If you’re like me, you’re quite bitter this week.

You’re bitter because you don’t understand how a two-digit number is supposed to represent the extent of your knowledge.

For four years, we subject ourselves to the tortures of managing a respectable grade-point average.

But why?

After we graduate, a meal from the Student Union will have more value than our GPA.

That doesn’t mean you should stop studying for finals. It means a change to the current grading system is in order.

But first, let’s give thanks to the person responsible for this week’s anxiety — William Farish, once a British tutor at the University of Cambridge.

You can put down your pitchforks and sundry weapons; we can’t chase him down like Frankenstein. He’s dead.

But while alive, Farish developed the GPA system we’re all too familiar with. His purpose was to quickly evaluate student performance so he could increase the number of students he taught, according to the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management.

Do not be fooled — he did not overly enjoy teaching.

He only wished to increase the size of his paycheck, and teaching more students was the way to do it.

For his efforts, he was coined the reputation of “laziest teacher” in the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management article.

So you see, we’re not the lazy ones. We’re the ones manipulated by a lazy system. Maybe that’s how we studious college kids achieved the lazy reputation.

The longer this goes on, the more pointless our GPA becomes. A meager 1 percent of employers believe grade-point average is the most important piece of information on an application, according to a 2007 Collegegrad.com survey.

That was five years ago. I can’t imagine how much more worthless it’s become.

That same survey featured the “Other” option, which 10 percent of employers chose as a more qualifying piece of information than the applicants’ GPA.

Let’s say I had purple eyes, which we all know is not a regular option, so I’d be forced to select “Other.” According to employers, knowing that I have purple eyes is more important than knowing what my GPA was after four years of college.

If that’s not astounding, then you should know it’s rare to see the “Other” option on a job application, anyway.

On the contrary, you will almost certainly find the line to submit your GPA.

Employers want to know whether you will be able to perform what is asked, and experience determines that best.

My high school economics teacher Andrew Jones said it best: “It’s not the grades you make, but the hands you shake.”

Like they say, actions speak louder than words. And in the eyes of an employer, your GPA is merely a word.

Our population is growing and the competition for jobs is stiffening. A new system that is not heavily dependent on grade-point average will put LSU students at an advantage.

Think about it. If we didn’t have to worry over our GPAs, we wouldn’t elude the tougher, more valuable courses. Instead, we’re given the incentive to schedule easy, pointless classes to pad our GPAs.

This has created a rift in the system, since we all know those are the classes we don’t have to attend. Thus, teachers are pushing for mandatory attendance, as if this were high school all over again.

This is why I propose a compromise.

When teachers stop adding and dividing numbers no greater than four, students will start caring more about school and less about alcohol.

Until then, I’ll see the rest of you at the bars when hell week is over.