'Underachievement' in school

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I've seen this come up in other threads, so I thought I'd ask...were you criticized for underachieving while you were in school? Did you do poorly, and if so, did others tell you that you needed to "apply yourself" and such? What prevented you from performing as well as others expected of you?

My grades suggested I did reasonably well in school; I had mostly As and Bs in high school, though with a few Cs. Still, I was criticized for not applying myself. And it's true to an extent--I basically put in the bare minimum amount of effort into my schoolwork because I didn't see the need at the time to put in the additional effort. I wasn't terribly interested in the coursework a lot of the time, especially in college. College felt like a waste of time; I didn't mesh well with the academic culture, and I thought about dropping out on a number of occasions. It didn't help that I wasn't very organized (still a problem) and I needed the pressure of deadlines to be able to focus on assignments.

I was one of the best students at school when I actually bothered to do something, and I was still criticised for not doing my best (by both parents and teachers). What this led to was to me being too discouraged to do anything at all.

Yes, constantly. Virtually all my teachers used to complain about me not applying myself... that I was very smart but just didn't do the work.

I typically did very well on any sort of test, but didn't finish assignments; test marks would be A's but incomplete assignments brought things down to C or C-minus, except in classes like math where only the test scores mattered.

My GPA in k-12 was <1.0. I was bored, hated the other kids, had problems with authority, sensory problems, yada yada yada. By 2nd grade I was doing 3 x 3 digit multiplication and basic statistics in my head. By 5th grade I hit the ceiling on the reading tests. Didn't stop me from failing arithmetic and english. I remember the written reports I was supposed to do. Most of them were short reports on historical figures. I couldn't connect with Stonewall Jackson in any way and couldn't find it in myself to give a s**t. If I were given a choice on what to write about I would have had As. If I didn't have to show my work in math I would have had As. I didn't understand their methods and they didn't understand mine. No deviation from the script in the school system. Back in those days AS didn't exist and accommodations consisted of various punishments so the further I went the worse my problems with authority became. Rules without fairness.

3.8 GPA in college.

Until the very end of mandatory education it was assumed that I was just very, very dim. Then I started getting 90-100% in exams with little effort. No one's said I need to apply myself more, they've said that I need to turn up more because of administration reasons, some of the schools I went to the amount I was turning up barely qualified me to be counted as a student there.

I've found that teachers generally expect very little of me, because they've been given my predicted grades which were based partially on tests I took before I learnt how to read (I learnt to read at ten), and partially on my postcode (I've nearly always lived in the middle of council estates which brings your predicted grades down approximately 1 level). So, my GCSE predicted grades were E's, D's and a G in Maths. I was in bottom sets for everything until the last stretch of secondary school.

So, they were pleasantly surprised when I turned out to be capable. I got my first assignment back from Uni a little while ago, and I got a 1:1 on it, so I can't be as dumb as they thought I was in primary school.

Always heard you don't apply your self. I don't know how to study but I always did very well on tests. I failed not because of my test score but in spite of them.

I was lazy, I was stupid, I needed to apply myself (I hate that phrase so much), I was "smart enough to do it, so why couldn't I do it?" I was defiant, I refused to do the work, I didn't care about my future, I lied about trying hard and failing to properly do the work. There were probably many other things I was told over the years but they aren't coming to mind.

Mostly, I tried and didn't get anywhere with a few exceptions.

I wasn't well behaved in primary school, and I was in the lower part of average. When I went to Secondary school, I was below average in English (we didn't have sets), I was in set 4 of 6 in Maths (1 being highest) and I was meant to be in second bottom in Science, but they put me in top (I only got into the school 2 weeks before the start of term so they got me to use the timetable of the girl I sat next to). They managed to put me into a set in Maths because we did a test the first lesson of year 7.

I don't know what happened but by the first year of my GCSE's, I suddenly shot up intelligence-wise. I ended up with 4 A*s, 6A's and 1B, where English was A*A, Maths was A (A*'s in both exams but only an A in the coursework), and A*A in Science.

Then at A-levels, I 'underperformed', partly due to extenuating cirsumstances, but also because I found it hard to concentrate and be motivated. My intersts were always changing - one minute I liked Maths the best and hated Biology and Chemistry, the next it was reversed.

I then went to Uni, where I studied first year Mathematics; but for most of the year I missed a lot of lectures/was too tired to work because my M.E hadn't been diagnosed yet, and also I didn't really like the course. Consequently, I changed to Biomedical Sciences, where I am in my first year again. I'm finding it hard to be motivated tbh, and I am listening in the lecture, but they're boring and I find it hard to remember what I've learnt (read/heard) anyway. I'm not sure how I'm going to do :S.

Dude, people who told you this were crazy. As and Bs are wonderful grades.
I'm still in HS, and most of my gades are Ds, though I even have a few Cs and a few Bs.
My parents say I should study more and improve my grades.
Teachers say they know that my grades are low compared to my intelligence, and that I could do more, if I just would want to.
School is boring.
Most teachers are boring.
Most classmates are boring.

And the leading casuses are Poor teaching, Social exclusion, sensory issues, and depression.

Numbers 3 and 4 can be detected comparitvely easy and Number 2 is'nt usually hard to notice. Perhaps it's not the individual's "lack of effort".

I've had problems in school all my life. Most of my classes I had no interest in and had issues with completing work. I did pay attention in classes and got reasonably good grades on tests though. In the classes I found interesting, I did very well. I barely graduated highschool.

I did well in tech school in the air force since I was very interested in the subject. I never studied outside of class but still got 90s and 100s on all of my exams.

I didn't do well in school and its true, I didn't apply myself. I just did not like anything about it. I didn't have (and still don't) have any close friends. I couldn't concentrate on anything. Like I said in my intro thread, once I was able to drive in high school, I skipped school quite a bit and went to the Smithsonian in D.C.
It wasn't because school was difficult. The subject matter was pretty easy for me and that showed on my exam scores. The way it was presented to me, I think, was the problem. It could be because I have difficulty with the easier/basic things, but excel in the more complicated subjects.

I would have issues at home if I didn't get good grades. If it was a B, then why wasn't it an A? I am always trying to find a balance now with my kids, where grades aren' t everything but making an effort is a must. I tend to run interference a lot between my husband and my oldest because hubby just doesn't get the issues involved.

I always underachieved. I could easily have had A's in almost all subjects. The first few years I was still pretty good, then I stopped caring and became mediocre. I never really did any homework and just didn't give a sh*t about which grade I got in a subject that didn't even interest me. Plus I often refused to accept the teacher's authority as a given, especially if they were making stupid decisions or giving unjustified grades, and got into full arguments with them. I think our education system is - in large parts - pointless, discriminating and stupid.

I did well in school, always in the top groups for everything. But, I've always struggled with concentration. For me, the hardest thing was the expectation that I should be able to read a novel in 2 weeks, which was a requirement for English, when I was about 13/14. I really struggle with this and I think my record for reading a novel is more like 2 months. So, as I was smart, it was just assumed that I couldn't be bothered doing it. The fact is, even if I could do it in 2 weeks, I would not have been able to do any other homework and all my other subjects would have suffered. No-one thought to investigate this and just assumed I was slacking, even though I was a 'swot', in every other respect, apparently. They didn't know that I didn't/couldn't study either, however.

I underachieved because I was "too quiet". My teachers always told me I was intelligent but that my grades could've been better (though they were pretty great until I was 15 or so) if I just shared my thoughts and spoke. I remember several times (especially in high school) when my teachers even got angry with me for having to "drag the answers" out of me. I often knew the answers. I just didn't speak.