Park, Rippey, Villagomez 1

Katie Park
Colton Rippey
Juliette Villagomez
Miss Koblinski
ENG 101-37091
May 2, 2014
High School in a Nutshell


High school: the teenage years of your life in which you are supposed to work hard to get
accepted into college, socialize with many people, and discover who you are. To any novices
who are about to enter high school, this essay will help you better understand what you are
getting into. Throughout high school, you will meet various types of people of whom will either
change your life, you interact with just because, or you will never talk to. While these four years
will bring different experiences to each person, there is a basic foundation to what this time
consists of: the people. You will see them five days a week and through this time, we all become
different types of students. In order to establish better understanding, these students will be
classified into three categories: the overachievers, the average joes, and the slackers.
Overachievers are the guys who try too hard, either on purpose or it is in their nature.
School work and studying is their one and only priority. You can identity over achievers by their
strong talents in kissing up to authority, the prevalent dark circles under their eyes from hours
upon hours of studying, and maybe even a bit of coffee breath. They do not mind if they do not
fit in with current trends or who is who because they spend their time with their noses in multiple
books at once, perhaps by Aristotle or Hemingway. Although their determination may lead to


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success, they can become overwhelmed by their heavy caseload and become anxious (Knight).
They show absolute lethargy in anything but school. In fact, psychologist John Eliot explains
that over achievers dont think reasonably, sensibly, or rationally because they cannot stand
the idea of mediocrity. While some people think being an overachiever is laudable, it can be
extremely overwhelming for the person to handle.
Average students are often the kids that you watch glide through high school with minimal effort.
They do not strive for greatness, and they do not wish to be seen as a failure. This specific group of
individuals are often forgotten in high school, especially because they do not have many defining actions
or characteristics. These students simply do not care for the extra attention, they just want to go to school,
do what they have to do, and go home. Average students are not gregarious and are seen as extremely
introverted and shy students. Along with their dislike for company they are also tacitum because their
main goal throughout the school day is to survive and then go home. They usually do not participate in
extracurricular activities, or school functions, and sometimes they do not even make friends. Average
students are mid range students, they do not fail, and they do not exceed in academic achievement. A C
Average GPA is a mean grade calculated from the marks obtained in a certain examined course. A GPA
of 2.00 points is considered fair by many institutions and is also referred to as a C average
GPA(Fitzalan)As you can see an average gpa is about 2.0, this gpa shows that they are trying to pass but
with little to no effort. Most of the time, these individuals have the ability to produce amazing work, but
they simply choose not too.
Although slackers are common throughout the high school system, one may find it rather
difficult to identify another individual, or yourself as a slacker. Urban Dictionary defines a
slacker as Someone capable of doing work, but is too lazy to do it correctly; Work-a-phobic.
One can identify the Great American Slacker by viewing the quality of the work they put forth;
those whom are associated with this type of student may be rather intelligent, but could not give


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a care in the world about their grades. There are a myriad of types slackers polluting the school
system. There is the remarkable slacker, the procrastination slacker, and the dropout slacker.
The first type known commonly as the remarkable slacker can be found in AP and Honors
classes, they show astounding prowess on tests, but do not use his/her incisive mind to their full
potential. Then there is the procrastination slacker (the most common of all.) This class tends to
get an assignment with a 13 day deadline, which would seem likes a very generous deadline,
however procrastinators start the assignment at 10 pm the night before it is due. The final type is
the dropout slacker, these people can be found bearing drugs, a libation or two, or perhaps a
child. This group is commonly referred to as a pot head, a stoner, a drunkard, or one who is
preggers (for those whom are pregnant).
Now that you know the three types of students you will encounter throughout your years
in high school, you can decide which student you will become (which may impact your entire
life). Do you want to take the route of the overachiever, guaranteeing your way into college but
risking a social life and sleep? Would you rather be in the crowd of average joes and slide on
by? Then of course, you can be a slacker and procrastinate your way through school. It is up to
you! It is also possible for you to combine traits of all three students to create your own
expedient in experiencing high school. Strive to be a determined hard worker like the over
achiever, but leave yourself time to relax like the average student does. Make time for yourself as
the slacker does, but do not procrastinate (you will regret it!). Whatever you choose, hopefully
you have learned something meaningful to help you through high school. Good luck!
Key: Vocab, Quote, Paraphrase, Thesis




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Works Cited:
Courtney: Queen of Slackers. "Slacker." Urban Dictionary. N.p., 8 June 2005. Web. 01 May
2014.
Gorman, Fitzalan. "A High School Athlete's GPA Vs. Average High School Student's GPA."
Everyday
Life. Demand Media, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Knight, Lee. The Definition of Overachiever. Overachievers. 17 November, 2008. Web. 01
May,
2014.
Marano, Hara E. The Overachievers. 10 December, 2004. Web. 30 April, 2014.
PSX. "Slacker." Urban Dictionary. N.p., 19 Dec. 2005. Web. 01 May 2014.















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Reflection:
As the key writer I wrote the TTAPP, introduction, first body paragraph, and the
conclusion of the essay. I believe I completed my role with success and was efficiently able to
begin and close the essay. As my group was contemplating what to write about, I came up with
the idea of writing about the three types of high school students because you often see high
school related movies or television shows in which these characters (overachievers, average joes,
and slackers) are brought to life. As I mentioned before, you see this character frequently in
movies or television, which impacts our lives because we absorb this information, which is why I
believed this relates back to pop culture. I was the one who took responsibility to write about
overachievers. To describe overachievers, I utilized the stereotypical perspective (they are
excessive and determined, they like to be the teachers pet, and so on) which can often times be
true. I was definitely pertinent in making this essay, for my work took up three fifths of the entire
work. My group members cooperated well and did their portion of the work efficiently, but at
times it was difficult to into contact outside of school making the essay a little more challenging
to write. Overall, I believe my group did well working together to create this comical essay.