<p>So I read this new book called The Overachievers by Alexandria Robbins, and I was wondering if anyone else has read it. This seems like a good place to ask. If you've read it, are the overachievers at your school really like that?</p>
<p>We are the overachievers of our schools....i read it, but i got bored because it all sounded so familiar...</p>
<p>I'm reading the book right now. It's actually better than I thought it would be.</p>
<p>Basically the author follows a group of overachievers at Whitman High School as they struggle with their lives of trying to be the best (and the stress associated with it). The author even throws in her own opinions/statistics along the way.</p>
<p>I haven't read it, but I do remember seeing the author being interviewed on the Colbert Report, haha.</p>
<p>I don't think I'd need to read it to know about the topic - I know a lot of overachievers, and am one in some respects. I'll see if someone has a copy, though, maybe I'll read it now that it's been brought up.</p>
<p>yeah, I read it awhile ago. I actually really enjoyed most of it.
I sort of scanned through the parts that were talking about it and payed more attention to the parts about the actual people though.</p>
<p>It is a GREAT BOOK! i've never read it....lol</p>
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I sort of scanned through the parts that were talking about it and payed more attention to the parts about the actual people though.
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<p>Yea, I skip those parts sometimes. I get impatient with her research and statistics, and I jump straight to the parts with the Whitman students.</p>
<p>is this the same book they were talking about a while back in the high school life forum intitled "The overacheivers - this book is sick" or do they just have the same title.</p>
<p>^it's the same book. it really did have parts that were sort of scary.</p>
<p>I'm rereading it right now. That book is ballin.</p>
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it's the same book. it really did have parts that were sort of scary.
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<p>It does? I'm less than halfway through. The only part that struck me as scary was AP Frank's mom. :D</p>
<p>^ i know! ap franks mom may in fact be the monster under my bed causing me to have terrible dreams about failing every AP exam in existance..</p>
<p>i read the first chapter, writing is really elementary.</p>
<p>I just saw it on the Colbert Report, looks slightly interesting.</p>
<p>I LOVED The Overachievers. It is one of the best books I have ever read. While reading it, I found that in some ways, I was reflecting on my life and what was to come. I suggest that everyone who considers themselves an overachiever should read it, as it actually helps to know that people do go through the same things as you do. And yes, the overachievers at my high school (such as myself) are like the kids in the book.</p>
<p>Alexandra Robbins looked for the worst possible-case scenarios to shadow for her book. I know no one at Whitman (and none of my friends at Whitman knows anyone else there either) who is even comparable to the types of students Robbins writes about.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong.. it's still a great book! I just think it gives the false impression of competition and academic pursuits in this area as horrendously cutthroat and stressful.</p>
<p>It's only -very- cutthroat and stressful.. :D</p>
<p>Amazing. I loved the book, because she unfairly generalizes more than even I do!</p>
<p>So freakin' exaggerated that it's not even funny. "A woman in china" is one of her sources? Can we talk about verifiability and truth here? I can't help be feel as though there are some fabricated, or rather, slightly altered parts to the book, or bias seeping in through the statistics (which I read, being the kind to pore over numbers...).</p>
<p>I'm not saying that these students don't exist, but she probably looked through pools of hundreds, maybe thousands of teens to find the one weirdo who really has a traumatic time of it. Sensationalism sells, after all.</p>
<p>Then again, the general public usually needs a good malleting over the head with a subject to elicit any response, and sensationalism makes a damned fine mallet...</p>
<p>Catering to the target audience, I suppose.</p>