Overachievers Alexandra Robbins Analysis

It was mid-morning when I pulled up to school, still wondering if I made the right decision by enrolling. Instead of feeling calm, cool, and collected the only thing arriving early did was increase the feeling of impending doom. My mind was racing a mile a minute. Am I going to be able keep up to the bright minds fresh out of high school? It was time to find out.

Every fall millions of American adolescents gear up to apply for the thousands of colleges and universities across the nation. For many students this process is a simple-natural progression through a linear educational track in which no extra preparation, beyond a paper application, is required. However, for many students college preparation can begin as early as conception. Alexandria Robbins follows the stories of nine students from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. Whitman is known for and could be summarized by a simple term in which Robbins’ book is also titled: Overachievers. The author explores the hectic nature of helicopter parenting, bureaucratic admission processes, the culture of Ivy (a term describing the upper

Chapter 14: Chapter fourteen focuses on ADD and two commonly prescribed ADD medications: ritalin and adderall. Apparently, many non-ADD students are using other people's prescriptions to get a competitive edge at school, especially during testing periods or finals. Even more shocking is that some parents actually push for their non-ADD children to be diagnosed so that they can get them drugs. They will shop around for doctors and go through visit after visit until they find someone willing or prescribe. In the lives of the students, as SAT scores come out, one of the kids Robbins was following describes the different types of “score weasels” at her school – kids who spend all their time comparing and trying to find out each other's scores. Another student reacts angrily when her mother talks to other parents about the students score report. This “age of comparison” phenomenon extends to students' choices of schools where they apply – they are constantly asked where they've applied, where they've been accepted, and they feel as though they are being

In the story “I Just Wanna Be Average” the author Mike Rose argues that society very often neglects and doesn’t see the full value and potential of students.

Throughout the entire novel, she utilizes numerous anecdotes from her characters – allowing the reader to relate to Joy, Regan, Whitney, etc. Robbins knew that by implementing a relatable element, such as high school, she could grab her audience’s full attention. Additionally, she dedicated a section “31 Tips for Students, Parents, Teachers, and Schools” that thoroughly indicates what to do to “set things right and reclaim their schools” (Robbins, 379). For students, she suggests that they consider what is best for them; for parents, she suggests that they consider what is best for their child; and for schools, Robbins suggests that they consider everyone of equal status, harbor connections rather than awkward friendships, and promote creativity rather than conformity. Easier said than done, Robbins’ call to action would only take effect if all three parties were to put effort and educate themselves on the

Being admitted into college is a difficult process, one that requires students to be diligent in their studies, engage in a number of extracurricular activities, and overcome the everyday pressures and challenges that high-schoolers face across the country. Admittedly, not everyone in the United States is born with the same opportunities as socioeconomic factors as well as historic injustices have contributed to a society in which some people are far more likely to achieve upward mobility – of which, obtaining a college degree is a necessary part – than others. While there is need to rectify this reality,

Alexandra Robbins follows many students who strive to be the best, but her findings show some of those students eventually become very stressed and their sanity falls victim to their overwhelming work while in pursuit of their perfect future. Julie, portrayed as the superstar, participates in many extracurricular activities in order to receive acceptance into the college of her dreams. “Her class schedule consisted of 5 AP classes followed by an hour-long thrice-weekly environmental education internship at a natural science museum. At 2:30 each day, she returned to school for cross country practice.” Julie’s busy schedule displays her desire to ‘build up’ her resume for college to seem

My high school years, unlike the past years of steady achievements, felt much more like a sine graph with ups and downs. To begin with, I conquered my freshman year in a breeze. My easily achievable classes not only earned myself confidence, but also admiration and respect from my classmates and teachers. As a result, I comfortably acclimated myself to the status of a star student.

Julie’s study habits were also influenced by college counselors, who told her that she would not get into an ivy league based on her SAT scores. “I’ve put so much time into these stupid tests; this is how sick I am. Think of all that I could have been doing instead. Everytime I look at that book, a little bit of me dies.” (Page 54.) This quote is showing that the emphasis put on the SATs can affect students happiness and well being, as well as take away from time spent with friends, family, and participating in other activities. The stress that Julie was experiencing was also exhibited by her hair loss and hair thinning. If students are too concerned with the SAT, it may affect their ability to absorb information in their classes, since their minds will be elsewhere, as well as exhibit happiness and other health issues. These factors can cause their class grades to drop, and take away from their actual learning

Robbins defends the idea that over achieving students’ heath worsens because of the stress of high school. An example of this is Julie, who is perceived as the school superstar. Throughout the course of the novel Julie’s hair is thinning and falling out into clumps. She visits an array of doctors who all assure her that this is very normal in high school girls, and that

Student stress seems to be a major theme throughout the novel, The Overachievers: the secret lives of driven kids. The author establishes this theme by providing examples of the stress caused from academics to parental pressure. The cause of each overachiever’s problems seem to be stress. They stress over not being good enough even though they are all extremely knowledgeable and self-driven. Whether it’s not getting all As or not meeting your parents goals, each student in this novel suffers an incredibly unhealthy amount of stress, then they should.

If the stress began to throw off the fine tuning of the well-adjusted members of the class, it was much more disabling to those members of the class whose emotional tuning was already in need of adjustment. One day after class, Nickie and I walked into the Histology lab to pick up a few slides. As we entered the lab, we saw Howard Cameron sitting at one of the benches, vigorously waving his hand as if to answer a question, and reciting different mnemonics that were used to memorize various groups of anatomic structures. With no one else in the classroom, Nickie and I wondered what Howard was doing.

The topic of the Overachiever would be that students are being pushed to their fullest in order to get into the most prestigious schools, however, some students hardest just isn’t enough due to the modern education system. For instance, Alexander Robbins was told “She’s not a great student. She’s not going to get into a top college” even though the student Julie was a 4.0 student who participated in many extracurricular activities (5). Even though many of these students had what it took to get into these prestige colleges they still pushed themselves to others expectations which caused them to make bizarre actions. Parents will tend to go the extra extent in order to get their children into a wonderful college for example, “It’s not unusual

“ When you don’t give up you cannot fail” Adrianna Peterson said this quote. To me it means that if you keep trying, you can’t fail. It’s like Michael Jordan when he didn’t make his high school basketball team. But he kept trying and he kept working hard, and look where he ended up. He was one of the, if not the best that has ever played. He got knocked down but got back up and kept trying. Adrianna Peterson tore multiple muscles in his knee, he was supposed to be done for his career. He started working out and working hard, he came back the next season and almost broke the record for most yards in a single season. He came back and became one of the best running back of the century.

I watch this TED talk video called the art of misdirection and the filmed occurred in 2013. The filmed was about how Apollo Robbins shows the audience by stealing their attention through a distraction. The human mind is tremendously important for people to get easily distracted, even though the object is right in front of us. At the beginning of his talk, he told the audience to close their eyes and inquire them what was he wearing. He was wearing a purple shirt, black and purple tie, and a black vest. When he told the audience to open their eyes, a few people got the answer right on what he was wearing. Afterward, he went to grab a random person from the audience. Before he stepped on stage, he handed the lady the clicker since he didn’t necessarily