''Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.''
I am fond of this quote, as I do believe exam results to be a misrepresentation of a person's intelligence.
There are numerous people in this world where maths and English aren't their fortes.
They're often talented in other fields such as sport, music or art.
However, these are never generically tested.
Art and music aren't compulsory throughout secondary school - even physical education isn't compulsory at all year levels in New Zealand.
The only subjects that are strongly recommended right up until year 13 are English and maths.
How is this equitable? Is this giving all pupils a fair chance of high achievement?
What about the people who are geniuses on the sports field, or on a blank canvas, or sitting at a piano, who may not be as capable as others to understand calculus or to write an essay?
These intellectual pupils in their own unique ways, are being set up to fail and coerced into a subject that they are not mentally able to comprehend.
I will admit, there are many pupils who are merely lazy, and can't even be bothered to open their curtains in the morning, let alone try to reach their full academic potential in English and maths.
And some of these pupils are more than capable of achieving high grades in these areas.
However, there are people out there that no matter how hard they try, or how much the teacher tries to help them, their brains simply aren't wired to understand the Pythagoras Theorem or written perception on early 20th century literature.
A person is dubbed as ''stupid'' or ''below average'' if they don't score well in a test.
This is a major misrepresentation of a person's capability to achieve in life.
Exams are a test on memory rather than knowledge.
When I'm revising for an exam, I note on reflection that I'm focused on just remembering facts and figures rather than absorbing them.
Once I am out of the exam situation, within weeks, days even, the majority of that information I have been trying to comprehend all year has suddenly evaporated and I can't remember the information any more.
So why do we still let exam results define us and determine the rest of our lives?
Just because music and art are more hands-on doesn't make them any less easy or valuable.
Personally, I believe the basics in maths to be all that matters.
As long as you can add, and know your times tables easily, can convert numbers to percentages and decimals etc, then who really cares about bivariate data or the Binomial Theorem?
Unless of course this is relevant to your future career path, which it is for some, but the large majority, not.
Instead of teachers worrying about raising the school's academic successes by forcing kids to come in, in their own time, and just work harder on something that they are simply never going to understand, maybe they should be encouraging them to try out new things, have a go at a new subject, explore what they are good at.
And if they were to do this, maybe, just maybe, kids will be more inclined to go to school, work hard and achieve goals.
• By Carys Denny, Year 13, South Otago High School
