Grades School Good Student High Hair American Gpa

Being successful in an American school requires, as in other schools throughout the world, that you do your homework and study. However, that is certainly not the only thing that helps determine how well students perform in school as measured by their GPA. "GPA" stands for "grade point average," which is the combination of your grades from all of your classes. GPAs go usually from 1.0 to 4.0. "Perfect" grades (all As) would be a 4.0 GPA.

A 2009 research study reported in the New York Times found that there are other things that influence teachers in determining student grades. This isn't too surprising, but what exactly are those things?

A U.S. government survey of more than 20,000 high school students asked the survey interviewers "to rate" (give a grade or points) to each student on three factors: their "attractiveness" (whether they are good looking or not), their "grooming habits" (whether they brush their hair, dress neatly, etc.), and their overall "personality" (are they pleasant to be with, positive, easy to talk to, etc.).

The research found that these three factors did influence student grades, but the specific factors were different for boys and girls. For a boy, good grooming caused an increase in his grade, while boys who were "slovenly" (messy, not neat with one's clothing and hair) got significantly lower grades from teachers. For girls, having a pleasant personality was the most important factor influencing grades, while good grooming was less important than it was for boys.

Perhaps most interesting in this study of American schools was the "finding" (a conclusion based upon the data of the study) that very attractive girls actually suffered a "slight" (small) "decrease" (drop) in grades because of their beauty. Perhaps this is due to the fact that teachers think that beautiful girls are somehow not very smart.