Dylan Dunlea
9/17/14
Summer Reading Essay Paragraph 1: Plot summary Paragraph 2: S & W Paragraph 3: Lessons Paragraph 4: Recommend it or no Alexandra Robbins wrote The Overachievers to document the lives of those constantly pushed to accomplish more than they are capable of accomplishing. The daily routine of eight unique students are recorded and analyzed to import to the reader a lesson on the dangers of forces constantly pushes students to overachieve. These eight students each have a different story and each of their stories provide a different message on the effects and dangers of overachieving. These effects include stress, lack of motivation, a struggle to decide between the popular life and the academic life, and all the while she interrupts the stories of the students to offer comprehensive solutions for colleges, high schools, and parents to implement in order to reduce the need to overachieve and thus its risks. There are several strengths of The Overachievers. Alexandra Robbins, the author, offers not one, but eight unique real-world examples of overachieving from just one high school and she expertly connects the individual stories to the larger issue of overachieving. The effects of overachieving are completely analyzed and truly move the reader. Comprehensive and intuitive solutions are provided and Robbins is able to explain how these solutions would reduce the need to overachieve. In addition, the solution she offers do not place all the burden on one force, but several, including parents, high schools, and colleges. Overall, Robbins proficiently convinces the reader the academic system, including parental support, must be improvised so that students are not so prone to the need to overachieve. The book does have weaknesses, however. For example, Robbins uses examples from one high school in one part of the country. Although plausible, it is possible that students may react differently, schools may approach testing differently, and parents may support their children differently in varying school districts all around the nation. This objection is relatively superficial however, because colleges demand certain
