Does Straight-A's Really Mean Successful and Better???

I'm an average student (A mix of A's, B's, and C's... and very few failing grades here and there and I try to make up most of them if they're major), but I'm feeling unnecessarily pressured by other students and families.

I have friends who are working hard to become these A-students, and either they're really smart or they just work hard. These people cry over B+'s while I accept it as a passing grade. Sometimes, I think they take things too seriously, but I know that they are truly dedicated... very dedicated. I'm neutral on this.

I admit it: I'm a bipolar-student: sometimes I work hard and I'm focused while other times I get distracted and I even procrastinate. I relax at times because my health is critical during most period of school and I have other hobbies/plans when school is over, from volunteering, tutoring, or watching my favorite YouTuber who relieves my day! ^^

Isn't good grades enough? I do volunteering (Key Club), a passive sport (Archery Club), and a Fine Arts (Orchestra), so I'm not just a person who slaves over work. Why do people nowadays think that if one is an A-student, he or she is literally the Prophet of Education?? I'm the average Joe, smart and not, and I don't like this stereotyping.

I don't think it does. In school, grades only reflect how much information you can absorb. Because of my depression I did awful in high school, mostly low D's, and had to take an extra semester to get all my credits to graduate (and never did anyway). And that was after taking accelerated classes in elementary school and getting high A's and B's in middle school. So I know I'm not dumb as ****, even if that's what the grades reflect.

And even if a lot of people see success as having more money than you know what to do with and fancy cars and houses, I don't. To me, success is having good friends, and a family you love (related by blood or not), making enough money to pay all the bills comfortably and still have a little left over. A cat or two (or seven) on my lap. That's all I need.

Better grades make it easier to get more money, certainly, but grades don't define a person. They don't even define intelligence accurately. And what success means varies depending on the person.

Do as well in school as you can, it makes things easier in the long run, but don't stress yourself out over-much about them. Trust me, my boss doesn't care what my gpa was in school. What matters to him is that I have the skills I need to do my job.

I wouldn't say A grade students are definitely going to be more successful compared to average students, but in my experience getting higher grades opens more doors to further education and hence a higher paid career. Having said that, many successful entrepreneurs weren't particularly successful in school and if you have a skill such as mechanics or plumbing for instance, you can make a very nice life for yourself even if you failed subjects that are meaningless to your career (e.g. history or geography).

I'm 64, was in the bottom third of my graduating high school class, went to college and graduated with a 2.00023 GPA and went on in life. When I went for my next degree in my 40s and 50s I "cared" more so got a 4.0 in my courses because it was "fun" and what I wanted to do. I retired when I was 55 and live quite comfortably in my own home on the water, etc.

The grades don't matter as much at the attitude. But one has to watch the attitude, not get too complacent or too obsessed, either one?

I think straight A's are indicative of performance. An effort was made to achieve the highest grade.

Honestly, my depression prohibits me from being the successful student like other high-grade students. Sometimes thoughts of running away or ending my life are always in mind (glad I managed to survive elementary school, though). I try to achieve high grades (B's? I'll take it!), but while some classes are becoming more technology-based, I get behind.

P.S. Is Pharmacy/Tech really a loser's job? I'm not becoming a pharmacists, but when I considered it, my mom insisted me to dropout of school, get married early, and go back to my third-world country =__= Okay, then... My parents just want the best of me, I guess.

A pharmacy tech is a losers job? Uhm, not quite. It is a respectable profession.

I think WAAY too much emphasis is put on what you do equating with who you are as a person. Some people work just to pay the bills, and there is nothing wrong with that. Your job doesn't define you as a person.

What the OP boils down to is:

Will YOU need an A-average to make it to YOUR next step? What is needed to get to YOUR next step?

-If you want to get directly into an Ivy League university from high school, you should try for straight A's. (There are exceptions but not many.)

-If you are in college already and want to go to medical school, you better have an A-average. (Average GPA for medical school matriculates is about 3.7 on a 4.0 scale.)

-If you're in college and want to manage hedge funds at a top investment bank, you better try for an A-average.

-If you are on a scholarship that requires a minimum GPA, you better get that GPA or you will lose funding. That can mean having to drop out for some students at private schools.

-If you're in college and want to go to law school or business next and don't really care where you get your MBA or JD, okay grades will do - but you're more likely to get a scholarship and into a highly ranked graduate program with excellent grades.

-You are almost always more likely to get scholarships and into a better program if you have high grades.

That being said, there are also many open doors for people with mediocre grades. If you are not picky about your career, mediocre grades are fine. If you want to keep all doors of opportunity open, strive for the best grades possible.

The most important thing in life is having people skills because everyone needs them to get thru work. And you have to do a lot of sucking up and acting no matter if you take a white or blue collar job. The idea is to please everyone around you and be pleasant. That's my biggest regret and what has cost me a living. If I had people skills I would find a simple job that interested me where I did my own thing and could focus really well and I know I could have made it. I started out in college as a good student and ended with a 2.0 in my major (engineering). My mood and dissociative disorders really crushed me at a large University. Mental health treatment in college was non-existent. I tried to get help but it didn't work.

I didn't say that, my parents did. One of their friends came from Bangladesh and worked as a pharmacist for some time, and she got low pay ($12/hour I think). I don't understand how this is a bad job, but I'm not becoming a pharmacist.

Your employers will not scour over your college transcripts digging up whether or not you got an A in class or a B. The only thing they care about is that shiny degree on your wall. As far as I know, employers do not even care what GPA you had in school. Again, all that matters is if you have an Associate's Degree, a Bachelor's Degree, a Master's Degree, or a PhD. They don't care about the rest. The reason your classmates might be freaking out over a B might have more to do with their chances of getting into some other school or maybe they're just getting outside pressure from their parents like, "If you don't get straight A's we're kicking you out and won't pay for your college loans anymore." No, getting an A or B does not matter when it comes to how successful you are in the long run. Both my parents don't even have degrees, and they managed to go through life successfully.

All grades Indicate is how hard that student worked.

i always used to hade strat a's but now it's tereble because of my problems am scoring bad grades my mother things that it's my fault and am lazy but im apseloutly afermative that she knows about my problemit's not my fault she's desepointed in me and it seems every on is desepointed
this to hard to take

. . .at getting good grades. School does not necessarily teach anything "useful" or that can be transferred directly to living life better. It is an experience and one has to "think" in particular ways, learn to reason things out and argue one's position, etc. For a pharmacist or pharmacy tech, one would learn useful things like chemistry and how to do do certain parts of one's job.

How much one gets paid is not necessarily related to one's schooling or choice of career. We all know of starving artists/writers and those who "lucked" out and got on Oprah's reading list or were "discovered" and became rich and famous. I think the most important thing is doing what YOU want, not what someone else wants for you or thinks is best for you, etc. You are the only one who is living your life and doing what someone else wants you do is not living your own life, making your own decisions, etc. and can be a waste.