After getting the results of any test, the first thing students ask each other is, \u201cWhat grade did you get?\u201d As some students get higher grades than others, jealousies and disappointments can get stirred up. One major cause of stress in high school is academic competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Standard.asl.org, \u201cMany students associate their worth with the red letter on their paper known as, \u201cacademic validation.\u201d Academic validation is when your emotional values directly connect to your academic achievements.\u201d Ms. Derisse, a school counselor at Ponte Vedra High School (PVHS), said, \u201cStudents with high academic expectations make academics their everything.\u201d She explained that when their grades drop, they distance themselves from things they love. They also have increased anxiety as they believe they are not studying enough.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ms. Derisse explained that PVHS is a highly competitive school because most students who attend the school come from families in the area are significantly successful. She stated, \u201cThere is an expectation for students on how they\u2019re perceived and an expectation of their achievements.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ms. Meghan, an American Sign Language teacher at PVHS, said, \u201cFor some students, academic competition is a positive challenge because they thrive on it and that encouragement from peers gives them a goal. For others, it\u2019s defeating.\u201d She explained that a lot of students\u2019 parents put pressure on them, which can be emotionally draining. Mr. Casper, a social studies teacher at PVHS, said, \u201cStudents freak out about even the smallest, what they deem, failure an 88 instead of a 91.\u201d He said that some students are motivated to do their best to complete all their work, but if they\u2019re unsuccessful there is a chance of them losing engagement and productivity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany students associate their worth with the red letter on their paper known as, \u201cacademic validation.\u201d Academic validation is when your emotional values directly connect to your academic achievements.\u201d<\/p>Mrs. derisse<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n As of the 2023-2024 school year, the median Grade Point Average (GPA) for the class of 2027 is a 3.82. The median GPA for the class of 2026 is a 3.81, and a 3.87 for the class of 2025. Mr. Buttner, a world history teacher at PVHS, said, \u201cAs far as GPA, it\u2019s very obvious that students want a higher GPA and aren\u2019t concerned with the AP exam at the end of the year.\u201d He believes that students would do much better if they were more concerned with learning the material, rather than just the number. Ms. Green, a math teacher at PVHS, explained that with the retake policy, students are taught to be test takers instead of critical thinkers. She said, \u201cThe motivation is grades, but in their defense, that\u2019s how their system is set up. When colleges are looking at grades, rank, and other scores, that\u2019s their motivation, not how much they learn.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n With class ranking, Ms. Green explained that students with a high GPA, such as a 4.47, would place them 64th<\/sup> in their class because students are \u201cchasing the number.\u201d She said that PVHS offers a lot of AP courses and other opportunities, so students become \u201cGPA hunters.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are some students who don\u2019t care about grades or academic success. On the other hand, there are students who base their worth on their grades and compare how their success stacks up to their classmates. Bailey Van Der Walt, a sophomore at PVHS, said, \u201cAs someone who has been relatively successful from an academic standpoint, teachers and parents tend to have a certain expectation attached to my work.\u201d She explained that when she has a lot of schoolwork, the quality of it goes down, causing a \u201cfear of failure.\u201d However, she reminds herself that she knows what she is capable of and that it is a good thing that teachers recognize that too.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While in many cases academic competition is a good motivator and pushes students to achieve high goals, it can also lead to increased stress. According to American Heritage Schools, \u201cWhile a competitive drive does increase motivation, engagement, and social skills, if it is not given appropriate parameters, it can lead to aggression, anxiety, and frustration.\u201d This causes students to steer away from focusing on themselves and their own goals because they are overly concerned about how their peers are doing academically. Academic competitiveness has the ability to destroy relationships when students set high standards that others feel the need to compete with.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s more to life than the image of yourself,\u201d Ms. Derisse said. Most colleges won\u2019t want students that have a high GPA if they don\u2019t have enough extracurricular activities. She encourages students to get involved in activities other than school, such as volunteering and joining clubs. This opens students up to a better diversity of learning opportunities without overly straining their purely academic pursuits.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pictured AP Art History Practice Test<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Lucia Gabriel After getting the results of any test, the first thing students ask each other is, \u201cWhat grade did you get?\u201d As some students get higher grades than others, jealousies and disappointments can get stirred up. One major…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[571,586,628],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Lucia.Photo_.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7245,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7242\/revisions\/7245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvhstiburon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n