A Small Pond Perspective: When Top Students Face the Dunning-Kruger Effect
Another high-scoring test, another 95+ on the report card, and high honors at the end of the year: this is the life of many students at MGC New Life Christian Academy (MGCNLCA), where the close-knit community means the “exceptional, highest-honors” students often feel like the smartest ones in the room—the big fish in a small pond. But when they leave MGCNLCA and step into the world of college, they enter a much bigger pond, filled with equally (or more) capable fish. It’s here that many experience the Dunning-Kruger Effect, a phenomenon that students at MGCNLCA might unknowingly carry with them.
Numerous MGCNLCA alumni describe this as a reality check: suddenly struggling in challenging college classes, surrounded by peers with impressive skills and achievements, and trying to adapt to an entirely new environment. In moments like these, the thought may creep in: “What if I’m not as good as I thought I was?” This doubt can leave students feeling out of their depth, where the ease of high school success seems distant, as they are enlightened on just how much there is left to learn.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which individuals with low ability in a particular area overestimate their competence. Inversely, those with high ability tend to underestimate theirs. Psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger coined the term in a 1999 study where they found that people who scored the lowest in humor, grammar, and logic tended to overestimate their performance and ability. They concluded that this overconfidence occurs because a lack of skill in a certain area limits the ability to accurately gauge that skill.
Similarly, the students who performed highly in smaller schools may overestimate their competence until they transition to a larger, more competitive environment. But the effect doesn’t have to be a dead end; many students use this experience as a push to humble themselves, seek feedback, and improve. Slowly but surely, they work their way to a place where they can hold a true, grounded confidence in their abilities. And this lesson isn’t limited to academics—it applies to every area of life, from sports to social skills. We all swim in many different ponds, and we might be big or small fish, depending on our surroundings and skill level.
So, as you navigate high school and eventually college, remember that high grades don’t already make you an expert. Just because you’re at the top now does not mean you are done learning or that you know everything. Each step is a chance to recognize what you don’t know yet and build the skills to handle the bigger ponds that lie beyond MGCNLCA.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/science/Dunning-Kruger-effect
https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/dunning-kruger-effect
https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-dunning-kruger-effect-4160740
Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1121–1134. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1121
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-dunning-kruger-effect-isnt-what-you-think-it-is/
https://timothykung.com/2023/09/30/success-the-paradox-of-big-fish-little-pond/
https://www.sessions.edu/notes-on-design/the-pitfalls-of-self-awareness-the-dunning-kruger-effect/
