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Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Grades (marks) encourage students to learn. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
TOEFL CBT 267 (5.0)>>> 22/M/Japan>>> University Student
I agree with the statement. I think grades are important factors for learning effectively. I think study is a sport in one sense. As you knows, in sports, players struggle to get scores and thus they can concentrate on the game. If there are no grades at a baseball game or football game, can you enjoy watching a TV? But some people oppose to evaluate students by grades or scores. I can not understand why they dislike or hate grades. They may think that grades prevent students from learning "important matters". They say that the purpose of education or learning is not to get high scores in the test. They think that the purpose of studying is to get necessary knowledges to work in the society. I agree with that. I know the purpose of studying is not to get an grade A in the test. But I think grades have two benefits for learners and teachers.

One benefit is it can be used as a scale to measure students ability by their teachers. By conducting some examination, teachers know how well their students understand their lectures. Especially in my country, students and teachers can not have enough communication in a school. On top of that, students in my country are usually shy and they can not ask teacher what they can not understand. So teachers can know the status or conditions of their children by conducting some tests. When we watch some sports on a television or in a studium, we don't necessarily have the knowledge about the sprot. We know which teams do well by seeing the score board. It will give us the ongoing situation of the game. If they don't compete to get scores, someone can still enjoy watching the game, but perhaps I can not enjoy watching the game.

The other benefit is scores can make studies more interesting. You know form your experiences that all students in a school are not necessarily interested in studies. They don't like to study, because they have other things they want to do. Some students want to play sports and they don't like to study. But teachers must teach them what they are required to learn, because that is the role of the teachers. In such cases, teachers can encourage their students by conducting a test. By conducting a test, teachers can make studies as some kinds of sports. Students can struggle to get scores in the "sport", and we know from our experiences that some students can really enjoy trying to get high scores in the test.

Although I know scoring is not the best way, I think that can be an usuful method for both teachers and students. I believe students and teachers can do their each role effectively by using the grades.