Do your gender, your IQ or your background decide how well you do at school? These three misconceptions are stubborn. Yet research shows that their weight comes mostly from what we believe about them: a stereotype you buy into can hold back your results, without saying anything about your real abilities.
Here is what studies say about each of these beliefs, what they do not say, and how to keep them from affecting your studies. This article is for secondary school pupils and students, and also for the parents who support them.
“I’m bad at maths because I’m a girl”
You have probably heard that girls are more literary and boys more scientific. Statistics do show average gaps: in many countries, boys do slightly better in maths and girls clearly better in reading.
But an average gap says nothing about you. And several experiments show that part of this gap comes from the stereotype itself.
One figure, two instructions
In 2007, researchers Pascal Huguet and Isabelle Régner asked pupils aged 11 to 13 to reproduce a complex figure from memory. In half of the classes, the exercise was presented as a geometry test; in the other half, as a drawing test.
- Presented as geometry, the exercise was done less well by girls than by boys.
- Presented as drawing, the very same exercise was done better by girls.
The task was identical. Only the word had changed. Psychologists call this stereotype threat: the fear of confirming a negative reputation of your group takes up mental space and lowers performance.
Other studies, with female students who were good at maths, point the same way. When they were told the test showed no difference between men and women, they did as well as the men.
What about boys?
The stereotype works the other way too. According to the OECD, boys are more likely than girls to say school is a waste of time, and on average they spend about one hour less per week on homework. This has nothing to do with their abilities: it is often the image of “the boy who doesn’t make an effort” that costs them marks in languages.
An honest caveat: researchers now debate how strong stereotype threat really is, as some recent studies find a smaller effect than the early ones. The effect exists, but it does not explain everything.
“My IQ isn’t great, so my results won’t be either”
Our brain tends to remember what confirms what we already believe: this is confirmation bias. If you are convinced you are not “smart enough”, you will notice every bad mark and forget your successes. You then risk giving up sooner when an exercise gets hard.
The Pygmalion effect
In 1968, Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson led teachers to believe that some of their pupils, actually picked at random, were about to make big progress. By the end of the year, these pupils had progressed more on the tests than their classmates, especially in the first years of primary school. This is the Pygmalion effect, a form of self-fulfilling prophecy: an expectation changes how you treat someone, and that treatment ends up proving the expectation right.
Here too, some nuance is needed. The study was widely criticised and later research finds a real but modest effect. Adults’ expectations matter, but they do not transform a pupil on their own.
What you can take away
- IQ does not sum up intelligence: there are several ways of being gifted, as our article on the 8 types of intelligence shows.
- At school, a good method, regular work and self-confidence weigh heavily on results.
- A difficulty in a subject is a starting point, not a permanent label.
“I come from a working-class background, so I’m less likely to succeed”
This misconception rests on a real finding. According to the 2022 PISA survey, French-speaking Belgian education (the Wallonia-Brussels Federation) remains among the systems where gaps in results linked to social background are the widest. Yet this is not inevitable: other countries manage to narrow these gaps considerably, which shows how much the way schooling is organised matters.
This finding is about averages, not individuals. Every year, many pupils from modest families succeed in secondary school and then in higher education.
What makes the difference
- Not taking the stereotype on board: as with gender, believing “this isn’t for me” can be enough to hold back effort and participation in class.
- Interest from family: parents who listen, ask about school and value effort boost motivation, even if they did not go on to higher education themselves.
- Asking for help early: a gap that is filled quickly does not turn into falling behind.
Parents: how to defuse these misconceptions
Your words matter. A few simple habits help your child avoid getting stuck with a label:
- avoid phrases like “nobody in our family was ever good at maths”;
- praise effort and method rather than “talent”;
- present a bad mark as information about what still needs work;
- encourage girls in science and boys in languages as much as in other subjects.
Regaining confidence with the right support
When a misconception has taken hold (“I’m bad at maths”, “this isn’t for me”), an outside perspective often helps to move past it. At My Sherpa, an educational advisor chooses a coach suited to your child’s needs, for private tutoring at home anywhere in Belgium, or online.
The coach starts from your child’s real level, helps them progress step by step and shows, with results, that the subject is within reach. For maths tutoring in secondary school as well as for study skills, the goal is the same: replace “I can’t do it” with “I know how to tackle it”.
Girl or boy, whatever your IQ or your background, success in every subject is within your reach. Your confidence, your method and your effort are the best ingredients.
