You see the first question on the math test and freeze. You try to recall anything — the notes, the review, the textbook problems — to help you solve the question, but your mind remains completely blank. Anxiety builds and when the bell rings, you shakily hand in your work, already certain that the test did not go well for you. How much better would you feel if this one bad grade, wouldn’t affect your quarter average? Or even better, what if you were able to drop your lowest grade in every class each quarter? Everyone has bad days, and it is unfair to have one bad day affect your overall average. Occasionally, a wave of assignments and responsibilities all converge upon a single day, leaving a student with almost no time to study for that test tomorrow. If a student is consistently getting As on assignments, but one or two flunks are pulling their quarter average to a B, that is a skewed representation of their overall work that quarter. Dropping the lowest grade each quarter provides a more holistic representation of how each student is performing. Even mathematically speaking, outliers decrease the accuracy of the average. In addition, dropping the lowest grade can encourage improvement. At the beginning of the year, students are just getting used to the demands of a course and it is normal for a student’s first few grades to be below where they’d like it to be. Of course it’s true that grades aren’t everything. Students should not be conflating their self-worth with the amount of As that they have or their ability to maintain that extolled 4.0. But for an undeniably academically motivated student body, it is still false to say that grades shouldn’t be a student’s focus or that they really don’t matter. For the college admissions process, grades still count for a significant portion of a student’s application—they affect our futures. Therefore, it’s valid that grades are a primary stresser for PHS students and the school should take reasonable measures to relieve that stress. More often than not, students’ obsession with grades in a class surpasses their real interest in the subject, and this common mindset results in less enthusiasm in the classroom. A flunk on a large test or assignment can do serious damage to a student’s motivation to keep trying. With the help of this policy, students who would otherwise shy away from the scarier classes would have the opportunity to challenge themselves intellectually and focus on learning. This is not to say that when students do poorly on an assignment, they should just be able to drop it and forget about it. On the contrary, it is crucial that they evaluate, correct, and reflect on their mistakes. Teachers should require that their students complete corrections for their assignments to ensure that they grow and improve. These policies have been effective in many English and history classes, where students are commonly required to reflect on their essays, setting them up for sucess on their next. This should be extended to all math and science classes. Instead of feeling the sense of panic that a singular grade can instill, students should instead feel motivated to push themselves when they don’t initially succeed. Universities have been successful in implementing similar grade-dropping policies. For example, Princeton University allows math students to drop two of their lowest homework grades. In fact, a 2013 study done by Raymond MacDermott demonstrated that when students were able to drop their lowest grade, their performance on final exams improved. Instead of letting students sulk over their worst moments, PHS should teach students to learn and grow from them. Just like how one bad time, perhaps because of fatigue or an injury, doesn’t define an athlete’s abilities, one bad score, whether it be a test, essay or lab report, shouldn’t define a student’s overall grade. By letting students drop their lowest grade in each class, students are less fixated on perfecting every grade, and more focused on their learning.