Thirty minutes into my family’s 18-hour car ride to Disney World, a 5-year-old me asked a question that would plague my parents for the rest of the trip: “Are we there yet?”

Even though that car trip was over 10 years ago, the situation it presents is still relevant. Like my parents in the car, I have found myself listening to questions repeated over and over again during school. No matter the class, whenever tests are handed back, I am plagued with the sound of a now familiar question: “What score did you get?”

No one needs to know how anyone else performs on tests. But for some reason, as papers are passed out and scores are received, students continually find themselves compelled to ask their peers about their grades.

Most students probably feel the need to ask others about their grades to reaffirm their own intellectual dominance. However, this behavior only perpetuates competitiveness, which detracts from the intended friendly environment of the classroom and even from attention to learning.

Still, some may say that others’ grades matter as much as one’s own because the competitiveness cultivated by comparing grades creates superior students.

Even if that is true, for every “better” student, there are now insecure ones who feel inferior only because they got a worse grade than their classmate. When success is built upon the failures of others, it isn’t really success at all.

There’s a reason teachers don’t post the whole class’ grades for all to see. Scores should be personal information that belong to the student and the teacher. Pressuring students to divulge test scores can alienate and embarrass those who didn’t do well, while inflating the egos of those who did.

Not only should students reevaluate the negative impact their seemingly harmless question about grades can have on others, but they should also contemplate the necessity of the question in the first place.

I have come to the conclusion that there will always be someone smarter than me. There will always be someone who has a higher score on a test.

As long as they don’t ask me my score for 18 hours straight, I think I can handle it.