Myth or Reality: Does Sophomore Slump Really Exist?

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Truth Frazier

Every high schooler has something bad to say about each grade. Freshman year everything's new, junior year you’re overwhelmed with AP’s, and senior year is bittersweet. But sophomore year is arguably talked about the most, and not for a great reason. Known as the year that everything just goes downhill, or sometimes referred to as sophomore slump, sophomore year isn’t typically the one students are most excited for. Sophomore slump is a period of decline in academic performance and even mental health after a successful phase, typically during a teenager’s sophomore year of high school. 

Whether or not ‘sophomore slump’ is really a thing or not is very subjective, so let’s take a look at what social media and Hamilton’s upperclassmen have to say. 

A handful of students of Hamilton’s junior and senior classes of ’27 and ’26 were surveyed on the topic of sophomore slump and the results are telling. Over 75% of students said that they have heard of the term, and 48% of surveyed students said they lived it. Even with the remaining 52% of students that said they haven’t experienced sophomore slump, 64% of surveyed students said that they’ve seen friends go through a rough 2nd semester. 

Students that did say they had a slump responded with a variety of reasons on why they felt like sophomore year was just a seemingly downwards slope. One response reads, “It’s kind of a middle year where you’re not new to the school anymore and it’s not as new and exciting, but still having a big jump from freshman year classes to harder classes.” 

Hamilton senior Sanjana Shankar also says that it’s an awkward phase in high school, saying that “It’s kind of like being the middle child. There’s nothing super important to do like junior year, and it’s not the beginning or end like senior year, so having to push through and still keep up ends with others' motivations dropping.” 

A junior at Hamilton, Gracie Wnuk, says, “I went through a sophomore slump because of the decisions I made myself; it’s a hard year not only because of classes but because you’re trying to find yourself a lot more,” expressing how weird or awkward being a tenth grader may feel for some students. 

Other upperclassmen also say that the main reason why the year started to seem like a spiral was because of college pressure. Carly Grams, a Hamilton junior, says “Getting older myself, I started hearing and talking about college more and it led to stress which then led to the slump.” 

A senior at Hamilton, Gia Quast, responded, “There’s also pressure being applied to pursue a college-driven path too early at that time.” Another reason that students stated in responses involved academic pressure, APs and advanced classes making students feel overwhelmed. Multiple students replied along the lines of  “I started taking AP classes which meant more homework and harder classes” or talking about the major difference in freshmen and sophomore classes. 

“You were just a freshman three months ago and haven't been as academically challenged yet or developed solidified study habits for those challenges,” a senior at Hamilton, Lari Li, adds. 

Although there are a plethora of reasons for sophomores’ downward spiral, there could be reasons for a good or even better second semester. Junior Austin Rehak says that he didn’t go through sophomore slump, and that he even had a better second semester compared to his first. “In my second semester, I don’t think that I had a sophomore slump because not only were my classes easier, but I had more of my friends in my classes,” Rehak says. 

The internet says a lot about the sophomore slump as well, since  teenagers and young adults often post about how their sophomore year of high school or college went. Teens on TikTok say things like, “I’m not falling for this sophomore slump propaganda” or talking about how a day from winter of their sophomore year is a day from hell. Obviously, people tend to exaggerate, but it shows just how common the slump really is. 

In conclusion, sophomore slump is still and will continue to be a very subjective thing. Depending on the classes, school, teachers, sports—anything and everything having to do with school—a tenth grader’s school year could go completely downhill or be completely fine. So while the slump may not exist for some, it’s not an unavoidable situation. With the right approach and mindset, the sophomore slump could just be a myth.