Arguments against:

1. Success is not dependent on grades. Had success and opportunities been measured by
grades alone there would have been no requirement of an interview and the person with best
qualifications would have got the job. Even the potential marriage partners also ask for biodata where other qualifications apart from the academic once are mentioned. Thus academic
qualifications alone cannot ensure success, it depends on the personality, physical
characteristics and the willingness to work hard of a person.

2. Success is not about getting good grades or a degree. If this had been the case all
graduates from Oxford Harvard or Cambridge would have been uniformly successful. The rule
of success is certainly hard work. For example an engineering student with good grades could
be successful in getting a job but if he is not effective in proper planning, solving crises or
relation building he will not go to for in his job and is found to pay doubt eventually.

3. A large number of professionals are successful but even they want to be employed by
person like Richard Branson or Bill Gates. Prosperity is not dependent on academic
qualifications rather it depends on opportunities that are provided by entrepreneurs and it is
not necessary that all these entrepreneurs are highly qualified. In fact successful
entrepreneurs derived a benefit from their lack of academic qualifications because colleges
and universities might have forced them to think like the millions of other person who
graduate from these institutions.

4. Academic qualifications have not proved to be successful in restraining people from

becoming drunkards, war mongers and rapists. The incidents of domestic violence and broken
families have also not come down with the increased in the academic qualifications. True
success should be measured by the moral courage of a person to speak against injustice and
atrocities, generosity towards poor and respect for parents. These characteristics can be
found in people from all types of social and educational backgrounds but are often missing in
persons with high academic qualifications.

5. It has been seen that academic qualifications have very little relevance when it comes to
the jobs assigned to the graduates. Only a few decades ago employers were recruiting people
directly from school in areas like banking, management and government services and then
training these persons on the job. These persons were promoted to higher levels according
their abilities. The requirements of these jobs have not changed much but now all applicants
are required to have a university degree. This situation is not in favor of talented young
people having poorer backgrounds.

Conclusion:
Academic qualifications ensure success in life and make the society worth living.

Academic excellence guarantees a successful life. Do you agree?

This topic also has been discussed with my upper six this year and they have written their
version of the article. This sample answer shows beside the appropriate approach and
language, how ideas should be generated and developed. The bold phrase at the beginning of
each paragraph is the main idea, and after the details it is closed with a summary that relates
the argument with the topic.

No. I simply do not agree that academic excellence guarantees a successful life. If academic
excellence means having a degree from a university, and a successful life is where a person is
able to get whatever he desires and be happy with it, than there are other elements in life
that helps in making life a success.

It is obvious that during the last decade, academic qualification does not guarantee jobs for
graduates, much to the frustration of the youngsters, who, throughout their university days
were hoping for guaranteed posts in government agencies or steady private firms. Thousands
were seen applying for jobs that were unpopular before, taking the teaching profession for
example, where only a handful were recruited. Graduates without the extra qualities like the
desire to move on, motivation, and communications skills will be left out, proving that
academic excellence is not the license for a successful life.

The blue-collar sector promises bright future for the non performing school students. The vast
and rapid development of the various industries in the country, led by the successful
automotive sector, has provided jobs for those with skills rather than academic qualification.
School leavers with vocational skills, taking automotive as example, see better future
compared to their counterparts on the academic line. Thus, it is a common scene nowadays
to see mechanics and technicians in the various fields doing well in life, even without
academic excellence.

Some people who excel in academics do manage to land in secured jobs in the government
and corporate giants, and went on to the highest and powerful position. These are the few
lucky ones, as in most cases, there are other factors that help determine their success. It is
not a secret that cronyism and nepotism are being practised everywhere, much to the dismay
of those who depend only on academic qualification. Unless they really stand out with brilliant
and extremely noticeable performance, they should be prepared to be ordinary officers up to
the day of retirement. This is evidence that excellence in academic alone does not guarantee
success.

There are also people without academic excellence doing well in business. Through sheer
determination and the urge to succeed, plus a little bit of aid from the bank perhaps, people
have proven to be successful, earning way more than the salary of chief executives in the
corporate sectors. In fact, with a hand from political influences, some are able to secure
projects worth millions of ringgits. Would academic excellence be able provide this?

To conclude, academic excellence does help comfort a persons life, securing him a career to
earn a living. Nonetheless, it is simply not enough to guarantee that he will be successful in
life, as it takes a lot of other factors to achieve it.

There are a few research made to investigate the relation between practical and academic
intelligence (Refer to Appendix 4). One of it is research on milk processing plant workers and
the result is the least educated workers able to perform their work more than highly educated
white collar workers. Generally, all the research done shows that performance does not
related with IQ.

Experience come from action means that doing. His advice is try take some risks, even
if fail. Skills can be acquired from doing, not watching. This means that fail able to teach
people how to success in life by trying. If fail, learn from mistakes and do again with different
way to achieve success. Success is not just about obtaining knowledge only, but it must come
with patience and combine with action and the action requires courage. Academic
qualification is a level of knowledge obtained by people from the memorize aspect of learning
process in the class to get excellent grades from examination, but the question is what will
happen to the knowledge that they had gained after they pass exams. It is wasted effort to
concentrate only to the study time, because people's brains are not able to retrieve all
information and knowledge. They should focus on their responsibility in learning, independent,
self-reliant, proactive, solutions orientated, experience, skills and qualities within themselves
to achieve success.

It is obvious that during the last decade, academic qualification does not guarantee jobs for
graduates, much to the frustration of the youngsters, who, throughout their university days
were hoping for guaranteed posts in government agencies or steady private firms. Thousands
were seen applying for jobs that were unpopular before, taking the teaching profession for
example, where only a handful were recruited. Graduates without the extra qualities like the
desire to move on, motivation, and communications skills will be left out, proving that
academic excellence is not the license for a successful life.

The blue-collar sector promises bright future for the non performing school students. The vast
and rapid development of the various industries in the country, led by the successful
automotive sector, has provided jobs for those with skills rather than academic qualification.
School leavers with vocational skills, taking automotive as example, see better future
compared to their counterparts on the academic line. Thus, it is a common scene nowadays
to see mechanics and technicians in the various fields doing well in life, even without
academic excellence.

Some people who excel in academics do manage to land in secured jobs in the government
and corporate giants, and went on to the highest and powerful position. These are the few
lucky ones, as in most cases, there are other factors that help determine their success. It is
not a secret that cronyism and nepotism are being practised everywhere, much to the dismay
of those who depend only on academic qualification. Unless they really stand out with brilliant
and extremely noticeable performance, they should be prepared to be ordinary officers up to
the day of retirement. This is evidence that excellence in academic alone does not guarantee
success.

There are also people without academic excellence doing well in business. Through sheer
determination and the urge to succeed, plus a little bit of aid from the bank perhaps, people
have proven to be successful, earning way more than the salary of chief executives in the
corporate sectors. In fact, with a hand from political influences, some are able to secure
projects worth millions of ringgits. Would academic excellence be able provide this?

To conclude, academic excellence does help comfort a persons life, securing him a career to
earn a living. Nonetheless, it is simply not enough to guarantee that he will be successful in
life, as it takes a lot of other factors to achieve it.

graduates without the extra qualities like the desire to move on, motivation, and
communications skills will be left out, proving that academic excellence is not the license for a
successful life.