No Partial Credit

Part 2: Multiple Choice, Short Calculations, Fill in the Blank (6 points each)

Select the best answer and enter your choice on the cover sheet – No partial credit.

A lot of the time, life operates on “it’s the thought that counts.” The problem here is that, really, the thought only counts when you get the answer right. I can think about how to do a calculation, or how to go about doing a problem, and it could very well be the right way to do it. Great! I know how to do it! Don’t get too excited. Having to be right is a staple in life these days. Everything has to be right or it doesn’t actually matter. I can do endless calculations and practice problems but if I don’t get the right answer then – BOOM! – six points down the drain. You would think that six points isn’t the end of the world, but you’re wrong. With those six points, it could mean the difference in a letter grade, the confidence in a person’s ability, a matter of passing or failing a class, or, most importantly, those six points can be the determining factor for whether or not you have enough time left to even finish the exam after wasting time on that one six-point question just to get it wrong. And let’s not forget to mention the five or six other six-point problems you still have left to do.

Maybe I’m just being bitter that I stayed up all night and the night before studying and studying and actually working for once to find myself unable to pull through in the end. Luckily for me, I will probably miss most of my points from the long answer questions, where I WILL get partial credit. That’s wonderful to hear, but was there really enough work to get me any substantial amount of partial credit? I guess only time will tell at this point. Regardless of the leeway given through long, partial credit, show-all-your-work problems, most things in life, especially college life, give no partial credit. So I’m exaggerating a little, sure. But even still, I know I have a point, and I know that anyone else can see the truth in my point of view too.

Being right is all that really matters. Getting the right answers and saying the right things and doing the right things and meeting the right people and making the right friends…all of it revolves around being right, whatever “right” may be. Getting the right answers on the exam will get you the good grades, and those good grades are the right ones for graduate schools and for employers. If you don’t do the right things and get the right answers, you’re at a disadvantage. But then you remember that a lot of people don’t get everything right but they still achieved so much in life, or they are even more successful than you can even believe, or they are a deadbeat trying to hold down a job that pays little, working alongside high school students and even getting paid potentially less, all to sustain a living because they didn’t get things right. I’m starting to sound like my mother. “If you don’t go to college and get good grades, you’ll end up living at home and working at Target the rest of your life.” Don’t get me wrong, having a job at Target is not bad at all…if you are a student trying to earn money for school or for leisure time. Or, if you’re manager of the store, or several stores, or you own one, etc. The point I’m trying to make here is that doing things right is a necessary part of achieving whatever goals you have for yourself. Or at least that’s what I think the world is trying to say.

Back to successful people that didn’t do everything right, sometimes you think, “Well they didn’t do –enter activity or “right” thing here– and they are successful!” And you’re right. But we can’t neglect the fact that they did SOMETHING right to get to that point. By doing things over and over again and doing them wrong each and every time won’t make that person successful. What makes them successful is the way they perform tasks and do things to benefit their futures. If what they do is right for them, and therefore right for what they want to achieve, then no one will say that it’s wrong. This plays into the common idea of building a career around what you love. Why is this so important and why is it so over used? It’s because it’s true. The more you want something and to achieve something, the more you will be right. Passion is right. Confidence is right. Effort is right. Sacrifice is right. So many things are “right” in this situation because they are right for the individual with the goal, and this makes others see what they do and how they act “right” as well.

This is all a bit confusing now. The point is. I know what I’m doing. I know where I want to be with my life. I have goals, and I have a means of reaching them. I have hopes and dreams and I know what it takes to make these things into reality. But what actually matters is doing these things in the way that’s right for me. School forces us to focus good grades to get us somewhere in life. My grades are pretty good compared to a number of people I know, but, more often than not, “pretty good” is not good enough. My life won’t be successful because I get good grades. My life will be successful because I know that I need to do whatever it takes to reach my goals, and if I think these things are the right things to do, then no one can actually say otherwise. In the end, if what you are doing gets you to your goal and you know it’s the right way to go about the task, then if someone else thinks it’s wrong it doesn’t matter because it is still right for someone. How much more can I even emphasize the idea that getting things “right” is how you get anywhere in this world, it’s just relative.

If only school worked in this way  as well. With school, there’s usually only one right answer. The only thing that I have to keep in mind is to do things to the best I can and to do what I can to make sure that I do well so it is as close to the “right” I need; nothing haphazard. I know that I’m allowed to fail and learn from my mistakes. But failing when I’m given the chance to prove myself, and to prove that I know what I’m doing, when it’s time to take the exam after learning so many complicated ways to calculate the same thing, just doesn’t cut it. “Good try. Your work was right.” Or “Good thing we have other points going into that grade too!” or “I guess I can just take the class over again…” are all excuses. These are just another way for us to try and get that self-esteem boost that we think will get us part of the way to doing well. That just gives the world around us another reason to smack us in the face and say, “Sorry! No partial credit.”