Importance of Marks

Speaking practically, marks prior to grade twelve are not important at all. They are almost never looked at when students apply for universities, and they definitely have no relevance at all when students progress even further into their lives and look for jobs or graduate opportunities.

Yet they are still important to many students, including me.

Even with the knowledge that currently all my marks will not affect my future, I still can't help feeling bad when receiving a bad mark. Even worse, it often takes me a long time before I can ward off these feelings. For example, in grade nine after I received a mediocre computer mark, I was so upset that I could not fall sleep at night, and had to go outside and take a walk before I could finally feel better. And today, after I saw my horrible summer school assignment mark, I felt so horrible that I could not concentrate for the rest of the afternoon.

This made me wonder, why do my marks have such an important place in my heart? Why do I care so much about my marks?

After much deliberation, I concluded that it must be because of the fact that marks are an indication of one's ability. Getting a poor mark even after spending a fair amount of effort basically means that your ability isn't great. This would be apparent to your peers and parents, and obviously it wouldn't be a good thing. But I think what's even worse is the fact that you would have to accept the truth about yourself— the fact that there are limits to your ability.