Rant of the day: GPA Whores

Now if there's one thing that sure drives me insane about post-secondary education it's GPA Whores. You may be wondering "what's a GPA Whore ?" . Well let me explain to you. A GPA Whore is someone who is totally obsessed with their grades and comparing them to others in order to boost their self esteem. These people commonly tell you " I got an A and I didn't really study at all ", then proceed to ask you about your grades. In my case, I usually don't do as well as them. This is due to two things 1) I am horrible at memorization and 2) I just don't care that much to try that hard. I'm getting my degree so I can make more money. I'm not trying to get into some prestigious program after I'm done, nor am going to get my masters degree. I'm just getting through all my classes happily with a B average, in hopes that after 2 years I can be done with school, and work on making something of myself with my career.

This isn't to say that everyone who achieves high grades is a GPA whore. I can respect people who try as hard as they can, get a great grade, and admit that it wasn't easy. They commonly won't try to compare themselves to others either, and they are genuinely excited about actually getting a great grade. But once the tone starts to turn into " Well you tried and didn't do as well as me, and I didn't try at all " , then you are a GPA Whore.

When it comes to the REAL WORLD, then that is the true test of your actual skills. Sure you can memorize things great, and ace tests, but can you actually apply practical skills to your career? Do you have any people skills at all? Yes you know the names of every muscle, but do you know how to design a proper training program for a client?

Students these days seem to get so caught up in achieving the best grades that they commonly forget to develop essential skills for real world application. I can think of many of favorite teachers and when I would ask them what they got in school, they tell me they didn't get A's in every class. Sometimes they would get D's and just scrape by in a course. Surprisingly enough these teachers were my favorite because they had good people skills, good knowledge in their field of study, and could apply these things to real world situations. This is what I am striving to be. I want to be that person that people say " he really knows his shit and is really easy to talk to".

When a perspective client sits down with me for an initial assessment, do you think they care if I got A's in my classes and can name off every muscle in the body for them? NO ! They care if I can help them reach their goals effectively and have a "people person" personality. This is what I achieve with people. Now if you're a physiotherapist and you really need to know all the muscles and such, then yes that will be pretty damn important. If you don't have any people skills however, then you likely will not get as many clients as someone who does.

To clarify everything I said. I'm not putting down people who try to achieve goals because they love to test themselves and it makes them improve their self esteem. I'm not knocking people who try really hard to achieve  high grades because they need a certain GPA to get into a program, or get their masters. I'm knocking the people who achieve high grades and compare themselves to others in order to make themselves feel better. This is turn makes the person they are comparing with feel like shit because they tried so hard and didn't do as well. Or in my case, makes me want to knock their teeth into the back of their ego inflated heads.

So please, to all you GPA Whores out there. Just stop now. You're either going to have someone get sick of your shit one day and knock some sense into you, or the person who got C's and B's is going to be your boss because they have real world skills and you have none.

Demon