Do marks matter?

This was my side of the Rotary- Landmark debate. My partner and I got thru the regional finals!!

For over centuries, a person’s talents, skills and abilities have been judged right from playschool. People who have judged us over time have changed but the one thing that hasn’t changed is marks.

Good morning everybody. My name is Abhilasha Pawar from St Mira’s College and I am resolute in my belief that marks are important.

Marks are a blessing and a curse to us students. We owe our promotions to higher classes and admittance to colleges to them yet we consider them a necessary evil because much like good things in life it doesn’t come easily.  To reach the very pinnacle of marks, we are pushed to our very limits, every ability, every skill we have is tested and it is through these that we know where we stand in the scheme of things.

Marks are unpredictable. Sometimes we have the good ones, sometimes we don’t. Yes it is disheartening when we get the bad ones but it is those bad ones which push us, motivate us. They keep us on our toes and remind us every day never to get complacent. A lot of people blame the marking system, saying it is unfair to judge people on them. Tell me, what else could we judge them on? We cannot judge somebody who has come in for e.g. for a position in a company or a seat in the college just be looking at them or trusting them by word of mouth. We judge them by their report cards, . Because, unlike people marks are impartial, they tell people what you are without prejudice and in clear and concise terms whether you deserve to be there.

Geniuses like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, yes they dropped out of school. But their marks were good enough to get in the most prestigious college of all Harvard University.  In fact, they both were considered one of the brightest students there.  Hence this proves another point, success today and in the future will be determined by how well you score or grade in the subjects you have studied in. All these subjects whether you decide to study further in that field are essential and higher marks will improve your understanding of the world and everything in it.

Marks also help us to figure out our talents, that special skill which puts us apart from everyone else. How else are we supposed to know what are we good at? What are we horrible at? What needs improvement?  I would like to give my own example here- I was consistently low in my marks in science in high school. It was those marks which reminded me every day that I needed to buck up, and work extra hard to get where I wanted. And in 10^th I was successful in reaching my target. It was also my high marks in English, History and Arts subjects which convinced me that Arts is the field I wanted to enter in 12^th.

I would like to sign off by quoting something which I personally love by Napoleon Hill “Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.”

Our topic for regionals is Should Performance Enhancing drugs be given to athletes? ITS RIDICULOUS AS HELL!! Unfortunately I have no choice . Worst part I'm FOR!!

The debate's is on Friday. I will put up my speech after that.