I actually think that it makes a lot of sense to rely solely on test scores and teacher recommendations. This would serve the admirable purpose of unbundling college admissions from high school grades, allowing people to better focus on learning.

Unfortunately, the wisdom that you learned is something that each person has to realize for him or herself. The best we can do is to provide teens with better role models and mentors, and hope for the best.

While some colleges are taking out the letter grade, you don’t see high schools doing it. Why? Because the students can’t apply to college without letter grades. But what about people applying to grad school? They still need letter grades. The letter grades will not go away entirely unless the system is changed entirely. Unless you want to base all admission decisions on test scores (which many countries do), letter grades are necessary.

What really needs to be taught being true to ourselves. I have gotten good grades before because the professor was really bad, and pretty much the whole class didn’t know the materials, so the curve favored the good test-taker. While it looked good, I knew that I didn’t learn much. That I can’t lie to myself about. I think what needs to be taught is the acknowledgment of the truth. You either learned or you haven’t. Now how can that be accomplished? I don’t know.