I am a student at DunHua Junior High, which is one of the top three public junior high schools in Taipei. People rate junior high schools by admission rates to top high schools, and the percentage of DunHua students being accepted into the best public high schools in Taipei is high. A student’s high school placement is based on the results of their Comprehensive Assessment Program (CAP) test, which means that students who score higher on that test are gathered in the top high schools.
Since I go to DunHua, people often ask me if it is stressful to be in a top-ranked school, and the answer is yes. Teachers think good grades mean getting into a good high school, so I am pressured to do well on every test. Academic stress is one of the main stress factors for students, and being in a top-ranked school is especially stressful. Here’s why.
Parents assume that kids will get good grades
If you go to a top junior high school, it’s almost certain that your parents push you hard to succeed. Over half of my classmates have tutors or go to cram schools because their parents hope using these services can improve their kids’ grades. Parents assume that providing their kids with more learning resources is the only factor in improving their grades. However, this only increases a student’s workload. Students struggle to keep up with work from both regular school and cram school. Grades may even suffer because of the heavy workload, which can frustrate both parents and students.
Students are used to being the best
The second reason why top-ranked schools are more stressful is that students at these schools are used to being the best. In top junior high schools, many strong students from every elementary school are gathered. These students will hope to maintain or improve their level of performance. However, many students who did well in elementary school are, all of a sudden, not the best students anymore. None of them are used to getting second, much less being considered average. This can be stressful because students think that they have become failures and can’t accept someone being the first place instead of them.
Everyone assumes I should be the top-ranked student
Furthermore, people assume that all students perform well academically if they go to a good school. My parents’ friends always ask me about my ranking after each monthly test. I didn’t do well on an exam once. When they learned that I wasn’t in the top fifty in the whole grade, they were kind of rude by saying how simple it is to get to the top fifty and boasted about how well their children did.
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In conclusion, being in a top-ranked school means being more stressed.
School might not be the only reason a teenager feels pressure. However, expectations from parents and the pressure students place on themselves result in plenty of stress. Adults think our grades will suddenly improve if we attend a good school. Top students also assume they will stay in first place forever. However, that is not the case. Therefore, parents should stop forcing their kids to go to cram schools. They should help their children understand their weaknesses and let them learn in a healthy environment.
Students should also avoid developing unrealistic expectations. They need to stop comparing themselves to others. As long as they are trying their best, that should be enough. Hopefully, everyone can have a healthy mindset and survive school.
These are important issues regarding education and mental health. I’m happy to see are being recognised by the younger generations, especially as there has been a rise in student suicides in Taiwan recently.
Getting these issues universally recognised and then getting people to act takes time and societal change. The government has begun in recent decades to make changes to allow children more free time, but the private schools and cram schools (playing on the mentality of older generations) have replaced that free time with more work under the illusion that it will necessarily “improve” children to be busy all the time; and in doing so they have made a lot of money.