Marcus Lee On Student Grades Good results demand great effort.

Therefore, rewarding one equates to rewarding the other. As it stands, schools traditionally evaluate the former. Since there is no immediate reason to change, why not stick with the status quo for its consistency and its reasonability. Today's educational system merits those who perform well. The cutline for a student between Ivy League worthy, state school worthy, and community college is primarily determined by GPA and SAT scores. The reason why these universities that have spent decades evaluating student profiles turn to such superficial numbers is simply because ninety-nine out of one hundred times, they accurately reflect the integrity and the capability of the respective student. It is a universally accepted approach and its continuity merits until proven wrong. The only reason why this approach has been able to survive for so long is because the underlying logic is so sound. For those that fit in the bell curve, schoolwork should never be overwhelming as long as they input an adequate amount of preparation. Of course, the length of that preparation may vary as we are all born with different skillsets, but the fundamental idea that more preparation (effort) results in better grades is hard to argue against. Therefore, with exception to cheaters, evaluating through performance still makes sense even after logical scrutiny. Long-standing traditions have not been replaced because even after all those years, no better alternative exists to prove them inferior. Such is the case with evaluation of performance.