Scenario: John and Emily are high school students who want to get good grades, maintain active social lives, and participate in sports. John is a linebacker on the football team, and Emily is a defender on the soccer team. Their busy lives prevent them from spending much time on their homework, and they both have been averaging Cs with an occasional D on their work in English class. The end of the semester is drawing near, and a major final project and test are looming. They both think they will pull off at least a B in the course by doing well on these final activities. However, both the football and soccer teams have qualified for post-season games, and both John and Emily are on the decorating committee for a major end-of-year dance which they will attend. Secretly they both want to be selected as King and Queen for the dance, so they have been spending extra time socializing with other students after practice in the evenings.

Questions for response:
1) Do you think that John and Emily are deceiving themselves about being able to do well in their English class?
Yes, I think that John and Emily are deceiving themselves about doing well in English. They think that they will do well even though they aren’t putting the time in they need to do their best. If they don’t study and do the final project and test they will not get the grade they want. If you want to do well in something you are going to have to put the effort into it.
2) What do you think might be the result of the schedule they are following?
The result will be they won’t get the mark they wanted because they haven’t put the time in effort into doing the English work. They will become stressed because they have so many things going on that need to be done like playing sports as well as organizing and socializing events.
3) If they don’t do well on their English work, will they blame others or themselves?
If they don’t do well in English they will blame themselves because they will realize they didn’t put the effort in that they needed to get a good mark. They will see that to get a good mark or to be good in something they will have to put the effort into and focus on what is most important.
4) What, if anything, might you do differently if you were in their place?
if I were in their place I would try to manage my time a lot better. I would dedicate a certain amount of time per day, 30-60 minutes to study and work on the final project, to make sure I have enough time to play my sports. Then if I wanted to be selected Queen at the dance and I needed to socialize more I would create groups with other students, one to create decoration ideas for the dance and second a study group to help students and myself study for English as well as socializing. I would put the time and effort I needed as well as staying focused so that I will be able to exceed at the things I want to achieve without giving something up.