Grading: A Necessary Evil?

After reading Wolff’s excerpt, I thought back to an episode of Boston Legal that I watched sometime ago. The case involved a girl who took unprescribed Adderall so she could stay up and study to get better grades in order to get into Harvard University. Even though this is a fictional show, it brings several things into question: To what extent will people go for a grade? Are grades really indicative of performance? Are they really an adequate representation of knowledge? A person may study and obtain a good grade but does he really know what he has “learned” or has he simply memorized it? Can he use that “knowledge” when he is in a situation where he needs to use it?
I know there have been many times in my college career when I have crammed for a test. I got a good grade on the test, but I could not tell you a thing about that subject now. Even if a student gets good grades, does that mean that he is the person that should be in a particular position of prestige? Wolff states, “When a candidate seeks admission to a profession on the basis of some performance, the judges must ascertain whether he has qualified. For prospective professors, lawyers, or doctors, “pass” means admission to the profession with the legal right to practice and make a living thereby; “fail” means exclusion, and if second chances have been exhausted, the necessity of looking for some other career.” This term qualified concerns me. What does qualified really mean? How does one determine who is qualified? They may "pass" but are they qualified? When one talks about professions that deal with life and death such as doctors or pharmacists, qualified becomes a little sketchy. As I mentioned earlier, what if a person is extremely good at memorizing things but forgets them later, should we still consider that person qualified? I understand that in these situations there are other means of assessment but grades play an important part. I am still left to wonder, are they truly qualified? I am sure some of you have heard this: What do you call the person who graduates last in their class from medical school? Doctor! I know this is a joke but there is truth in it. In this case, the person may have passed but is this person truly qualified?