Why I’m Glad I Wasn’t a Straight-A Student, Until I Was

I’ve been at the bottom of the class, usually sat in the back hoping not to get called on. Watched other students get praised while I got overlooked.

I’ve also been at the top and predicted A*s. Teachers suddenly became interested in my opinions. I saw doors opening that had once been closed.

The difference wasn’t talent. It literally was a decision I made one day. I decided I was tired of being mediocre and below average. I invested in my work ethic, figured out how to learn, how to focus and most importantly, how to play the game.

Here’s what I didn’t expect: the bottom taught me more than the top ever did.

When you’re struggling, you have to get resourceful and you definitely can’t coast. You learn to ask for help because pride isn’t an option. You learn to read the room because you need to know who’s safe to approach, who might actually explain things and who’s going to make you feel worse. The latter might happen either way.

You develop antennae and start to notice things. You observe how the successful students operate, what they do differently, how they talk to teachers. I started to study the game and not just the syllabus.

You also learn that you’re not your grades, essentially because you have to. Why? Because if your grades are all you have, and your grades are bad, you’re nothing. So you find other ways to matter. You have to develop a personality and become useful in other ways. I learned that being someone people want around is worth something.

I’m going to be controversial and argue that straight-A students don’t learn any (read: most) of this, because they don’t have to.

When I got to the top, I learned different things. Discipline. Focus. How to structure my time. How to push through when I didn’t feel like it. How to delay gratification.

I learned that I was capable of more than I’d believed, than anyone believed. That honestly changed how I saw myself and my confidence was built on evidence, not hope.

I also learned something uncomfortable: being at the top is easier in some ways. Teachers give you the benefit of the doubt. You get more attention, more help and more opportunities. The system rewards you for being easy to teach. It’s self-reinforcing.

The students who’ve always been at the top don’t realise this. They think they earned everything purely on merit. They don’t see how much the system is tilted in their favour once they’re winning.

Starting at the bottom and moving to the top is a different experience than always being at the top.

You know what it’s like to be overlooked and you don’t take success for granted. You also have skills that kids who’ve always been comfortable never had to develop.

In banking, I wasn’t the sharpest analyst. There were people quicker than me, more technical, better with numbers. What I had was different.

I could read a room. I knew when to speak and when to shut up. I knew how to make people feel heard. I knew how to deliver when it mattered and not overpromise when it didn’t.

Those skills came from the bottom. From years of watching, adapting, figuring out how to survive when I wasn’t the favourite.

The analysts who flamed out weren’t always the weakest performers. Some were technically brilliant. They’d been top of their class their whole lives. They just couldn’t handle feedback that wasn’t praise. Some couldn’t adjust when the environment wasn’t set up for their success. Others couldn’t read the politics.

They’d never had to.

School teaches a visible curriculum: maths, English, sciences, mark schemes, exam technique.

There’s a hidden curriculum too. How to read people. How to position yourself. How to recover when things go wrong. How to stay in the game when you’re not winning.

Struggling students learn the hidden curriculum because they have to and are forced to. Successful students often miss it entirely. They’re too busy collecting A*s to notice the skills that don’t get graded.

Then they graduate. They walk into jobs, interviews, relationships, and they’re lost. They’ve got perfect transcripts and no idea how to navigate a room where the rules aren’t written down.

If you’ve always been at the top, ask yourself: what have you never had to learn?

How do you handle failure? Real failure, not getting 89% instead of 94%. Do you know how to recover when you’re not the best in the room? Can you read people who aren’t already impressed by you?

If you’ve been at the bottom, ask yourself: what did you learn there that others didn’t?

The resourcefulness. The ability to read a room. The knowledge that you’re more than your grades. That’s your advantage. Don’t forget it when you start winning. Don’t become complacent.

I’m glad I wasn’t a straight-A student. It taught me things I couldn’t have learned any other way.

I’m also glad I became one. It taught me I could.

Both chapters matter, but the order matters more.

Teresa Song is the founder of Nova Scholars, which teaches strategic thinking and decision architecture for students navigating competitive systems.