How do you get over feeling competitive? (1 Viewer)

[AugustMansion]

Is it wrong to have a very strong urge to beat your cohort, especially the ones you don't like? Is it counterproductive or is it beneficial? What do you think of this as the main source of motivation? I know we'll be competing against the whole state, not just the school, but i have had such bad experiences with the people at my highs school that I feel nothing but competitiveness and anger towards them

 

[Son of Thatcher]

Woah, chill guys! It's natural to want to best your competition and to some extent, the HSC encourages this. However, there is such a thing as taking it too far and just becoming an asshole about it. Remember, once ranks are set, the best thing you can do is to help each other which will bring all of your marks up together.

 

[chickencoop]

Is it wrong to have a very strong urge to beat your cohort, especially the ones you don't like? Is it counterproductive or is it beneficial? What do you think of this as the main source of motivation? I know we'll be competing against the whole state, not just the school, but i have had such bad experiences with the people at my highs school that I feel nothing but competitiveness and anger towards them

Think of it this way. The people with the drive and motivation - wherever the source of it has come from (for you, i guess its pure anger and distaste for the people in your cohort) can accomplish the biggest and greatest things in life. It is not wrong to want to beat the people in your cohort (specially the ones you dont like), and i would say it is part of human nature to be competitive...

Depending on how you channel that anger, it can either be beneficial towards pushing you harder; or counterproductive in that you spend too much time hating them and forgetting about studies. But like Thatcher said, just dont be an asshole about it and gloat when you do better - just prove to yourself that you are better than them.

As far as i know, if you are able to achieve top ranks across all your subjects, the cohort can only do so much to drag you down (as you will be considered an outlier and most outliers are unaccounted for in calculations). Bottom line is to focus on yourself and to push yourself. Call me Machiavellian but i think that during a time such as the HSC, you're looking at the end result regardless of how or what it took to get you there. (subject to controversy)

 

[FortheAtar26]

Nah tbh the HSC is a competition, and to "win" you have to beat others. Being competitive does certainly correlate to HSC Success, as it does in every day life

 

[WildestDreams]

Its the governments way of pitting young minds against each other. And getting the best of the best to work for a future evil scheme we may never know about...

 

[Son of Thatcher]

Its the governments way of pitting young minds against each other. And getting the best of the best to work for a future evil scheme we may never know about...

Oh please. Competition is the law of nature; it's healthy, it's useful. But as I said, it can be taken to far to the point of arrogance.

 

[marxman]

I think it's good for you, with a bit of a proviso that you actually like the people you are competing with. I found a great technique was just being ultra competitive with my closest friends all the time. The people I didn't like I usually didn't give a shit about so it didn't really help in that way, but healthy competition is pretty essential for anyone to do well.

 

[Son of Thatcher]

I think it's good for you, with a bit of a proviso that you actually like the people you are competing with. I found a great technique was just being ultra competitive with my closest friends all the time. The people I didn't like I usually didn't give a shit about so it didn't really help in that way, but healthy competition is pretty essential for anyone to do well.

This! It's often so important to forge a friendly spirit of competition between you and your friends. It's not only fun, but helpful to the learning of everyone involved.

I digress a little, but this reminds me of a story of a two very close friends at my school. They were both Maths/Science-oriented and were smart guys but always competed with each other to do better. In the end, they both got the same ATAR xD. Funny stuff.

 

[davidgoes4wce]

The thing with study is every individual goes into final exams, thinking & wanting to be top dog, or getting the highest bands/ranks.

Came across a Year 12 kid today , saying "I only want a Band 6"' standard for a Maths exam. He also happened to have said something "I want to get into a good uni". He was 6th ranked in his school in that particular subject out of 170 or thereabouts students in his school. Kind of hate that 'competitiveness' as It can make some people 'really' unlikeable. Wouldn't mind if he kept to it himself , rather than blurt it out to me. I have been in the workforce doing different jobs, I'd imagine it must be the same competitiveness to get into a 'Big 4' or a big company. (I wasn't good enough with alot of top-tier graduate entry jobs and changed alot from jobs to jobs)

One thing I will say, with high school, is you wanted to beat your cohort, you wanted to be the best ranked as possible. Heck, I didn't go to the best high school but I never got to feel that competitiveness/rivalry of other students at the school I was at........But in saying that, I feel I would have enjoyed the competitiveness of other students as it would have improved my standards. But in university, it was working together as a close group of friends to get the best marks as possible. Its a huge difference in my opinion. You will still see that happen alot in 1st year university where students wanted to outbeat each other but by the time 2nd year approaches there is less of that competitive rivalry and you want to help/network with each other to successful careers/pathways.( It's something that I wasn't too good at: 'the social aspect of university')