academic smurfing

Academic smurfing encompasses a wide variety of situations, but they're all a tactic used by a GPA whore.

Common examples of academic smurfing:
A student fluent in a foreign language, such as French, retaking the whole language from the easiest class, in this case, French 1, so they can easily get As in their 4 years of taking that language.

A student who has qualified for AP Calculus BC, but instead choosing to take AP Statistics or AP Calculus AB, as they are perceived to be easier AP classes. This highly depends on the school curriculum and prerequisites. Some schools have students take Calc AB before taking Calc BC. See booster.

A student dropping an honors/AP class and swapping it for another AP/honors/regular class the moment they get less than an A- on the first test, so they could protect their GPA and increase their chances of ending up with an A. See GPA whore

3👍 2👎