The majority of people in my AP classes seem to succeed without much effort. They keep talking about how they don’t even study that hard but they still get really high marks. I am talking 95-100% high. Meanwhile I spend 4 hours studying every day after school and can’t break out of 90-92%.
What makes me feel even worse is that my schedule is relatively less loaded than other AP students’. I get enough sleep and even have time to hang out with my friends. So essentially I have plenty of time to study which I do.
Plus, over the summer I always review the upcoming curriculum and study for my classes in advance. I really deep dive too with additional reading and online courses. Nobody in my class does the same, or at least that’s what they say.
So I am really confused, are they lying about not studying hard? And they also study a lot, maybe even more than I do and review over the summer?
Or am I stupid and it will be even worse in college?
The chances that they might not be 100% honest are pretty high. My friend took a few AP classes and she was extremely busy ALL THE TIME. But it’s sort of a smart kid flex to be like yeah I didn’t study at all and still got 97%.
It’s still could be that some of them just have better memory or like a natural predisposition towards studying, but definitely not to that extent.
>90% is still high and grades generally aren’t a great measure of intelligence, unless its essay based or something, they just measure ability to remember information under pressure
Is it at all possible that you are experiencing a burn out and not focusing that well? I know you said you read over the summer and deep dive into your classes but maybe you aren’t doing it at full capacity due to stress? Try to see if you get enough quality rest every week and if you don’t plan it. Maybe that will help you focus better.
You are absolutely not stupid! You are taking AP classes and manage to stay above 90%. So first of all, stop comparing you to those geniuses because they are probably not all that gifted and at least half of them are lying to seem cool. And also experiment with different learning methods so you can review the information more effectively. But most importantly go easy on yourself and focus more on your accomplishments.