- [Voiceover] Most of a person's young life

revolves around school,

waking up every day at the crack of dawn,

carrying an ungodly amount of books,

and working towards good grades

that will theoretically help them

get into a good college and a good job.

Students are constantly asking,

"Do good grades actually matter?

"Is my life predetermined by the grades I get in school?"

- I think they matter

in a sense, but I don't think people

should be obsessed with them

and think that they measure intelligence.

- I should have done better in school.

Probably would have made things a lot easier.

- OK, I think I guess high school grades matter

because they get you into college.

College grades don't matter.

- [Voiceover] A 2013 NPR poll found that nearly 40%

of parents believed their high schooler

feels high levels of school related stress.

Some symptoms of grade anxiety might be

increased heart rate, sweating,

and decreased appetite.

Being a kid should be fun, right?

The National Institute of Mental Health

reports that anxiety in children and young adults

has been increasing since the 1950's.

According to some researchers

The increase in standardized testing

may contribute to this.

The SAT is the subject of millions

of high schooler's little malleable minds,

always there over their heads

like some sort of dark cloud

filled with math.

You know what I mean.

This also begs the question,

do standardized tests truly measure intelligence?

- Oh God, no.

Load of BS.

- Like the thing is,

I consider myself a pretty intelligent dude,

and I just got an average score on the SATs,

so I think there's something wrong with the SAT.

- The SAT's bad because it measures how well

you can take a test

rather than how much intelligence you actually have.

- [Voiceover] One school of thought

is that these tests are unable to account

for important areas, like critical thinking,

collaboration, and imagination.

Will memorizing vocabulary entitle you

to a better future?

According to a survey by

the National Association of Colleges and Employers,

78.3% of employers

claim to screen future employees by GPA.

However, 63.5% of employers

only use a 3.0 as a GPA cutoff for employment.

So, pushing yourself to be above average

may not mean much in the long run.

There's also the worry that schools

are formulating their curriculums around the test.

This is believed to be a result of incentive systems

put in place by the Department of Education

that rewards schools with higher test scores.

A proposal by New York governor Andrew Cuomo

would have 50% of a teacher's evaluation

correlate to the result of their student's scores.

Education should be fluid and expressive,

tailored to student's needs and wants,

not based around a system of points.

What if you just want to paint some stuff

or write some stuff?

So, do grades matter?

Yes and no.

If you're looking to pursue a path of higher education,

then yeah, they do matter.

But don't stress about grades.

Everyone's path is different,

and chances are you won't even remember

your SAT score in five years.

Whatever you focus on, just try

to the best of your ability,

whatever that may be.

The amount of effort you put into something

will always say more than a letter on a report card.

("Remember (Nostalgia Machine)")