It seems that GPA is one of the most important numbers to high school students nationwide, yet it does not define how intelligent a person is. Students feel that they should base how smart they are compared to others by one meaningless number. While I agree that a person’s GPA can slightly define their intelligence depending on how much they try, many other factors can affect one’s GPA. The IQ test was specifically created to gauge intelligence, not GPA; therefore GPA should not be used to define a person’s intelligence.

Cheating is a large issue in high schools today.  With modern technology it is easy for students to cheat on tests and get better grades that they do not deserve. Since test grades and even homework assignments are not accurate representations of what a student is learning, there is no way that their grade, and thus their GPA, correlates with their intelligence.

GPA reflects a person’s motivation, not how smart a person is.  In order to do well in school, you have to want to do well. Some students prefer not to pay attention during class and do not feel that school is their top priority, so they do not put much time or effort into school. If a person is simply not driven to do well in school, that does not mean they do not have the ability to maintain a 4.0 GPA if they wanted to.

Two students can have the same intelligence but different grades in the same course because some teachers may be tougher than others. A teacher can give tests with very specific information which is evidently harder than a test on the same topic with more general information. Grading scales can differ from teacher to teacher too, which means that it is easier to get a better grade in one teacher’s class than that of another. Also, the weight of honors and AP classes can differ from school to school, so students receiving the same grade in the same course can have different GPA’s.