Opinions are divided over whether classmates have a bigger effect on a student’s academic achievement than teachers do. Some people might think that teachers have more influence on students as they are professional educators whom students can rely on. In my opinion, however, students are usually affected more by their classmates than by teachers with regards to their academic performance.
First of all, competition among classmates can greatly boost students’ motivation to study hard. Students, especially young students such as elementary or middle school students, generally hate to get behind compared to their peers. In this situation, students compare their grades with their friends and are motivated to study harder in order not to be left behind. For example, my brother used to hate studying when he was in middle school. His teachers and parents always told him that he should make more efforts, but he never seemed to listen to them. However, after he had become a member of a study group with smart students, his grades were greatly improved. I assume that this was because he was quite stimulated by other members of the group who studied much harder than he did. This example clearly shows that classmates can affect students’ academic achievement a lot while they compete with each other. Teachers can never influence students in this way.
On top of that, classmates can give valuable advice which teachers can never give. As classmates are all in similar circumstance, they usually share the same worries about many things such as the unstable future, poor grades and relationships. Therefore, they can provide meaningful advice for their friends based on their own experiences. For example, I had a hard time when I was a high school student as my math score was not as good as I expected. But my math teacher did not seem to know my problem and he did not even try to know the problem as he had too many students to take care of. However, a friend of mine gave advice about a way of studying math based on his own experience, saying that he had gone through the same difficulty. It was significantly helpful because it contained a lot of practical advice which I really needed. This example also shows that classmates can have a big effect on a student’s academic performance.
To sum up, classmates can be motivated by each other while competing, and can give useful advice based on their common experience. All things considered, I think classmates have a bigger effect on a student’s academic achievement than teachers do.