More and more students at Benilde St. Margaret’s are feeling stressed about getting A’s in school. The pressure from parents, teachers, and college plans continues to grow. Students sacrifice sleep, hobbies, and time with friends to keep up with their school work and do well on it.
For upperclassmen, the pressure to get grades is especially intense. As they begin applying for colleges, their academic performance is more important than it was during their freshman year. With college being a costly and essential part of their education, many students feel heavier pressure to get good grades, not just to get into college but also to get scholarships that can decrease the financial burden placed on them. “I feel pressured by my parents to get a good scholarship in college so that I don’t have to pay as much money in the future,” senior Jack Leisen-Whelan said.
The pressure to get good grades significantly impacts students’ lives outside of school, too. Many sacrifice time with friends and moments of relaxation, but the most common and significant cost is sleep. High school students should be getting around eight to ten hours of sleep a night, but the pressure to get good grades often cuts into those hours immensely. As a result, students are losing sleep, which leads to decreased focus, physical and mental health problems, and even lower academic performance despite their efforts to get good grades. “I do give up sleep because school is stressful and I don’t want to have bad grades, but there comes. a point where sleep is more important than grades,” junior Ellie Porisch said.
Parents often also contribute to the pressure to achieve good grades. For students who are the oldest in their family, there is an added expectation to set a strong example for younger siblings. Parents put the expectation of getting good grades on the oldest siblings, seeing their academic performance as a standard for the others to follow. On the other hand, students who have older siblings have expectations placed on them to achieve what their siblings have or excel beyond them. While these expectations are well-intentioned, all students are different, and this expectation is unrealistic, yet many parents still have these high standards, unintentionally increasing the pressure students have to get good grades. “I feel pressure from my parents, I think they have high standards for me because my siblings are a lot smarter than I, and … they expect the same from me based on their grades,” Porisch said.