The academic performance for school and college students is a long debated issue. To excel in one or more subjects has been a source of pride for students, schools and, not least, parents. There as many reasons for excellence or steady decline in academic performance as one can imagine. To better understand academic excellence in context, examples are given for reasons why students achieve As, Bs, or Cs. This brief cause-and-effect argument aims, hence, to offer reasons for academic excellence (or not) and possible consequences.
The case for excellence at school or college might depend on a student's status. More specifically, an A student is more likely to slip into a B if she re-enrolls into a different school or university. Indeed, one main reason a student's academic performance might slip is relocating into another university. The adjustment to a new campus, classmates and, probably, a new major could lead to such slip, if not a slippery slope into a C should adaptation run less smoothly. The case for a declining academic performance becomes more acute still for international students who do not only relocate geographically but also, more importantly, culturally.
A second reason for a steady A / B / C decline in a student's grades is exam anxiety (Cassady and Johnson). This is a very common reason for a student's declining performance. By anticipating exams, finals or not, in a heightened state of anxiety, a student becomes cognitively, if not psychologically, unstable. This leads to grades which might not be consistent to a student's solid As in more relaxed contexts beyond exams. This reason justifies, moreover, why many students, who have a long record of academic performance and class participation, might score far below a former A record in college admission exams because of anxiety, a pattern which sustain should a student gets negative results (i.e. Bs or Cs) after each major exam.
The decline from an A, to B, into C can be attributed, as well, to a student's living conditions at home. Indeed, a potentially A student, because of her cognitive skills or activeness, can see her grades decline gradually because of domestic violence, separated parents or inability by one or both parents to follow up on her son's or daughter's progress at school. The social background of a school or college student plays, in a fact, a critical role not only on a student's academic progress but her personal growth as well. Being offered "safe" and "quiet" studying conditions, a student is enabled to perform brilliantly at school or college. Conversely, being deprived of a stable social environment, a steady, if not a rapid, decline in a student's academic performance from As, to Bs and Cs is a most likely outcome.
The geographical / cultural familiarity, exam anxiety and social conditions at home represent major reasons for why a student's academic performance might slip from as, to Bs and Cs. By better understanding underlying dynamics for each reason, more effective solutions can be offered in order to mitigate, if not eliminate, ensuing negative effects. More importantly, by engaging students more empathetically in and (if possible) out of class, learning becomes a more sustainable process not confined to immediate exam results and grades.
Works Cited
Cassady, Jerrell C., and Ronald E. Johnson. "Cognitive Test Anxiety and Academic Performance." Contemporary Educational Psychology 27.2 (2002): 270–295. ScienceDirect. Web. 9 March 2016.
