As soon as an exam or an essay is graded and returned by a teacher, the first words out of a students’ mouths are often, “What did you get?” This seemingly harmless question quickly turns into a comparison that can damage self-esteem. One student walks away feeling inferior, while the other may feel guilty or pressured to maintain their standing. Grades, GPA and class rank have become the primary metrics by which students measure their self-worth, fostering a toxic environment where academic success is seen as a competition rather than a personal achievement. This culture of excessive competitiveness is harmful to students’ mental well-being, discourages collaboration and ultimately detracts from the true purpose of education.

Social media and external influences further reinforce the false idea that students must be at the top of their class or have a perfect GPA to get into college. In reality, colleges look for well-rounded students who push themselves and participate in a variety of challenging classes and extracurriculars. Whether it be staying up late and losing sleep or missing out on sports and other social events, students make large sacrifices to try and meet these unrealistic standards. In the process of trying to meet these standards, the adverse effects of stress and sleep loss often prove to worsen academic performance as opposed to bettering it. No amount of studying can make up for the cognitive impairment caused by sleep deprivation, a student taking a test on just a few hours of sleep is about as effective as a “resurrected zombie.”

While motivation is essential for success, the type of motivation matters. Everyone should want to do well in school and put forth effort into every assignment. Motivators and rewards, such as Honor Roll and Student of the Month, do an effective job at appropriately engaging students without prioritizing superficial achievements. Hard work and success should be rewarded with the goal of boosting comprehension and learning as opposed to reinforcing the method of cram, pass one test and forget. Education should be about building knowledge and critical thinking skills, not just chasing high grades for the sake of outperforming peers.

Students’ failure to put emphasis on the right type of learning can result in high stress, anxiety and burnout. Worse yet, students can feel afraid to try and tie their self-esteem to their academic success. When students tie their self-esteem to academic performance, every poor grade feels like a personal failure rather than a learning experience. This fear of failure or poor grades can persuade students to take unnecessary risks that could potentially set them farther back. Spikes in inappropriate use of tools like AI either result in students facing serious consequences or getting away with plagiarism and slighting everyone with dishonest corner-cutting for a slight academic advantage. Possibly worse than the lying aspect of cheating is the fact that the responsible party still learned absolutely nothing, which renders the whole ordeal worthless. This does not take into account how when one student gets an advantage using dishonest methods, others feel pressure to do the same in order to catch up.

A truly effective learning environment prioritizes collaboration, growth and personal development over constant comparison. Students should be encouraged to work together, support one another, and focus on long-term success rather than short-term validation. The responsibility falls on students to not actively engage in comparisons with other students. Keep scores to oneself and trust in oneself to succeed using only appropriate and honest methods. School can be a wonderful place to learn, grow and mature, but it requires the full effort of staff and students to achieve the collaboration required to reach its full potential.