Friday, October 10, 2008

Good Grades… Pros and Contras?

Students always strive for excellence in their studies, regardless of any level. But does it worth it, in terms of life successfulness, job, and family? What can excellent result promise students? i would say it helps, perhaps, in the primary and secondary level of school. For primary students, good result may enable them to be enrolled in a boarding school or at least a good school. Theoretically and technically perhaps, good schools will yield good products in terms of studies and intelligence, BUT not in terms of moral and behaviour, sometimes boarding school students are very bad in moral. For the secondary students, outstanding results enable them to grab programme that they want at university level especially medicine.

Once at university level, i personally do not think that good results bother too much when it comes to seeking jobs. It is not that grades do not play any roles, but i would rather think that the grade only influences a little bit in getting job. It does not need to be very high. It is enough to score above 3.0 only. Don’t get me wrong, i’m not saying this because my grade is not so good. It’s just that i want to tell others what i personally think.

To me, good grade just satisfy us of our excellence and intelligence. But when it comes to job application, some employers don’t want academically excellent students. Some of them think that excellent students cannot work very well with people. They just can do work on their own independently which is otherwise in work environment. Working must involve communication with people. So what’s the point of having good result if we can’t work with others? Besides, some employers also think that intelligent students will demand a lot if accepted to work in their organizations especially salary wise. So why do they want to hire good-grade-students if they other choices?

In my opinion, students must balance between academic and co-curricular activities. i’m saying this not because i’m quite active in university but i’m speaking this as general. Most of employers really look into what we had joined in university. Our involvement in co-curricular activities indirectly shows that we can work in groups, we are not bookworms, we can balance the priority of studies and co-curriculum, and what not. Those are the values that most employers are looking for nowadays. But, if you have good grade and also good involvement in co-curriculum, that’s even better and can be a bonus mark for you.

So, in short words, good grades do not promise you excellent job and life. There must be elements of co-curriculum for the interviewers to appreciate you. So, my advice, don’t just study and study. Enjoy your life in university. You will regret it some day if you don’t (Enjoy here means join many programmes, not enjoy purposelessly J). i leave the questions above for you to answer. Again, this is just my opinion. You have absolute rights to agree or not.