Doing well at school = losing friends?

[midas_touch]

My school is kind of different. The general idea is that people can be supposedly "cool" yet also be studious. People don't care if you work but theirs still the problem of people who don't care about school just mucking around the whole time.

My year level is actually pretty harmonised.

Kinda the same thing happened at my School as well. We comparitively had quite a few students do well compaed to other years, yet we also had a good number that did really bad. But still there wasnt any real segregation amongst the year level despite such the wide range of academic performances.

[Collin Li]

The underlying argument behind such policy is that those who are more academically able should carry the burden of lifting the academic performance of their less able peers – even if it means sacrificing opportunities to fulfil their own potential. I find this a highly offensive expectation, especially when many of these able students report they have been marginalised in their previous schools because of their ability.

Agreed. If a student wants in, and MHS wants to let them in, then why should someone else step in the way and say "no, we're doing this for the greater good."

[midas_touch]

Given that the academically able are treated quite poorly by their non-academic peers, it seems like another slap in the face for such able students for the Victorian Government to actually try to hold back students from leaving their less academically inclined peers to go off to selective schools like MHS and MacRob through the use of the "3% rule" with the justification that:

"French scholars sometimes describe talented students in mixed settings as "pilots". They contribute to the academic climate in classrooms, contributing to discussions and being role models. Other children learn from them. If you remove these students, it can have a marked effect on learning for the remaining students. If selective schools drain other schools of their pilots then the children who remain may suffer from the absence of more highly able peers, and under-achieve relative to their potential." http://www.theage.com.au/news/vic-election-06-opinion/hothouse-sours/2006/11/20/1163871334588.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2

The underlying argument behind such policy is that those who are more academically able should carry the burden of lifting the academic performance of their less able peers – even if it means sacrificing opportunities to fulfil their own potential. I find this a highly offensive expectation, especially when many of these able students report they have been marginalised in their previous schools because of their ability.

This is really an absurd idea, in that it traps more academically inclined students, holding them back to achieve their full potential. The state government is really out of touch if it believes that this is justified.

[memka]

I can see this year putting a strain on some of my friendships. I want to achieve my best but I can see that intefering with my friends. None of the ones I hang with at school seem to have the same drive to do well as me. I think the fact that 4 of my friends were in my chemistry class last year did negatively impact my result.

It really iritates me the way my friends assume that I always get a good mark without any effort. I work hard to get those marks but they don't seem to understand that.   

[Mao]

It really iritates me the way my friends assume that I always get a good mark without any effort. I work hard to get those marks but they don't seem to understand that.   

I so sympathise with you...

[Eriny]

It really iritates me the way my friends assume that I always get a good mark without any effort. I work hard to get those marks but they don't seem to understand that.   

Me three. I always got the "oh, you don't even have to try" spiel, which so isn't true. I mean, yeah, I was probably more rewarded for hard work than lots of my peers were, but that doesn't mean I didn't work pretty hard.

My lit teacher actually did say that the rest of my class did better because of my presence (she might be biased though...), to be honest that felt good. Even though it wasn't the best place for intellectual immersion, I did like my school a lot and most of the people in it. And I always got support from the staff as well, which kind of made up for the otherwise anti-academic environment.

Even though there were some draw-backs to being in an average school, I think that I did benefit from things like being singled out more often and having people appreciate my success in different areas (even students!). At a high achieving school, I wouldn't have been all that special, probably.

[iamdan08]

It really iritates me the way my friends assume that I always get a good mark without any effort. I work hard to get those marks but they don't seem to understand that.   

I can relate with that also. They just dont get how i can get good marks even though i still go out with them. It all comes down to hard work andprioritisation!

[cara.mel]

In year 12 my good friend count went from 0 to 1. Therefore, I gained friends

[SilverBullet]

In year 12 my good friend count went from 0 to 1. Therefore, I gained friends

Yes!!!! lol

[Matt89]

Socially, year 12 was easily the best year. I worked hard, but i also got closer to a lot of people.

If i hadn't had such an enjoyable social life, my good results wouldnt have meant as much. The feeling you get when reading your results is nothing compared to your friends congratulating you IMO.

[humph]

it's definitely a problem in high school, and in particular yr12. i had a guy ask me once halfway through yr12 if i thought i'd get over 99 and i answered truthfully "yes", because i knew my own capabilities. and he got all exasperated and said "you can't just say that". he thought it was the absolute height of arrogance to be confident in one's own intelligence. which can be the case when people are brash about it (which i certainly can be on occasions). but nevertheless, some people don't cope well with others consistently scoring higher than them.

in uni, however, i don't think it's such a problem at all. a lot of my friends have been people who've kinda cruised through high school and gotten 80-90 but then decided to really try to achieve well (Ds/HDs) at university. basically, the people i know at uni generally care about their own marks and not about how others do. but that's just my friends, i suppose there's always others...

[ninwa]

It really iritates me the way my friends assume that I always get a good mark without any effort. I work hard to get those marks but they don't seem to understand that.  

Yep, also know how that feels, it's beyond annoying, my friends were often saying stuff like oh you don't need to study, you'll get A++ anyway, as if I have some sort of academic magic wand or something *rolls eyes*

The feeling you get when reading your results is nothing compared to your friends congratulating you IMO.

DEFINITELY

I dunno about losing friends - in my group of friends only a couple cared about doing well as much as I did .... the others kinda slacked off a bit .... I remember 2 of my friends went to an arctic monkeys concert in the middle of their exam period, the idiots. But we still got along brilliantly because we were understanding of each other's priorities and we worked out our social timetable with everyone's needs in mind. Year 12 was great because I got a whole lot closer to my closest friends and made quite a few new ones I don't think doing well equates to losing friends if you do things right!

[nak]

No way lose friends.. people have to respect that you actually care for your future and if they don't then that means that they dont even care about you. Friends should obviously care and respect each other.
At my school if you want to study you can if not then just fk around but in the end everyone understands each other but at times the people who dont care about their studies bludge too much, which can get annoying but at the end of the day they are still your friends and will let you study if you just ask them to give you some time.

[Collin Li]

I dunno about losing friends - in my group of friends only a couple cared about doing well as much as I did .... the others kinda slacked off a bit .... I remember 2 of my friends went to an arctic monkeys concert in the middle of their exam period, the idiots. But we still got along brilliantly because we were understanding of each other's priorities and we worked out our social timetable with everyone's needs in mind. Year 12 was great because I got a whole lot closer to my closest friends and made quite a few new ones I don't think doing well equates to losing friends if you do things right!

All I have to say about you (on this topic) is that if I was your friend, and you were as unhappy about your results as you seemed like it on IRC, then I would not be very impressed with you. You coulda lost a friend right there

[ninwa]

LOL. But my friends know that I have impossibly high standards so they would understand. So clearly you wouldn't be a very good friend, tut tut

EDIT: I was more upset about my individual study scores .... 38 for my favourite subject, an A in the exam of a subject in which I'd been getting full marks for SACs all year, and a 46 for a subject which my teacher told me I could easily get 50 for ....