Francesca Torralba

English 15
11/7/2019

Exigence: To bring light to a contributing factor on academic peer-pressure

Writer: I feel personally attached to this topic because high school was not a pleasant
experience. There was a lot of undisclosed competition between students, which led to mental
health issues to many students.
Primary Audience: Parents, teachers, school board
Secondary Audience: Students; Researchers who are looking into the effects of academic stress
on students
Writer’s Goal: To make more people aware about why students feel an overwhelming amount
of stress in their academics.
Context/Background: This is a personal topic to me because I have seen many people who I
considered friends experience this. Not only that, I went through this myself and finally realized
the outcome of competition within school-walls. Academic peer-pressure is an ongoing issue
within school walls. It can vary from how often a child gets extra help to how many classes that
student may take.
Venue: The venue that I have chosen is Education Week. The reason why I have chosen this
venue is because this specific journal focuses on the news pertaining to K-12, and since my op-
ed is based on high school students, I thought what better venue would suit my article more.

Today’s Assignment: Who Can Get the Better Grade?

High school students today undergo multitudes of stress everyday. Specifically in a

school-like setting, they work their brain constantly to meet assignment deadlines and their loved
ones’ expectations. In today’s society, teens experience a variety of stress and pressure from
various sources— parents, teachers, and even peers. Students who experience pressure from his
or her classmates, have undergone something called peer-pressure. When one thinks of peer
pressure, they think of a group of adolescents pressuring their friend to do something
mischievous Well I have a question: can’t students still be pressured in their own classroom, not
just by teachers but their own classmates? In this op-ed, I hope to bring light to a particular issue:
academic pressure comes from the student’s own peers.

It is common for a student— in particular a high school student— to go through a great

amount of stress. Alexandra Ossola— a writer of the news platform: The Atlantic— talked about
how stress can have an effect on the body. She stated that a high amount of stress to the body can
cause harm to the immune system, heart problems, and even chronic depression. A small amount
of stress for the average high schooler can be tolerable, but in today’s day and age, the levels of
stress that teens go through every day in school is astounding and should not need to exist. A
woman named Kelly McGonigal— in her 14 minutes of speaking at a TED conference—
mentioned that stress is only helpful and beneficial if you believed it was. A way students could
reduce the existing stress in their lives is by believing that their stress is not an everyday
obstacle. Students only undergo overwhelming amounts of stress because they see how common
it is for a person their age to go through such conditions.
 Advanced-Placement— also known as AP— classes are notoriously known for being
challenging and rigorous. Students are expected to maintain proper work ethic, stellar grades,
and properly prepare themselves for the AP exam at the end of the year. Those who partaken in
AP classes felt a great amount of pressure, not only by their teachers but by the students
themselves. Especially those who are familiar with the rigorous pace of AP classes, there are
expectations that have to be met and can lead to academic peer pressure. How so? Based on an
article from Your Teen Magazine, the author— Grace Clements— stated that, “teens learn about
saying, ‘No,’ to cigarettes, drugs and alcohol, but we’re never taught about the dangers of saying,
‘Yes,’ to taking more AP classes”.

Academic peer pressure can have a detrimental effect on a student’s progress in school.
High school is a time of preparation for what is to come: college. Therefore, every student should
be given the opportunity to get as much help as needed for what they are struggling with. But in
some cases, students feel like it is just not possible. Students challenge themselves in an
unhealthy manner because their friends are doing it as well. There was a study conducted in Los
Angeles high schools on the effect of peer pressure on a student’s success. The study was
whether or not students would sign up for a free SAT prep class. The experimenters decided to
do this experiment on two groups of students: those in an honors-level class and those in just
regular-level class. The results of this study showed a low percentage of non-honors level
students publically signing up for SAT prep classes compared to honors-level students. Now why
is that? The experimenters who conducted this study stated that peer-pressure has a powerful
impact on the choices students make for their education— all to prevent their own friends from
knowing they need help.

Rest assured, there are solutions to reduce academic peer-pressure. To start, there is
always a source to someone’s madness. I believe the reason why students work the way they do
due to teachers, parents, and even social media. Now since we are particularly talking about
academic pressure, teachers I am pleading to you to reduce your expectations on your students.
There was data— collected by Noelle Leonord and her team at NYU on a study about high
school burn out— that stated almost 50% of the reported students, felt a great number of stress
almost every day due to grades, homework and the college-acceptance process. This number can
be reduced if teachers lowered their expectations of their students and understood the feeling of
being a high school attendee. A teacher’s disappointment can affect many students in various
ways. Students, I urge you to assess your class schedule. Ask yourself: why am I taking these
classes? How can I better improve my well-being?

To sum, academic peer pressure is a result from students competing with one another.
Whether it may be a goal to be at the top of class or to gain approval from superiors, students are
yet in the losing end due to the stress that they go through to be competent enough. If a genie
were to poof in front of my eyes right now, and tell me that he (or she) can grant me only one
wish, it would be to go back in time and tell young Francesca that she is stressing out for the
wrong reasons. And if I had the opportunity to stand in front of an auditorium full of
highschoolers, I would tell them that the only opinion that should matter to you, is your own.
Just like that, I will leave you with this quote by E.E. Cummings, “Once we believe in ourselves,
we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human
spirit”.
 Work Cited

Nyu. “NYU Study Examines Top High School Students' Stress and Coping
Mechanisms.” NYU, 11 Aug. 2015, www.nyu.edu/about/news-
publications/news/2015/august/nyu-study-examines-top-high-school-students-stress-and-
coping-mechanisms.html.

Bursztyn, Leonardo, and Robert Jensen. “How Does Peer Pressure Affect Educational
Investments?” NBER, Leonardo Bursztyn & Robert Jensen, 26 Nov. 2014,
www.nber.org/papers/w20714.

Waters, Laura. “The Impact of Peer Pressure On Student Achievement.” NJ Left Behind,
4 Dec. 2014, njleftbehind.org/2014/12/the-impact-of-peer-pressure-on-student-
achievement/.

Clements, Grace. “Academic Peer Pressure: AP Classes And Academic Stress.” Your
Teen Magazine, Your Teen Magazine, 8 Nov. 2018, yourteenmag.com/teenager-
school/teens-high-school/peer-pressure-academics.

Ossola, Alexandra. “Today's High Schoolers Are Way Too Stressed.” The Atlantic,
Atlantic Media Company, 9 Oct. 2015,
www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/high-stress-high-school/409735/.

My Reflection

• “I feel like you can cut down on this paragraph and the previous paragraph where you're
relating to your own experiences a lot.” I decided to take this comment from my peer and
read through my whole op-ed. Looking back, I did add more of my own personal experiences
than actually talking about the purpose of my article. So to resolve this, I shortened the use of
personal anecdotes within some of my paragraphs. And even deleting a paragraph.

• “I feel like you can cut down on this paragraph and the previous paragraph where you're
relating to your own experiences a lot.” I took this comment and like in the last bullet, I read
over my essay. As I was writing my op-ed I wanted to structure it by having me talking about
the topic, then talk about the solutions to academic pressure in one paragraph towards the end
 of the article. But I decided to take this advice and provide solutions within the article rather
than keeping it towards the end.

• Originally, I decided to begin my op-ed with an “imagine this…” hook. I then continued on
writing the beginning of first draft as such. But once I started working on my third draft, I
completely changed how I wrote the article so far. After I did that, the words started flowing
out of me and I felt more confident in what I wrote compared to my earlier drafts.

• I had a difficult start in the beginning of the WP2 process. I could not grasp on how to start
my op-ed. In addition, as I was writing my first draft, my mind was all over the place and
focusing on multiple things. Which led to a poorly written “first-draft”.

• One thing that I believed that I have improved in throughout this WP2 process is how I typed
out the article. I didn’t think I had it in me to write what I wrote. Though I know it’s not my
best work, I am proud of how much progress I have made.

• Because an op-ed is more informal compared to typical essays, I had a difficult time in
constructing an essay that was laid back and formal at the same time. But I overall had a fun
time being creative in my writing and using “I” in my writing.

High Order Concern High Order Concern

Before After

I only had one beginning paragraph initially, using I decided to give a more “formal” approach to my op-
the “imagine..” hook to appeal to readers and put ed, because I could not evision the flow I was
themselves in my shoes. imagining before writing my article.

I initially wanted to just talk about the problem I incorporated possible solutions to academic peer
with academic peer-pressure pressure within my essay.

I was giving too much personal experiences I cut down my personal experiences in my essay and
rather; I was veering off the topic. continued on working on incorporating sources to
support my points.

Low Order Concern Low Order Concern

Before After
The length of my essay I had to cut down my essay by taking in mind the advice my peers
was over the limit by 200- made. I thought about whether or not to delete or keep some
300 words. information in my op-ed. My article is now within the limit.

I did not use any tools to After Prof. DePiero taught us how to use one the bracket
help with the flow of my method: “---… — “, it improved the flow and structure of my
op-ed. paragraphs.

I was repetitive when it I cut down on the personal experiences on paragraphs where it
came to using person was not needed.
experiences.