Proper learning shoud help those who study!

Much of the higher education in the USA has been propositioned to the point of getting a high grade at the expense of actually learning the subject at hand! 

 The modern Higher Education has been set up on getting the highest score or grades - while a very excellent endeavor - fails when those who whizzed thru the system with A's and B's at the expense of not having a firm grip on the subject matter! I.E. They did not really learn the subject at hand! SAD!

While I was attending college in my Jr and Senior years, my wife was employed as a Female Dorm Monitor working the 11 (23:00) - 07:00 shift. One thing she noted {was the way most of the students were there out to party and gallivant around - up until the Finals Exam Week} then there were signs put in the dorms - " death to those who disrupt our cramming! " etc! This behavior has been confirmed in a similar style on many other university campus. This just goes to show how much of the college life is about recreation and parties, therefore it must come down to be all about the Grades! {How ever the grades are made} 

Any quiz or test should be structured so that it helps enlighten the student! 
Much of the testing I saw was very weak at displaying the actual level of education! In fact many times I have witnessed those who were there, only to get a desired high score or grade! But actually, it is not the grade that really counts - it is whether or not you actually learned anything useful. 

I have sat in classes at both HS and College where some people cheated and managed to get the prestigious desired higher grade point! I studied and made efforts to learn and understand most whatever course I took. Often times I was not a high-grade point student - but even years later I could and even today recall much of the course, because I had actually studied! So my grade point average did not look like so many others - but I did actually learned to use the subject in life!

Jumping 50 years later, we now see not only where the grades are most - important but now even down to the Elementary School levels sporting events 
- every one receives an award or trophy!  {To me that makes the whole idea of the Trophy phony to begin with!} It appears that many of we humans are so caught up in this drive for awards or grades that we have sold our souls  for the mere possession or acclaim! 

This does not mean that there should not be awards or trophy's - rather let there be a very good reason to drive students to an escape to Elysian Fields!
 I always thought that school and higher education was to help improve the students thinking thus allowing them to grasp the important facts and elements of getting a better education!  {Not just getting a higher grade point average}

** It is like this if some one who took the same course I did met years later; and we went over out Higher Education Summery = What good will it be for the student I met to say " I do not remember much about the class but I get
" An A " - While I can recite most of the basic parts of the class and only made 
a "D ". 
 Sounds like a false system of values to me! 
The grade is only an indicator, not the proof positive of how much someone learned!