Do school marks really matter?

Answer by Balaji Viswanathan:

Let's say you go to a gym and work hard. At the end of workout, you would be profusely sweating and your muscles would be aching a lot. If we equate school to a gym, that sweat is the marks you scored.

What is important is not the sweat itself [which is just salt water] but what you did to get the sweating. If you are doing the right way, the sweat indicates that you might be developing endurance and strength in your body. In short, it is that endurance and strength that matters in the gym, which we cannot see and thus use sweat as a proxy.
In the same way, it is your knowledge and reasoning skills you acquire in school that is ultimately important. Unfortunately, we don't have an easy way of seeing that and thus use examinations and marks as proxies [we are slowly developing better proxies both at the gym and at schools].
Just as you can fake sweat [stand near the heater, spray water on yourself, be afraid of something] you can absolutely fake marks without building the mental strength. Many do so. However, sooner or later they end up in courses and careers that they hate. And other times you might not sweat at all [the gym could have been cool] but still might be building the strength.
See your marks just like the sweat. It is useless by itself, but if you are honest to yourself it might indicate that you are developing the knowledge and skills needed for the world. Also, marks might indicate developing only one aspect of endurance. You should also get on to Olympiad and other things that you are passionate about. The school should be the place where you explore yourself and passionately do stuff you care about and equally passionately do stuff that you don't like, but will help in the future.
Do school marks really matter?