Am I setting unrealistic expectations?

[ShootingStar16]

I am in my first year of IB and I want to become valedictorian at my school next year and I also want to get all 7's in IB courses. I have English HL, Bio HL, History HL, Math SL, Chem SL and Spanish SL ab initio. So far, full IB is pretty manageable for me and I always do my homework the day it's assigned instead of leaving it for the next day. I started studying bio every night and I feel like I will have fun with English and History. However, it seems that not many people get 45/45, so should I lower my standards a bit? I always freak out whenever I don't get at least 95 :/ I'd like to do well, but sometimes it's stressing me out way too much. 

Edited October 5, 2014 by ShootingStar16

[sarahlouise]

There's a difference between expectations and goals. You can have the goal of getting all 7s, and use that as incentive to do as much work as you possibly can to know that you have tried your absolute best to achieve your goal. However, if you "expect" to get all 7s without working that hard is different. 

 

It's true that not many people get 45/45, but it doesn't mean that you can't be one of those people. If you say you'd only "like" to do well and do a little bit of work towards doing well, but it doesn't mean that much to you, maybe you should reassess your high goal. If you get below 95 but you haven't done that much work, you can't really be disappointed as results often reflect effort. 

 

Don't forget though that to get a 7 in many subjects you don't actually have to get 95+%. Most of the time it is 80%+ is a 7, although it does vary for each subject. And remember, you still have a lot of time till your May 2016 exams, and in-class tests or essays don't actually affect your final grade at all.