Success in our society is numerically quantified. Whether it’s your GPA or the size of your bonus check, we’re all measured according to our performance. A student with a 4.0 GPA is immediately perceived to be intelligent. The process begins in childhood with wall measurements to record your height.Perhaps my interest in this subject may be attributed to the fact I always fell “short” in this regard.Our perception of intelligence is a fallacy that stifles natural creativity and free thought. The tendency to reward our performers discounts the creative minds that don’t conform to a predetermined notion of intelligence.Our obsession with measuring performance in the traditional manner must change, as it severely limits our ability to progress as a society.School, as we know it, is a measure of work ethic and photographic memory. Are you lacking in these particular attributes? If you are, then your grades are likely suffering.This doesn’t mean you’re less intelligent than the girl who sits three rows in front of you and answers every question. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb. On the average, when adjusted for individual strengths, intelligence is equally distributed throughout the population (with the exception of a few outliers), which means there is no such thing as smart and stupid. These notions are merely a way to persuade a population to conform to a set of standards believed to provide the greatest benefit to society (at least the society our forefathers envisioned).The multiple-choice test is a tool often used to measure our performance. These tests can be difficult because of how an instructor words  — or mis-words  — a question, but they often do not measure understanding; and they completely negate any creative thought regarding a subject matter.Students are conditioned to prepare for a test by memorizing information without truly understanding it. The majority of students are capable of earning an A if they invest the time required to memorize these pertinent facts. Thus, work ethic — not intelligence — is measured. Some might argue this is what employers need: employees who can work hard at a task without their mind wandering distractedly through tangles of creative thought.But I disagree. Work ethic, memory retention and analytical abilities do have merit. A creative thought can’t be remembered without memory retention. But it needs to recognized that creative individuals lacking in theses other qualities are often discounted in the modern educational machine, whereas those who primarily possess one of the other three qualities are rewarded. Those who easily memorize facts for recitation on multiple choice tests have only proven their minds are efficient catalogs. Ask them for their opinion pertaining to a scenario involving those same facts, and the blank stare is alarming. This is because those facts were not actually processed but merely filed for quick retrieval.What employers need, and what an institute of higher education should develop, are employees who can think outside the box — who can approach a situation from unique angles.So, as we all sit down with our No. 2 pencils to color skinny sheets of paper with little green circles, remember that though you may think it’s an art project in which you can make designs with the little bubbles, it is actually a measurement of your willingness to put forth an effort to play a game society has created for us.And your relative success or failure in this game will determine your job opportunities upon graduation.Nathan Shull is a 35-year-old finance junior from Seattle. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_nshull.– – – -Contact Nathan Shull at [email protected]