Do you think good grades are worth the effort?

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Don't think so, actually. Either way, though, college degrees and the rest of it mean nothing if you are starting your own business.

There are literally millions of entrepreneurs in the world. The vast majority of them will have college educations.

I specifically stated I was talking about the successful ones - as in the ones worth many many millions.

My parents used to love to yell at me about my grades when I was younger. First it was because I didn't work hard, study enough, was lazy, watched too much TV, etc., then later, they changed it to I wasn't getting the grades because I didn't have any personality. Apparently, I had to be super social in order to get good grades, which made no sense because grades are supposed to be based on work.

On the other time, I remember when my sister got some bad grades and she didn't get fussed at for being lazy or having no personality on the contrary, they faulted the teacher for grading more on politics than on work, so they went to the right people and got her grades changed to what she wanted, while I got yelled at, punished, etc. for my grades.

And they wondered why I wasn't just like my sister.

Depends which grades and how 'hard' they are. I've coasted so far. I'll probably have to put in the effort at some point to get into a nice uni though, I think it's worth the effort for that. A couple of years of hard work to set myself up for life seems fair.

My sole reason for going to sixth form is to get good A-levels and so I care greatly that I will achieve good grades to get into a university I would like. I work hard to keep and improve on my grades although sometimes I do sorta think "What's the point?" but then uni pops into my mind again and I get back to work.

I refuse to ever believe that there is more to life than good grades. I believe that "Education is the Foundation of Society" - Self-quoted - and that life itself is revolved around learning and the gathering of knowledge. The perks of A-Grades? A High-Paid Job, Money and Power. The three things I work my whole life to gain.

Depends on the program. Applying to med school, grades matter. Applying to a regular PhD track program, grades actually don't matter all that much.

That depends on the program. Any program worth its salt is going to have a minimum requirement for grades, and if you don't meet that requirement, your application goes in the no category with nary a glance. Diploma mills may be less discriminating, but their educational valuable is questionable at best.

In my rather limited life I have come to believe that education and knowledge are vastly different things. The gathering of knowledge is extremely important but I fail to see what grades have to do with it. I remember almost nothing of what I have "learned" in school, the knowledge leaves as soon as whatever test it is required for is over. However, I remember almost everything I have learned outside of school.

Most people I have talked to say that getting straight A's matters very little in later life. They CAN lead to a University/College course which CAN lead to a high paying job. Which will lead to money and possibly happiness. I don't know your definition of "power" though. I would prefer happiness to all three of those.

Infact, you sound rather like the job advisors at most schools. Good grades or else you fail at life.

And if you really do believe there is nothing more to life than good grades than you must live a terrible life. I have felt much better since taking the strain of straight A grades off of my back.

Power meaning a high-ranking position. As a high-rank, not only do you get more control over whatever business or organisation you are in but also you are considered "better" and may even get to lead a few lesser employees. For example, at any school - the Headmaster undoubtedly has more power and control over the school than the teachers, however, above him there are the various directors of learning, Ofsted and the Government. You always need to aim for that top position.



I am conformed to believe this purely from them. Due to the fact that they actually have jobs (and, more accurately, jobs that speak to others about getting jobs), I seek them or the Business Studies department whenever I need advice on employment, work or other job-related matters.



My conclusion is more-or-less F & G grades = Poverty; A, A* and maybe even B grades = Success. As they say, "Is an employer going to choose the person with the A grades, or the F's?". However, I agree my opinion might be slightly biased - as whenever I'm not in school, I'm on the computer or revising. I haven't stepped foot outside for any reason other than school in ages and, thus, have little to no social life. Therefore, my life is pretty much fully revolved around Good Academics, and I have also planned out what I would do if I were to get them (*cough* Oxford University requires (at the moment) 6 A-levels to be able to apply, as far as I am aware *cough*).

Good definition. You're obviously quite ambitious, whereas I'm not. While you want to aim for the top, I simply want to be a specialist at one thing which isn't really going to give me power over anyone.



Fair enough, however, most of them have probably never worked outside of education, and may therefore not have the most experienced view on the world outside of academia.



I assume that F is what we would call D and G is what we would call E. It seems more likely that an employer would pick the one with the most experience and qualifications in relation to the field and completely ignore grades. Unless it's a competitive field of course, most people I know say that high school grades don't matter all that much especially. Excpet for getting into University. I don't have a social life outside of school either.

I would say that we have somewhat different views on life, you're much, much more ambitious than I am.

Um Oxford university doesn't require 6 A-levels. The standard is at the moment normally A* A A grade A-levels and depending on which college you apply to it would probably be more.
It is very rare for someone to study 6 A-levels. Plus those would probably include general studies or critical thinking A-levels which top universities don't normally care about.

I would actually consider F's and G's (I'm referring to GCSE grades, by the way) to be worse than the Australian E's and D's. In a 40-50 mark paper, a G (as far as I'm aware) is considered about 4 or 5 marks out of the whole paper. F is just above that from 6 to about 10, maybe, while any lower than G is Unclassified.



True, however, don't mistake ambition for optimism. Although I am ambitious for myself, I always feel that I am not good enough for such a position. Although I live life believing that I work hard specifically to be at the top of that hierarchy (whichever business hierarchy I may choose to join), I never believe I will make it and, if I do make it, I would still consider myself undeserving of such a position.



Then I appear to have been misinformed, somewhat. My apologies. I got that information of a friend who claims a family member of his went to the university. However, he could have been incorrect or (most likely) I could have misinterpreted it. Maybe he said 6 A-grade GCSEs?

Tell that to this guy.


Let's see...
High-paid? He's a billionaire.
Money? See previous.
Power? He started and runs Virgin, a massive business empire that does pretty much everything. His company is also working on space tourism.

Grades? Not so good... He had poor academic achievement in everything except sport. Plus, he has dyslexia.

I wish I could argue my point further, but I can find no evidence on how he gained the money to open his first store. However, I assume he started at the very bottom and worked his way up using money he had previously saved to open his first store? If that is the case, like with most Entrepreneurs, I would say he was very lucky to actually receive customers to help build up his business. If the business hadn't worked out due to lack of customers, where would he be now? In that sense, Grades aren't only useful for those three pointers (E.G: Bill Gates), but are also useful as a 'safety net' for if your plan fails to work and you decide to join another person's business (E.G: Assuming you wanted to work at Blizzard Entertainment, they would rather accept the person with A Levels in IT and a college degree than the C in IT without a degree, assuming both know various programming languages).