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 can 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.
  • The second album syndrome: 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 record the songs that didn't make the cut for their first album.
  • In academics, a student's energy and momentum can wear off, with graduation years away.
  • 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.
  • Regression toward the mean: If a first effort is particularly outstanding, stastically it is likely that the next will be closer to average.
  • Second-system effect in computing, a tendency to "upgrade" a compact system into one burdened with too many needless features