For 12 years of our lives, we are brought up in an institutionalised system where it is stressed that how well we perform in our final exams determines our future lives and those who fail are left behind and are handicapped by the illusion that a letter on a piece decides how successful you can become.

However, today I have come to disprove this common misconception and show that exams in fact are not the only path to success. Despite this, I do not intend to claim exams are useless and a waste of time because many people have found success through the academic route, but instead my message is that exams are not the be-all and end-all of life.

Many successful entrepreneurs have been able to make huge names for themselves: people like Richard Branson - with a net worth of £5.1 billion - at school suffered from dyslexia and had poor academic performances; on the last day of school his own headmasters told him that he would “end up in prison or become a millionaire.”

Another example is Steve Jobs, who is known as one of the greatest innovators of our generation; arguably without his mind, we wouldn’t have the phones we have today.

I believe exams are not a true measure of intelligence, but instead a test of memory. Some of the sharpest minds are labelled as easily distracted, hyperactive and whey wood, because they do not fit the status quo, I believe this is because staying inside for 7 hours is not healthy and does not truly challenge your intellect but instead builds mindless employees. The fact is that dismisses the untapped potential of our generation whose unique learning styles are being ignored.

This is why we don’t have enough Steve Jobs and Richard Branson in the world who have the ability to make an actual change in the world.

Hopefully, I have clearly shown you that exams determine how successful you can be, but instead, it’s in your hands to become as successful as you can be.

I would like to leave you with this quote from Albert Einstein: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”