AS in education - underachieving or overachieving?

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At school/collage/university - Were/are you at one end of the achievement spectrum? I've read that we have a tendency fall to one extreme or the other.

I was very much an overachiever until secondary school and swung to being an underachiever in secondary (high) school. I also went to a snotty grammar/private school obsessed with league tables rather than the development of it's students, so needless to say this didn't go down well, especially from someone who'd been at the top of the class in prep. In my case, it was a combination of being unhappy and overwhelmed with social expectation, but also disinterested in alot of the work we were expected to do while attempting to show my disgust at the aforementioned snotty, elitist status-quo within my school. I also had problems with organization skills, so I wouldn't have done too well anyway, especially considering I wasn't diagnosed with AS.

Generally speaking. If I'm interested and dedicated to something, combined with my perfectionism, I overachieve. If I've no interest or see no relevance in the work at hand, pressured, I underachieve.

All thoughts welcome...

Underachiever here.

I repeated a grade and fought for passing grades.

It made no difference whether I worked really hard or didn't do anything. I was attentive in lessons and generally interested, but I just failed and was happy about every 5 points I got. (5 points is passing grade)

Teachers of several school said that they didn't understand what I wrote or what I said, when I talked. I do not know what they mean by that though.

At the different schools I was, I never had a problem with understand the curriculum except for some fields of maths. It came easy to me, I understood new things upon hearing or reading them.

It appears that I could however only convey little and often nothing of my understanding because of my communication and language deficits?

High-achieving underachiever; I don't perform near to my potential.

Right now I'm under education, so I'll answer about that.

I have been a great overachiever for a long time (approximately a year).
Everyone thinks I'm doing really great and such. But now I've faced a serious trouble.
I'm going to turn in a Final report tomorrow, and I haven't been able to do it.
I really want to do it, cause if I don't, I won't be able to go on with my education, yet I have REALLY been trying, and I just can't.


I'm really afraid of my dream going to waste now... Just a couple of days ago, I was having a meltdown because of it.
Well... Let me put it this way... It's not going too well.

But anyway, if I can't do it, I just can't do it... That's how it is, and then I'll have to find another way.
I don't know, maybe I'll just take a break for some time, I could really need that.

Underachiever unless really interested.

I'm currently in college and doing OK, I get the equivalent of A's I think in subjects that really interest me (programming) and Cs for the other not-so-interesting stuff.
Though im pretty sure if I was able to put myself to it I could do lots better in the stuff I dont care about.

Putting too much time and effort into work can have the opposite of the desired effect for me. Maybe you do need a break to gather your energy. The meltdown might be your body and mind's way of telling you to take some time off. As an overachiever, are you also a perfectionist also? The combination can lead to total exhaustion even if it doesn't seem like it, ie We still think we aren't working hard enough, even when we're doing more than is called for!

That mirrors my public school trajectory. Although it would have been nice to have had the support and understanding necessary to make full use of my abilities, I'm not entirely torn up about it. School's primary purpose is to instill conformity, and I can say, for better or worse, the system failed spectacularly with me. It left me somewhat broken, but it failed. I can't say I wouldn't have minded having had a more "normal" experience though.

Overachiever I get all As and I only have one B which was in PE. Though I do get extra study time so probably in the middle.

Overachieving, mostly.

Underachiever, I guess, but I'm not sure how I would have done otherwise.

I'm an undiagnosed aspie, at least a mild one (?). Up until high school, not much was asked of us. We didn't have hours worth of homework every day, like kids do now. I did my work and got high grades effortlessly.

In high school, I became depressed. Looking back at it now, I realize that part of that was because high school required being able to organize my time and assignments in a way that I could not. Also, we had to do oral reports, which frightened me so much that I simply refused to do them. In fact, on those days, I learned to skip school completely. No one seemed to notice or care. Teachers were happy to just give me an F for those assignment. I wish now that someone had made an effort to help me work through the fear, but no. Also, in high school, I had my first major "special interest", which was Fleetwood Mac. I wasn't able to concentrate on lectures, because I was too busy transcribing song lyrics in my notebook and drawing little stick figures of Steve Nicks with her top hat and tamborine. I did that over and over, every day. I also had a "crush" on my English teacher, who was a scum-bag, druggie, child-molester, but I spent a lot of time rehearsing things I would say to him as I passed by his classroom.

I wanted to do well in school, but I couldn't concentrate on the topics or organize my time and thoughts well enough to get assignments done. Being obsessed with Fleetwood Mac, I thought that meant that I wanted to be a musician (although I sucked in band). I figured that meant I didn't need to go to college (which I wouldn't have been able to afford anyway), and that someday I would magically overcome my terror of being in front of people, and would be a performer in a band.

I'm hardcore underachieving.

I'm probably a High Functioning learning disabled types. So I put too high of expectations on the things that are difficult, and It's taken me a long time to learn just how 'above average' I am in my areas of strength.

I did well in elementary school academically and junior high. In high school I became very depressed and extremely stressed out and couldn't concentrate on much except for computer stuff (being absorbed blocked out the nasty realities all around). I was barely graduated. After a few years of mentally recovering from high school I started taking classes at the local junior college, which by luck was academically a really good place. I got good grades, and then transferred to a 'good name' 4-year university and got B's there, and did really well on the GRE.

Then I developed fibro which tends to cause energy issues, and my ability to think through technical/science stuff and reading/writing became impaired (though I still have the knowledge).

So it's been up and down.

I do feel like 'the system,' in how it's graded me has been been off, though. Some 'complicated' things were very easy, and some 'simple' subjects really hard, and not in a way it seemed to be for others. Also, being stuck at a basic level, and then suddenly 'getting it,' and zooming up to an advanced understanding -- the resulting grade being who-knows-what.

On average, I'm betting most underachieve, as it's most typical for people with AS to neglect everything that they aren't interested in (see: Lorna Wing). It takes specific education to utilize the full cognitive potential of someone with AS.

For me, I did really well until high school, and then I did really poorly.

Hardcore underachiever too.
Very inattentive in class, never asked questions, was probably the worst student in my class.
Ahh memories.

I was about average in last years course though. I had to put extra time into homework - something I never did in my school years. I even asked the teachers questions - also something I never did in my school days.

I never really saw the importance of doing well in school, and because I was so bad at my studies I hated doing homework. I couldn't even do it on my own. I absolutely hated P.E too. I was a very unhealthy and uncoordinated child.

It was with me the same - when in the 4th (age 10 or so) grade the German system separated the pupils the first time (kind of triage) I sorted in lowest rank and in age of 13 they even were in doubt that I would be able to archive the lowest school exams - I was god-damn lazy an did not saw the point of doing anything, neither to follow any orders of the teachers. So they started a formal process to transfer me into school for pupils with severe learning deficits - the big surprise was the IQ test, in which I passed with 130.

So I was put in a specialist school, but for students with behaviour abnormalities, passed their the lowest school exams with ease and went then to vocational schools and later to college and university. But even here my marks were often between extremes - from a clear "Sehr gut" (in the top 3%) to "Not passed" and back within two years in the same subject.

I always hated PE, too. I don't know how it is in Australia, but here in the U.S., no one ever actually tells you HOW to play a sport. It's assumed that you know the rules automatically. So, everyone goes out on the field and starts YELLING all at once, as if winning the game is a life or death situation, but you never know what you're supposed to be doing. If you do the wrong thing, you get yelled at by your peers, and sarcastic remarks from the teacher, but no one tries to help you learn for next time.