Achieving good grades has been the ultimate and final goal in some students" academic life. This is a standard method that was set up many years ago supporting a way of ranking students" knowledge focusing exclusively on a letter or number: their individuality and creativity were not exactly encouraged nor much appreciated along these years in American schools. Furthermore, they were put aside so colleges and universities would be able to judge their candidates. But by doing so, those institutions could not accurately judge potential students based entirely on a system that encourages memorization and in some instances cheating instead of learning for the sake of accumulating long-lasting knowledge that benefits ones" future. This is why colleges and universities should abolish the current grading system and replace it with one that would more accurately show and praise a student's abilities, creativities, strengths, and weaknesses as well as their unique qualities to stand out, lead, and direct control instead of just the cumulative GPA's. Abolishing grades would also allow students to somehow break free from the restraints of conventionality and actually learn instead of just memorizing facts for a test and soon forgetting the information completely. As a "good" student in today's society one would have to conform to just getting good grades, not truly learning, in order to have a chance for a better future. .
There are classes that students are interested in, that would be really challenging that they simply don't take because of the risk of getting a bad grade, even a lousy "F." They fear the threat of a bad grade, so they forego a potentially valuable experience. Instead they rely on classes in which they can memorize facts, take the test, get the good grade, and move on, without really learning or retaining anything. In our current system students need very high grades to be accepted to graduate school and eventually to obtain a prestigious job.