Does grades encourage students to learn? When it comes to the issue about the effect of grades, different people have different ideas Some people suggest the grades stimulate the students to work hard, while others maintain the opposite view As far as I am concerned, the former point of view carries more weight I agree that the grade system is good on account of the following reasons First of all, grades can help the students see their situation clearly and recognize the deficiency, therefore they can improve themselves For example, after a period of time of study, a freshman thinks he has mastered all the textbooks, but the result of the test reveals he is wrong Consequently, he will spend more time on his study Second point to take into account is that everyone has the completive consciousness in this competing society Students who get lower grades will feel uncomfortable and losing face As a result, they will decrease the time spending on sports and entertainments in order to achieve higher grades Last but not least, good grade is the symbol of success, and scholarships will be awarded to the best ones Therefore all the students will work hard for being recognized as the excellent ones However, just as the proverb goes, "A coin has two sides" Those who take the opposite view are partly reasonable in that the grades may hurt the student`s self-respect Given the factors I outlined, we can easily conclude, generally speaking, grades can increase students` enthusiasm for studying