Friends or Grades?! Can academic performance & popularity go together?

The phase of growing from a child to being an adolescent, factored by the observation of academic performance, coupled with peer's appreciation on the individual's response to the system; continue to be one of the prime topics of discussion, explored in the educational system.
It is recommended to review the importance of peer relationships of children, and its arguable influence on their psychological and social development.

Observing a relational margin between student's popularity in adolescence and his/her academic achievement, there is a superlative part of understanding the question 'Does academic achievement influence popularity, within the boundaries of an educational environment?'.

Let's read some of the most common research works on the relation between student popularity and their academic performance:

Higher proportion of friends in school lead to better grades. This can be witnessed in small schools and even in colleges. With more friends, come more comfort. A learner cultivates stress-less environment. When reasoned further, this phenomenon increases better learning enthusiasm among students.

In groups, student's academic success with high academic motivation is positively related to popularity among peers. But it is the opposite with low academic motivation with negative impact on popularity among peers. Social network boosts the positive relationship between the student's academic performance and popularity, as per the recent study on the subject. Also, it has been observed that the social interactions chalk out activities that improve classroom productivity.

More friendship relatively leads to more competition, only to score better. If not for pleasing everyone out there, you're advancing individually as a student. The more your peers know about a subject or a thing in syllabus, the closer you're indirectly pushed to cover that for yourself. The act of determination builds your learning capacity, especially when you look at your friends moving speedily ahead of you.

Comparison creeps in. The achieving individual's scores would be compared to the non-performing student. Comparing ranks constantly energises the will power of a student. Call it an indirect motivational pinch or a feeling of being left behind in the race. In-school peers are more achievement-oriented and they share the same vibes to those around them.

General behaviour describes that adolescents who are famed for their positive as well as their negative characteristics, in many areas, show their physical attractiveness, aggression, athletic abilities, and prosocial behaviour, in order to gain their peers' attention.

Although friendships and peer interactions play a vital role in student academic achievement, scores are a thousand times more valuable according to any educational set up; at any given point of life. Friends would be there even after school or college. Perhaps, you may never talk to most of them after your school or college. But, the grades remain with you and enable you to progress ahead in career and your future.

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