“I didn’t study for the test. Do you think you could send me a picture of the answers” This one single line has been heard in schools everywhere. The pressure on students to get good grades leaves a negative effect on students. The pressure starts while they are young and builds up as students get older. Students can only take so much pressure until they go through a burn out. This is what often leads to some students dropping out of high school. The pressure that is put on students to get good grades often leads to depression, anger, and cheating.
Cheating is a method that is commonly used when students want to receive a good grade on a test. They often resort to cheating because it is highly effective and their effort is no*t necessary. Cheating holds a big risk if the student gets caught. Students do not contemplate what can happen if they are caught cheating. “School isn’t about education anymore; it’s about getting good grades and that increases pressure”. (Ho 1) The amount of academic cheating has drastically risen within the last 50 years among students all around the world. Technology has also advanced to the point where a click of a touchscreen can share answers to the most recent test or even the actual test. Another way that students choose to cheat is by taking brain performance-enhancing drugs. Adderall is one of those brain performance-enhancing drugs. It allows the mind to focus extensively for a certain amount of time. Students from K to 12th grade use this “medication” to help them for a long night or to do better on a big test. Students who are legitimately diagnosed with ADHD often sell their Adderall pills. “Adderall is abused and even in college take more than marijuana and it’s easier to get”.(Cooper 1) Qu...
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...n students may motivate them to do better, it often does more damage than good. Parents, teachers, and colleges should realize that a student experiences burn outs and will result in a loss of motivation caused by the pressure put on them.
Works Cited
Ho, Linette. “School isn’t about education any more; it’s about getting good grades and that increases pressure.” The Vancouver Sun. Postmedia Network, 27 March. 2012. Web
Palmer, Barbara. “Pressure for good grades often leads to high stress, cheating, professors say.” Standford Report. Standford University. 23 Feb. 2005. Web.
Powell, Kathryn. “Stressed and Obsessed Part 5: the effects of stress on student life”. The Online Gargoyle. University of Illinois Laboratory High School, 2 May. 2013. Web.
Pratt, Richard. “Depression weighs heavily on college students.” The Gazette. 3 March 2014. Web.
Ultimately, by these students tieing their self image to getting the highest possible grade it can lead them to some serious Problems, the students not learning to their full potential, and negatively affect their career. Grades play a role in education but grades should not define a student like it does today.
Zinsser, William. “College Pressure.” The Norton Reader. 13th ed. Ed. Linda H. Peterson. New York: Norton, 2013. 380-388. Print
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Driscoll, Emily. “Stress in College: What Causes it and How to Combat it.” Online posting. 31
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Joy Alonso said “We all have tons of pressure on us, and inevitably we neglect some things-” Alonso's speech overall is pretty positive to tests but what I think she is trying to say at this point is that tests can cause pressure in which we forgot to study or do something else. There is a lot of pressure to get good grades so that you can go to a good college, if someone has so much pressure they could get sick, or freak out when the test comes and doesn't do as well as they could. They can also be pressure and stress when you have still have half the questions to complete on the SAT but you only have 10 minutes to finish.
Modern students face many pressures for academic success. They are often unwilling to disappoint their parents or spouses. Some fear that not cheating will weaken a student’s ability to compete with their peers. They rationalize their unethical behavior, unwilling to accept a poor grade, consequently justifying cheating as the only means to that end.
There are multiple causes when it comes to stressed out students. First consider where the pressure is coming from for students to get good grades. Parents and teachers tend to be the main suspects. Parents want to see their kids succeed in everything they do and grades are no different. Some students see a bad grade as them failing their parents because their parents believe in them so much (Weissbourd, 2011). Teachers have multiple reasons why they want to see their ...