The Great Grade Race

I think it's hilarious (in a bitter, ironic sort of way) that we spend all this time saying that you shouldn't compare yourself to others, that you should only be competing with yourself, etc etc, but it doesn't seemed to have slowed the rampant competition one bit. Today while handing our midterms back our teacher remarked "There was even a 99, which surprised me." Now, keep in mind, the worst grade on this test was a B+, so everyone had done quite well, but the class became absolutely obsessed with finding out who had gotten the 99. Most of the class went directly down to lunch, where it formed the central interest of the conversation. "Who got the 99?" "Katie, was it you?" "I bet it was Alli, she's really smart." "Hey guys, it was me--haha, just kidding!" What made it even funnier was that the girl who actually had gotten the 99 wasn't paying attention when the teacher commented on it, and had happily gone out to lunch. She was eventually discovered, as the class was still interrogating everyone they ran into several hours later. Seriously guys, chill out. I think it's just because we're all living so close to each other, so we get rather competitive. And it doesn't help that we're all accustomed to being a cut above the rest of the class, but here we are, the cream of the crop, all English majors, and all excellent students. I'm not stupid, but even I feel intimidated sometimes.

Another interesting phenomenon is all the false modesty. People are always saying how they're not that smart, or how they could never do that, or playing uphow much they procrastinate or what not. But honestly, in most cases it's not true. I'm totally guilty of it too, so I'm not condemning anyone or anything, but I think it's interesting. Why is it that people are always either trying to make people over or underestimate them? What are we afraid would happen if for once people actually knew exactly where you stood?

I suppose I'm just a wee bit sensitive to it though. At some point in high school, I realized that sharing of grades was having a very damaging effect on a friendship, and I decided that since grade sharing was really only a pointless competition good for nothing but self-gratification and inflating your ego, I wasn't going to do it anymore. Ever since, I have been very wary of sharing scores. I do sometimes, if I get pressed a lot, or if I feel like it's friendly and the other person is not just hoping they did better than me. Or as in the case of my high school Calculus, where much consoling commiseration and bonding was had from sharing our matching 64%. Maybe it's a silly habit to hold on to. It really shouldn't matter. But I think as things currently stand, it's still good in principal.