<p>Has anyone ever read The Overachievers; The Secret Lives of Driven Kids? I read about half way through and then gave up on it so I could get school reading done in time.</p>
<p>Did you find it to be accurate. I thought some points were accurate and some were over the top. </p>
<p>Just curious. :)</p>
<p>I read the book and loved it. It's a 180 of what people at my school are like so I found it facinating.</p>
<p>It's good!</p>
<p>Oh and I lov your name! :)</p>
<p>Who were you originally? EatBreathMath?</p>
<p>No I haven't; I didn't even knew books that type existed until I came here.</p>
<p>I didn't even know books about colleges existed either. Some world in that Barnes and Nobles...</p>
<p>Oh, I'm in love with Barns and Noble.
And Borders.</p>
<p>Sounds interesting!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Oh, I'm in love with Barns and Noble.
And Borders.
[/quote]
are you mentally sane. I go there once in...a year or 6 months. Or if i have anything to buy for school, which i usually go to the library.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Who were you originally? EatBreathMath?
[/quote]
and things like this, um, it's called private messaging if you haven't gotten it.</p>
<p>It really is. I haven't gotten a chance to read the whole thing, but since I've been on here I'm thinking about reading the entire thing.</p>
<p>oh ok, will do...</p>
<p>Back on topic...</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure its required reading for me this year. :)</p>
<p>My bio teacher hads it and I read the first couple dozen pages; it was okay, I guess.</p>
<p>And I too love B&N. I still have like $50 worth of gift cards there, but I always go and read books (in the store) start to finish whenever I have the time</p>
<p>What is this book about? I'd like to read it?</p>
<p>I've read it a couple times...it's really good. It's interesting how the author integrates statistics about college admissions, SATs, etc within the course of the novel. I actually know a bunch of people who go to Whitman (the high school focused on in the book).</p>
<p>Actually, I looked it up online after reading the first couple of chapters and turns out the yar it came out Whitman High's news paper did a paper completely dedicated to it.</p>
<p>I remember in third grade they made us read some book called like "Why Am I Gifted and What Do I Do Now".</p>
<p>I realized then that I hate books that make me feel like a different species just because I'm mildly intelligent. :( Then in high school I realized I hate books in general.</p>
<p>I agree, although I like to read.</p>
<p>This one doesn't really talk about natural abilities, but more or less students who have either been presured to work hard or who work hard in general. They're not exactly "gifted" just hard hard workers.</p>
<p>Since I'm horrible at wrting a synopsis for books here's one from the author's website</p>
<p>Worried about the intense pressures on students to succeed and the skyrocketing stress of the college and private school admissions processes, New York Times bestselling investigative journalist Alexandra Robbins returned to her high school during the year of her ten-year reunion. For more than a year, she followed nine students who were bright, funny, talented, and lovable – and who struggled over whether the way some circles labeled them actually reflected their identity. A true story about life, love, friendship, family, illness and rage, drugs and depression, this is a book that will make you laugh, cry, sigh, and clench your fists in anger. Come enter the halls of Walt Whitman High School and meet . . . THE OVERACHIEVERS. </p>
<p>Here's another from Barns and Noble 9I believe it's the one on the book.)
"You can't just be the smartest. You have to be the most athletic, you have to be able to have the most fun, you have to be the prettiest, the best dressed, the nicest, the most wanted. You have to constantly be out on the town partying, and then you have to get straight As. And most of all, you have to appear to be happy.” – CJ, age seventeen</p>
<p>High school isn’t what it used to be. With record numbers of students competing fiercely to get into college, schools are no longer primarily places of learning. They’re dog-eat-dog battlegrounds in which kids must set aside interests and passions in order to strategize over how to game the system. In this increasingly stressful environment, kids aren’t defined by their character or hunger for knowledge, but by often arbitrary scores and statistics.</p>
<p>In The Overachievers, journalist Alexandra Robbins delivers a poignant, funny, riveting narrative that explores how our high-stakes educational culture has spiraled out of control. During the year of her ten-year reunion, Robbins returns to her high school, where she follows students including CJ and others:</p>
<p>· Julie, a track and academic star who is terrified she's making the wrong choices
· “AP” Frank, who grapples with horrifying parental pressure to succeed
· Taylor, a soccer and lacrosse captain whose ambition threatens her popular girl status
· Sam, who worries his years of overachieving will be wasted if he doesn’t attend a name-brand college
· Audrey, who struggles with perfectionism, and
· The Stealth Overachiever, a mystery junior who flies under the radar.</p>
<p>Robbins tackles hard-hitting issues such as the student and teacher cheating epidemic, over-testing, sports rage, the black market for study drugs, and a college admissions process so cutthroat that some students are driven to depression and suicide because of a B. Even the earliest years of schooling have become insanely competitive, as Robbins learned when she gained unprecedented access into the inner workings of a prestigious Manhattan kindergarten admissions office.</p>
<p>A compelling mix of fast-paced storytelling and engrossing investigative journalism, The Overachievers aims both to calm the admissions frenzy and to expose its escalating dangers.</p>
<p>It was an interesting read. You could tell the author was a yalie4lyfe with the way she made ap frank's harvard life look hellish. I LOL'd when colbert interviewed her.</p>
<p>haven't read it, but it kinda sounds like Frenzy Envelope.</p>
<p>^ Is that one any good?</p>
<p>it's just like a profile of a whole bunch of kids in a novel - form... the book is somehow related to College Confidential, I think...like in the back of the book it mentions CC's moderator or something.</p>