When did you start to fall behind, or start to pull ahead in grade school or university?

The more they let me choose my curriculum, the better I was. I hated middle school. I was a good kid in grade school and a shined in HS. When I got to college, there were too many options given school and social.
School wise, on the one hand, I aced my senior level Shakespeare course without reading a single Shakespeare play, on the other I dropped out because I could not ‘get’ foreign language.

I guess, after all this time, my answer would be, “the only person that can derail you is you.

I have no regrets and I’d not be me if I’d done things differently. You need to find comfort in your own skin.

Once I dropped out of college, I started learning more than I ever had before.
It was no longer being forced by others agendas on what to study that opened me up, I think.

I hated elementary, middle, and high school because of the other kids and the drama, but school always came easy to me. I graduated high school with a 4.0 GPA and barely studied at all. I always managed to do my homework at school, so I never had anything to do in the evenings.

Same thing in college only I did occasionally have to study and I didn’t hate being there. I’ve never had to pull an all-nighter studying or working on a project, and I’m pretty proud of that. My final undergrad GPA was 3.7. Not too bad.

From day one I did well in school. I had supportive parents who gave me a good, solid footing by reading to me and teaching me to read before I started school. During my pre-teens my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when that was a death sentence. My Dad had to work to support us and could not give my younger brother and me the attention most other kids in the 60’s enjoyed. We pretty much learned to take care of and be responsible for ourselves.
My brother and I knew he was doing his best and rather than acting out and behaving badly, we did our homework, studied and did very well in school. I entered one of the best engineering schools in the country at age 16 – and graduated early.
Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad!

I want to say that the development of a social life can derail people. When you get focused on other activities, you lose focus on the original activity.

@livelaughlove21 GPA doesn’t work like that in SC. Here, every point counts. To get a 4.0, you would have to make a perfect 100 in every class you’ve ever taken.

Senior year in college. Had a bad breakup with a boyfriend. I was devastated, barely functioning. I should have taken a term off. Ruined my GPA, barely remember anything and that was the year that really was about my interests and major. Sucks.

@PhiNotPi I think I know what my GPA was. I was in all honors and AP courses, which count for more. I actually had a 4.1, but there’s no need to gloat. Our valedictorian graduated with a 4.8 GPA thanks to Honors and AP.

I changed majors my second year but because it was in a closely related field I did not require that many additional courses, Worked my butt off, added extra classes each semester and graduated the summer after my original timeframe. And, that was not because of the additional classes, that was because I got senioritis my final year and suffered a severe case of DGAS causing me to fail a course and have to retake it that summer.

Learning comes naturally to me. The derailing for me is linked to my severe adult ADHD, diagnosed over 10 years ago.
Unlike @LuckyGuy, my parents were physically present in my home but completely absent in my future development. I wish I had been taught money management. I wish they had firmly guided me or assisted me on making educational choices. I had 3 jobs at one point to finance my education, although my parents are by no means destitute. My father felt that ‘paying my own way makes me appreciate it.’ I admit I chose easier classes at times knowing I had to work full time as well. In retrospect I wish I had pushed my brain harder.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m bragging, but I am smarter (more intellectually capable) than most around me. That being said, my education was never channeled. I got a degree that I didn’t want in Psychology and Sports Medicine and have bounced around not using it ever since. I discovered my real passion for emergency medicine only 4 or 5 years ago. The pressure to compete with people 10+ years younger than you to not only get a new degree but to apply it and find a job is heavy. But I think, after 15 years of bouncing around, that I have finally found my calling.

@livelaughlove21 I thought that most states had A=4.0, B=3.5, etc so that only the grade level counts. We have a weighted and an unweighted scale. The unweighted scale only goes up to 4.0, the weighted goes up to 5.875.

Oh I just realized you were from SC.

@PhiNotPi Yep, I’m in SC. That 4.1 was on the unweighted scale. It technically only goes to 4.0, but not if you’re enrolled in higher level courses where you earn more credit hours than those in regular classes.

I know it was unweighted because that’s all colleges cared about when I was applying. I have no clue what my weighted GPA was.

I never excelled at school but I do remember some high points especially in sports and science fair projects. Somehow I managed to graduate high school early. That one Friday I was in high school and the next Monday I was in college.

I proceeded to flunk out of business school in college and was put on academic probation and finally hit my stride when I enrolled in the Radio, TV and Film program at my college. So lesson learned is study something you really enjoy and you will have a much better chance at doing well in school.

I have always been a high achiever – I got As and Bs in my high school grades but in Sixth form College (16–18 years of age) I got involved in an abusive relationship which derailed me and I got 2 Ds and one C. People always look at my CV and say “what happened there?” So I tell them. I got involved in another abusive relationship after that one but then got finally free. Ever since I have got excellent grades and now have a 1st class degree.

So, what works for me is basically being alone.

It wasn’t until my junior year in college when I had finished taking all the required bullshit courses which had nothing to do with my major (Biology, Art Appreciation, other goodies of that ilk) and I was finally able to concentrate on the courses in my major. That was when the grades went from “C” to “A” – it’s amazing what taking a course that you’re interested in will do to your GPA!