Australian High School Academics

Have you wondered what being a high academic achiever is like?

What is it like competing with other high academic achievers?

What the A students think of the B and C students?

Well, you've come to the right place.

And, it's not going to be what you expect...

My name is Denzil. I graduated top 3% of students in Queensland, Australia. With 13 years of general education under my belt, this article will be my writings on the following topics:

• Tall Poppy Syndrome
• Ego in academics
• Humanising high achievers
• Underachievers
• Intelligence: nature vs nurture

Tall Poppy Syndrome In Education

When someone is too successful, we will feel insecure about our lack of achievement, and want to cut them down.

Hence, the tallest poppy is criticised by the surrounding shorter poppies. A prevalent syndrome in Australia.

In relation to high school, I only experienced what I would describe as the 'backhand compliment' version of it.

Perhaps only in Grade 8 History class did I ever have someone directly criticise me.

She called me a 'try hard' or a 'push over' during a time where I couldn't stand for myself.

However, direct criticisms become lesser as you go into senior schooling. Understanding that nearly everyone in your senior ATAR or AP classes wants to go into university. Or, have the option to do so.

To criticise you for trying hard means indirectly criticising themselves for a lack in personal effort.

Back to this idea of 'backhand compliments', you are not criticised by your peers for being so called 'intelligent'. They will perceive you as different in relation to themselves.

Never in an attempt to put you down directly, but also putting themselves down.

"You're so smart. I could never be like you."

'I'm stupid. I'm too dumb for that!'

Where did such self-belief come from? Is their malice in their words?

I don't think so.

It was the other way round.

I always attest that with enough understanding of the fundamentals, self-belief, curiosity and a willingness to learn will grant you far greater results than natural intelligence.

Well, what if people try cutting me down?

Care more about your work and the opportunities presented when doing one's best than other people's approval.

That is what probably blinded the criticism of me if it ever existed.

Who Puts You Down As A High Achiever?

The most likely person, I believe, to put you down for being intelligent are those amongst your own ranks: viewing academics as a competition.

This is a competition of ego, rather than objective scores. It's not like a track record in a running sport.

Even in the year of Senior schooling, you are not only competing with your fellow peers, you are competing state wide.

And it's not like a boxing match, where you are versing your intellectual rival in a 1v1. You are facing the same dragon, either in your separate or shared battles. The dragon being the curriculum itself.

However you can argue, your loss makes their wins greater. Which is the wrong way to go about it.

Obviously, the game gets to be played at a small level. Imagine now, entering into university or the greater world. You are competing with so many more players.

So, the better game to play is where you are the only form of competition. Something within your control.

Ego In Academics

One morning we had school house meeting before we got our math exam results. One of the captains asked around the fellow Grade 12 captains if they passed, worried she might have failed.

(She always believed she would fail, but every time she passed her exams.)

"Do you think you passed, Denzil?"

"I don't think I passed. I know I passed."

My mate, who was the school captain at the time, told me afterwards

"I hope God strikes you down, and you fail. "

I had a good laugh about it.

But, I wasn't wrong.

I did pass.

Unfair, isn't it?

That the academics can make such bold statements and it cannot be refuted by someone who does not achieve the same results.

Okay, I should not have been so arrogant in my demeanour. Perhaps I should have said,

"I'm not worried at all! I think I got this!"

However, I like to see a cocky academic fall as much as the next guy. Ego is annoyance when it intentionally puts others down.

Humanising Academic Achievers

The term 'robot' gets thrown around with anyone who is a recluse and solely focusses on their study.

Part of the stereotype is they only listen to classical music.

(I remember being in the car with my formal partner, and the classical radio was on. I jokingly assured her, "I don't listen to classical music all the time.")

There's a bit of isolation in the 'robot' stereotype.

The assumption that intelligent people in high school are cooped up in their rooms, studying without a life outside of it. Incapable of experiencing emotions outside of their study.

Most of them have hobbies outside of the academics, ranging from music, sports, camping, volunteering, video games.

Methodical and precise are words when I hear someone is like a robot.

A generalisation to explain who they are.

Rather than attempting to understand 'why' they try so hard.

Labelling people tends to dismiss the curiosity to understand the make up of a person. It's easier to make judgement from our own observations than to listen and sympathise with the other person.

I remember being on a school hiking trip, and we had the highest academic achieving student in our walking group.

Humbling myself, I asked,

"What would you tell someone that attributes to your academic success?"

(Who would be in their right mind to ask a successful person that?)

She mentioned three things that I've completely forgotten now.

Perhaps dedication, hard work, and curiosity.

Perhaps those were the three?

There was something the social justice warrior from our cohort would say,

"People fear what they do not understand."

People do not try to understand high achievers as it will close the gap between difference and circumstance.

Or, actualise the possibility of achieving academic success more attainable by humanising the person on the other side.

For most, it's easier to dismiss the possibility of reaching such success if it was impossible.

But, if you delve further to what it takes, the impossibility becomes possible and changes the whole narrative.

High-Potential Underachievers

I sympathise with the ones who try to push their own ceiling they put upon themselves.

There's one particular fellow in our group who had the potential to reach academic success.

However, he never applied and pushed himself to see these results.

We tell him all the time...

There's only so much you can do for a horse at a watering hole.

Who am I to say his success must be academic? Or anyones for that matter?

Intelligence: Nature Vs Nurture

"Do you believe intelligence is set?"

That was a question the second highest achiever in our cohort asked me. He had a more pragmatic answer.

We looked at those in our math class, not seeming to break the ceiling of D's and C's.

I tried to be more optimistic,

"I think intelligence is not set. Anyone can be knowledgable in a subject given enough repetitions."

Take Alex Hormozi's definition of intelligence.

"The rate of learning."

And, what is learning?

Same stimuli, different response.

If you encounter the same situation, and do the same action, you have not learnt.

Mathematics especially, the processes are the same and the numbers are different. If you continue to make the same mistakes over and over again, then you have not learnt.

The only inherent problem with general education is, well, it's generality and time bound nature.

How is one expected to have a strong understanding of a subject when he's expected to do the same for five others?

And, how is one expected to do it such a short period of time?

Put it like this, I believe it would be unreasonable for someone to NOT achieve an A in high school Mathematics given it was:

• His SOLE focus in life
• Had a decade to do so

So, then you may argue the 'A students' are able to condense repetitions and changes in behaviour in a shorter amount of time.

Whether that is genetic or a learnt trait...

Perhaps both? It differs from person to person...

I will say this,

Learn how to learn. And the world shall be yours.

(We call this conclusion nuance)

BONUS: Infinite Vs Finite Games

I didn't know where to fit this section. Let me acknowledge something...

As you know, life has no grading system.

Why?

This idea in Game Theory about infinite and finite games. Essentially, one game has unknown rules and number of players with no clear definition of winning. The point of the game is to keep playing.

Whereas the finite games has defined rules with a defined number of players with the game ending once a set condition has been reached.

With school, it is a finite game.

Achieve these markers and you will get a score. Once you complete your last exam, the game is done.

However in real life, there is no structure. There is no dictation on how to achieve an A+ in life.

You 'win life' by continuously playing.