Internal Examinations & Their Impact On Students' Future

For some, the fear of failure and the inability to impress others can be the scariest part of taking exams. Others, are afraid to face the wrath from parents and teachers if their performance does not match their standards. But for many, the idea that this one final mark can either make or break their future, is enough to temporarily compromise their brain. If you work your body too hard, it can turn to a perceived state of anxiety and depression which will provide you with no immediate control of your brainwork. We-as teenagers- put our bodies and minds through tremendous amounts of strain and pressure as we know that these nonsensical percentages will define our future. But is all this stress necessary? Should futures really be assured by a school grade?

Fortunately for some, out exam results tend to work out close to or as expected. But what about the number of young peoples results that don’t go as planned? Maybe their expectations were simply too high. Maybe they were having a bad day at the time of the exam. Maybe luck was just not on their side. No matter what happened for the candidate during the exam, the outcome that they receive is irreversible of course, some poor results are simply down to a lack of studying or concentration, but what about those who stayed up nights on end with their head stuck in a book?

For some, no amount of studying or extra tuition can help them to achieve the grade that they so desire or need. Of course, if your plan for your future involves getting into a specific college or university, then yes, few grades will matter more for you than others. But there is a sufficient amount of evidence that for some, you do not need amazing results to go far in life. Some of the most successful people in the world today, have moved on to have the most impressive careers and very high social standards without achieving the stereotypical grades needed for fame.

Many of the stars that we admire today were in fact lousy students back in their school days. For example- Albert Einstein. Yes, the same Albert Einstein who “became a lifelong visiting professor to a university in the Netherlands and a tenured professor at Princeton”, struggled tremendously in school as he was dyslexic and showed a very strong dislike to the education programme.

Another example of a famous mastermind who also was not top of the class is Bill Gates, who “is now known to be worth an estimated £60.3 billion and hopes to educate polio”. He, in fact, dropped out of Harvard university as he wanted to start his own company and now look where he is. The proud owner of Microsoft.

Another Harvard dropout- Mark Zuckerberg- created facebook, one of the most well known social media networks. As it became such a huge success, he left university “to become chairman and chief executive of facebook inc and now has a net worth of over £40.8 billion.” In my opinion, school grades were definitely the least most important factors in these stars lives. Although our parents may be right with the advice that they embark on us a good 99% of the time, the education system has come a long way since their school days. “It is 30 years since GCSEs (General Certificate for Secondary Education) were first introduced under Margaret Thatcher, replacing O-levels and CSEs.”

So even though they think that when they imply lecture upon lecture on us, for once, they may not know best. As a matter of fact, not all jobs require the high grades that you may believe them to. For example firefighters, police constables, train and tram drivers and air traffic controllers all earn a substantial amount of money and for most, require no diplomas. “Firefighters can earn up to £40,000 per year, depending on their rank. Managers can earn around the £30,000 mark, while Station Managers may collect upwards of 40k.” All this and all you are required to have is a high level of fitness, common sense and the ability to pass a few written and physical exams within the section. “As a police officer, salaries start at around £20,000 with the potential for growth of £45,000 and upwards for Sergeants. If you move into Inspector territory as your career progresses, you can expect up to £50,000.”

With again, a high fitness level and a few internal examinations. However, we cannot ignore the fact that excellent results can open doors to immense privileges for top students. For example, if a student pushes themselves to their ultimate limit in high school during their fifth and sixth years, they could achieve amazing results and get into a top class university, then, continue to work hard and graduate, then move on to an adequate job with a striking salary. I mean, why wouldn’t that be amazing?

A dream job, a buzz every pay day and an almost perfect guaranteed future. There is also another positive aspect to sitting exams, besides the bright future. We can use this to our advantage by looking at our positive results and also our grades that were much lower than expected, to see which subjects are our strong points once it comes to examinations as to stop wasting time on subjects that we cannot get our heads around. Some people may argue that examinations only test certain qualities of a person, such as memory instead of intelligence.

Many students have better qualities than others and some find it under that all pupils must be tested on the same strategies. Todays students must not only have fair knowledge of the subject itself, but also be able to directly show his or her confidence and power of understanding and intellect. Therefore, all students must have the ability to pass an exam by indicating brainpower and showing the examiner how tightly they manage to grasp the subject.