Anything In Life Worth Having Is Worth Working For

High school students can be grouped into three categories: overachievers, underachievers and those who appreciate a healthy school-life balance. Overachievers go above and beyond their teachers’ assignments, perfecting every detail of every sentence they write. However, contrary to popular belief, an overachiever is not always the most intelligent student in the class. Overachievers have tendencies to add unnecessary material to their work, just to exceed the required word count. Overachievers may also be sleep deprived or anxious because of their “workhorse” nature. On the complete opposite of the spectrum are the underachievers, those who do the bare minimum of what is required of them. These are the people you see in the cafeteria copying

In December 2011 Suleyman Avci conducted a study on 508 first grade students to learn the relationship between self-regulation and the delay of gratification in doing well in academics. Most people are aware the more time they put into something the better the results will turn out and the bigger the reward will be. This theory applies to almost anything including academics. The more one studies the better they will do on a test however, not all students understand this, which explains why some students are more stressed than others. In order to perform well in school students need to set goals for the future and not get distracted by things in the present, like watching television or playing video games, instead of studying for a test. I am completely aware of this; nevertheless, it is still hard to do because my “hot system” wants the instant gratification of doing something fun rather than homework. Future success is hindered by the need for instant gratification. Students who achieve higher levels of academic success are those who realize academic rewards are more important than temporary satisfaction. Those

Another thing I could relate the procrastination to is a lack of motivation. In high school I didn’t have to do much studying or spend time writing long papers or doing assignments. So when I came to college I thought it would be the same way and I quickly learned that the college work load is much different and more intense than a high school work load. This was a major factor in my GPA being where it was. I was not extremely motivated to be taking all the general education classes I was enrolled in and therefore did not invest the time that I should have. Having a good GPA is not a primary instinct like hunger or thirst, it is taught to you that you should strive to have a good GPA. Hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex are all primary drives of motivation and are all biological needs.

“Try not to worry too much about your grades” – this is the classic line our professors spoon-feed to us in the name of education. “To know thyself”, as the Ancient Greeks once said, is infinitely more valuable than academic praise or the material payoff of an undergraduate degree. However, what happens when this belief is extended too far? What happens when well-meaning professors and faculty members undermine the importance of grades, only to leave their students struggling to get into graduate school or to secure a post-graduate job? What happens when students sacrifice their health and happiness for grades they didn’t earn, all while being prompted to become more “mindful?” Unfortunately, this is a problem I believe has plagued the F&M community.

We all start high school with certain expectations for ourselves. Mine? Simple-do not procrastinate. But somehow I still found myself awake at 4 A.M. trying to cram in a chapter's worth of biology notes while simultaneously writing a paper on Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven.” Fast forward to junior year, both my parents’ expectations and my procrastination levels are still extremely high. “Why can’t they just understand that I’m not the same, straight-A student I was in middle school? High school is so much harder.” I thought to myself as I sat and stared at a blank screen. Here I was, doing anything but my assignment. I didn’t even know why I couldn’t finish anything. It’s not that I didn't have motivation, I wanted to do well in school, I just

College students have to balance work, family, and college activists and any delaying behavior from within can cause an unbalance. This behavior is called procrastinating and it can lead to problems in many areas of a student’s life. College students are the worst hit by this type of behavior because they have many different activities to focus on instead of studying. These activities can cause students to study when they have time which often is usually too short amount of time. There is a time and place to relax and enjoy life, but if students focus on playing around instead of getting their assignments done, college life will be stressful.

According to Semb, Glick and Spencer (1979), the level of procrastination increases as an individual stays longer in universities. It was stated by Ellis and Knaus (1977) that approximately, over 70% of college students engage in this activity. Undergraduates tend to start papers during the last minute; they fail to prioritize what should be accomplished first, and as a result, their academic performance is greatly affected. A detrimental effect on their studies leads to having poor grades and eventually, failure in class (Semb, et.al., 1979).

For example, when doing a long-term project for a class, a student who is productive and diligent would not put the project off until last minute. The results of such procrastination lead to a maladaptive lifestyle, in which there are negative repercussions in which personal competence diminishes due to the effect of procrastination on one’s social and personal life (Rosário et al.). What can be deduced from this is that procrastination can lead to a lifestyle where interferences outside of school can impact a student’s overall performance in school. However, through being diligent and productive with their schoolwork, students can avoid this maladaptive lifestyle through chronic procrastination and continue to be

With increased pressures to meet academic standards because of the serious implications of adult success noted earlier, the focus of teachers and administrators have remained on the academic areas of education (Buffum, Mattos, Weber, & Hierck, 2015; Algozzine, Wang, & Violette, 2011). However, the acknowledgment that there is a co-occurrence between academics and behaviors necessitates that attention is needed on the impact that behavior plays in the success of students as well. The behavior skills that a student possesses is important to their future and is evident in the literature.

The American college student is in trouble. From the time students are in high school, they are demonstrating poor study skills, procrastination, and a disinterest in doing homework. Overall, students carry these bad habits into college, where professors see them as lazy, disrespectful, irresponsible, and, worst of all, anti-intellectualism. According to Miller, a writer for The Boston Globe, “[Her] C, D, and F students…..are almost exclusively American.” This suggests that many American students are lazier than many international students. Anti-intellectualism is the attitude of not caring about ones studies and not recognizing the value of learning. There are a number of causes of anti-intellectual attitude of many college students today, such as an over-reliance on cellphones, social media, grade inflation, and a lack of family support. These attitudes result in negative consequences not only for student in college today (who fail to complete assignments, attend classes, and even graduate.) but also for these adults later in life, who will discover they don’t have adequate qualifications for jobs.

A great deal of students don’t develop effective study habits and this ultimately results in feeling a decreased sense of self-esteem, stress, disorganisation, poor academic success, and a negative sense of self-efficacy which is linked to poor self-control (Pychyl & Dann, 2010). This is primarily caused by procrastinating. Procrastination is delaying an activity that possesses important benefits for us in the long-term but is voluntarily delayed in the short-term because of short-term impulsive temptations which offer greater immediate rewards (Steel, 2007). I chose to modify this problematic target behaviour because it was where I exercised poor self-control.

There are many people who attend college to obtain a higher education and increase their earning potential. While attending college, there are many scholarships and academic opportunities presented to students that are dependent upon their grade point average. Academic achievement is an important aspect of a college student’s academic career. Many college students spend their academic career searching for the best methods to assist them in obtaining a satisfactory GPA. There are many ways a student could study for their courses, but which method leads them to their end goal?

Every student sets goals and deadlines to get their work done on time, but some wait until the last minute. As the grade level increases, the work load and difficulty increases, leading to more procrastination. Most students in high school procrastinate, and the question is, why? Is the work too hard? Do their teacher’s leniency cause them to? Do students not have enough time? Do extra-curricular activities take up too much of their time? There has been many other research studies on this topic, but I wanted to see if the students in my survey and interviews had any different correlations.

Janssen and O’Brien’s (2014) article from International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning describes how motivation and ability factor into the variation of homework and exam scores. Researchers found that attitudes like procrastination will affect homework grades but not affect exam scores. The study also analyzes the indirect impact homework may have on exam performance. Researchers collected data from 687 college students all enrolled in several different economic courses. Data was collected through surveys in the first two weeks of classes. Students self reported on their motivation. Researchers found that motivation and ability matter, but are independent of one another. Ability can predict both exam and homework grades and homework score is a strong indicator of exam scores. Other major findings include homework related behaviors indirectly effect exam scores and how students approach their homework greatly affects grades as well. A limitation of this study was the inability to separate motivation, attitudes and behavior in order to conclude causation. Some other limitations included the lack of data analyzing motivation as well as the students were all taking a similar class subject whether it was microeconomics, macro, or others. Some strengths of this study include the results being consistent with suggesting homework is beneficial and concluding students enjoy homework that is online because it allows them to work at their own

As said by (Brown, Elissa J; Heimberg, Richard G; Frost, Randy O; Makris, Gregory S et al, 1999), ‘Perfectionism has been defined as a dispositional tendency to set excessively high performance standards and to then evaluate one’s performance in an overly critical manner.’. This investigation looks at two types of perfectionism- Adaptive, and Maladaptive Perfectionism. Adaptive perfectionism is the inclination to set higher standards, participate in study more often, achieve better grades, and emphasize more focus on academic importance in their life. Maladaptive Perfectionism is also a predictor for studying more often, however research has found evidence that it has been linked with higher anxiety, perceived difficulty and no increase in grades (Brown et al., 1999). These two types of perfectionism are measured using 3 of the 6 subscales of Frost et al., (1990)’s Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale(MPS). A study looked at perfectionism, behaviour, cognition and affect in a women’s private liberal arts college gave participants a small range of questionnaires over 6 times in the semester and looked at final grades to see if there was a significant correlation between any of the variables. They found an association between CM perfectionism and anxiety about performance and being overly critical of mistakes. CM was not associated with better grades, and the research concluded it