Sophomore slump

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The term sophomore slump literally refers to the tendency of students to do worse academically in their second (sophomore) year than in their first (freshman) year.

[edit] Overview

Colloquially, since the term "sophomore" often refers to people other than students, the term is often used for situations in which an individual's second effort shows a marked decline over the first—for example, it is sometimes used in sports to describe a player's lackluster second season, or in music to refer to a band's mediocre second album, or even in television when a show's second season is overall worse than the first.

There are many factors that contribute to the sophomore slump, including:

• The fear that the initial success was a fluke and cannot easily be repeated, leading to trying too hard and second-guessing one's actions.
• A delusion that the initial success is an indication of genius and that failure is not possible, leading to only a perfunctory effort.
• A student may expect that the second year of studies will be no more difficult than the first and learn otherwise.
• A band may craft their first album over a period of years by writing dozens of songs, trying them out before audiences, and choosing the ten most crowd-pleasing songs to record; once this album is successful, however, the record company will demand that the next album be completed in about a year, giving little opportunity to play the material for an audience—and the band may be tempted to record the songs that didn't make the cut for their first album.
• An athlete may find that his exceptional rookie season has inspired his competitors to train harder in the off-season, leading to a much harder second season. This is more commonly referred to as the "sophomore jinx".
• The individual may find that satisfaction gained from the first year's results may not be sufficient motivation to invest the same level of effort the second year.