewers are trying to see if you can solve problems. They want to know how you think, but they also want to know that you did well in school. In the real world, being able to problem-solve is critical, but it is also important that you're able to handle rigor. If you can't even handle the rigor of school, then it becomes questionable as to how you would handle the difficulties of an environment that may be even more mentally intensive and without structure.

Unless your problem-solving abilities are just absolutely over-the-top through the roof, I'd rather hire someone who could problem-solve and had great grades in school over someone who was just able to problem-solve but didn't do that well in school at all. Usually, those with the better grades tend to be better problem-solvers than those with the crappier grades, anyway (speaking empirically here).

[nuclearsamurai]

Re: How do you usually do on report cards?

Physical Science: 44%/F (The idiot teacher forgot to put a bunch of grades in for everyone, so almost everyone got Fs. A few lucky people got Ds.)

Algebra II Honors: 2.33/C (I missed a couple of tests.)

American History: 1.46/D (I missed a test here as well, since I missed a day of school at the worst time.)

English III: 1.71/C (I'll admit, I don't do much homework there.)

Creative Photography III: 3.32/B (Wait, what?)

Italian I: 3.30/B

[Wineandbread]

Re: How do you usually do on report cards?

Yay for 4.0 in 1st quarter
I certainly wasn't expecting it, cause I had borderline As in AP Chem and World History. =/