Grading: Achievement or Effort? Essay

In modern society, parents and students are really worried about, and interested in, grading systems, as grades are used as critical data when students apply for colleges and companies. Recently, there has been a controversial question whether the academic scores should be determined by an effort or by an achievement. In my opinion, it’s more reasonable to consider an achievement when grading students.


First of all, it’s hard to determine how hard a student works. There aren’t any objective criteria to rank students according to their efforts. Thus, it will make teachers exhausted and annoyed. For example, imagine a teacher who marks her students according to their diligence. She may have to compare students’ work with their last work to notice how they have developed. However, how could she measure the effort? Does the time students spend reveal it? Or does the long essay show that the students study really hard? To grade students according to the efforts could be so subjective that it gives the teacher too much work and stress.


On the other hand, it’s much more objective and accurate to give scores based on the achievements of the student. In fact, this is a more commonly used way of assessing students. It’s because this takes less time and reflects the students’ performance better. Also, colleges and companies prefer a person who works really hard and gets a successful result to a person who does his best but fail in achieving his goal. Thus, grading based on the achievement is better to reflect students’ capacity that companies need.


In conclusion, teachers should measure and grade students’ performance by checking their results, not by appreciating their efforts. It saves time and effort for teachers, and it is more practical and useful for colleges and companies when they compare candidates’ qualifications.