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I failed my psychology midterm. That’s how it felt anyway.
I got my midterm grade for a class I am taking, and it was worse than expected. Within seconds of seeing it, I was trying to figure out how I could fix it.
How could I get my grade up? Could I ask for it to be regraded? Is there extra credit? How much more would I need to study for the next test?
I went into ultimate hoop jumper mode. Paul Millerd describes this archetype in The Pathless Path:
The term “hoop‑jumper” was coined by writer and former professor William Deresiewicz to describe the behavior of his students at Yale, who seemed more concerned about getting A’s and adding bullet points to their resumes than using their time at one of the world’s best universities to follow their curiosity… I was becoming a hoop-jumper just like Deresiewicz’s students at Yale, internalizing the idea that education is “doing your homework, getting the answers, acing the test.” I had not developed a sense that “something larger is at stake.”
The first time I noticed this mentality was in my sophomore year of high school. Funnily enough, it also happened after a psychology test. I remember looking at my score and thinking: I’m not going to let this happen. For the next month, I studied 7 hours a day (it was a summer course and I had nothing else to do)…
