Rigor Isn’t What Students Think It Is: Why good students struggle—and how to help them thrive in college

Updated:12/16/2025

I remember a conversation with a student during one of my learning support sessions. She had been a high achiever all through high school, excelling in advanced classes, honors society, and always on top of her assignments. But now, sitting across from me in her second semester of college, she looked confused and frustrated.

I’m doing everything I’ve always done, she said. I’m reading the chapters, turning in my work, and studying for the tests… but it’s not working.

This wasn’t an isolated case. I’ve heard versions of this story from students across institutions and years. On the surface, they’re doing the right things. But under the surface, their strategies—and more importantly, their understanding of what learning really requires—don’t match the demands of college.

This disconnect raises a critical question: What does academic rigor actually look like to students? And more urgently, are we helping them understand it the way we intend?

---

What High-Performing Students Are Missing

This issue isn’t limited to a few struggling students—it’s systemic.

In their six-year study of high-performing high schools, researchers Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine set out to uncover what made these institutions so successful at cultivating deep thinking. They expected to find vibrant intellectual communities. Instead, they found something startling: while students at these schools excelled at passing exams, they rarely engaged in meaningful mental labor.

The findings were so striking that Mehta and Fine renamed their book to reflect their search: In Search of Deeper Learning. Their conclusion? Students had been trained to perform in academic environments—but not necessarily to think independently, which is the heart of college-level learning.

This same tension is what I explore in my book, How to Successfully Transition Students into College: From Traps to Triumph. It’s not just about improving study habits. It’s about shifting entire frameworks—from a culture of compliance to one of cognitive ownership.

---

The Student Rigor Metric: Quantity over Quality

Before college, students commonly define rigor by how much work a class requires—more papers, more quizzes, more homework. A “hard class” is one that consumes time and energy through sheer volume. As one student from a prestigious high school put it:

“We didn’t learn how to learn—we learned how to never be outworked.”

In this mindset, effort equals excellence. Students who manage heavy workloads feel affirmed: they believe they are smart, capable, and college-ready.

Then college happens.

---

The College Conundrum: Less Work, More Challenge

In their first year, students often encounter fewer assignments and less frequent testing, which leads many to believe that college is actually less rigorous than high school.

But the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) tells a different story: students expect college to be harder. Yet, this foreknowledge and sober expectations do not help them prepare better. So what’s going on?

The issue is a shift in the rigor metric.

Students are using an outdated measurement system: quantity of work. But college rigor is less about how much you do and more about what kind of thinking the work requires. In other words, the quality of learning outcomes is what truly defines rigor in higher education.

Because this shift isn’t made explicit, students interpret fewer assignments as less challenge. But the reality is that each assignment carries more cognitive weight—requiring higher-order thinking skills like analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

---

Crossed Wires: Why Strong Students Struggle Early

This mismatch in rigor perception creates what I call a “rigor gap.” Students work less (because they think less is expected), but perform worse (because more is actually demanded). Their internal GPS is misaligned.

Upperclassmen try to bridge this gap by offering course advice. “Don’t take Dr. Jones—she’s hard,” or “Take Dr. Foster—he’s easy.” More reflective students will say, “Dr. Fletcher is tough, but you’ll learn a lot.”

What these upperclassmen are actually doing is communicating a qualitative rigor scale—whether they realize it or not. They’ve learned the hard way that different professors demand different depths of thinking, not just different workloads.

So over time, students begin to discover:

1. Their old rigor metric doesn’t apply.

2. The real difference between courses lies in the quality of expected learning outcomes.

---

A Tool to Bridge the Gap: The ThinkWell-LearnWell™ Diagram

Once students realize they need a new way to measure and approach rigor, they need a model to help them adapt. That’s why I developed the ThinkWell-LearnWell™ Diagram (TWLW)—a metacognitive tool that helps students:

• Understand the level of thinking a course demands

• Set appropriate learning goals

• Match their study activity to the desired outcome

• Reflect on whether their effort is generating actual learning

Students report that using the diagram leads to deeper learning and better test scores. It turns invisible expectations into visible strategies.

Download the Diagram for Free Here.

View an excellent application of the Diagram on my YouTube channel.

---

How Institutions Can Close the Rigor Gap

If we want to help students succeed in truly rigorous environments, we must do more than assign harder work. We must make the rules of rigor transparent and teach students how to operate within them.

Here’s how:

1. Make the shift explicit.

Let students know early and often that the bar has moved. It’s not about doing more, it’s about thinking more deeply. Frame rigor in terms of cognitive demand, not task count.

2. Teach them how to respond to rigor.

It’s not enough to mention Bloom’s Taxonomy in a syllabus. Students need tools that help them set goals, monitor progress, and reflect on outcomes. The TWLW Diagram gives them a way to take ownership of their learning.

Download a free version of the ThinkWell-LearnWell™ Diagram here.

---

Research to Reality: Activities for Students, Faculty, and Institutions

For Students:

Activity: Rigor Reframe

1. Choose a current class and list the number of assignments, quizzes, and exams.

2. Then, list the thinking skills each task requires (e.g., remembering, analyzing, evaluating). Review this video for guidance. 

3. Ask: Is this course hard because of quantity, or the quality of thinking it demands?

Reflection Prompt:

“What does rigor look like in this course—and how do I need to adjust my approach?”

---

For Faculty:

Activity: Assignment Audit

1. Review a recent assignment. Identify the level of thinking required using your preferred cognitive skill classification systems, such as Bloom’s Taxonomy.

2. Compare it to students’ performance. Are they underperforming because they misunderstood the task’s cognitive demand?

3. Consider discussing the thinking expectations with students before the assignment.

Reflection Prompt:

“Have I made the real rigor of this task visible to my students?”

Click here to view the Metacognitive Teaching Tactics playlist from The LearnWell Projects’ YouTube page.

---

For Institutions:

Action Step: Rigor Orientation
Students must make critical adjustments early in their academic careers. Integrate a short session on academic rigor into orientation, first-year seminars or entry-level courses. Use examples to show the shift from quantity to quality and introduce tools like the TWLW Diagram.

Reflection Prompt:

“How does our institution define and communicate rigor—and is it aligned with how students experience it?”

Many schools and learning centers have reported positive shifts in student thinking, discourse and performance after hanging the poster-sized diagrams in their classrooms or learning centers. You can view and purchase them here.

---

Final Thought

Students don’t fail to meet rigorous standards because they’re lazy or incapable. More often, they’re operating with an outdated roadmap. Until we teach them how the landscape of learning has changed, we’ll continue to see good students struggle—and wonder why.

When we define rigor not by how much work is assigned, but by how deeply students are required to think, we open the door to meaningful learning, not just busier work.

For more insights into how to help students escape common learning traps and build the cognitive habits that lead to long-term success, explore my groundbreaking book.

It’s a guide designed to support both educators and students in making the shift from high performance to deep, lasting learning.

You’ve come this far. Let’s connect in the comments section.  Share your reaction below.👇🏿

As always, follow The LearnWell Projects on all your social media platforms and subscribe to my growing YouTube community!