Relative Success

My second son obtained 5Bs in the recent UPSR- his results are not good but not exactly bad either. My rosy estimate is that he would be in the middle-upper percentile(?) but I really won't be pedantic about it & start looking for statistics.

How do I respond to this? Both me and hubby have always been achievers in school, so we did not know how to respond. Son 1 obtained 2As and 3Bs & we had expected Son 2 to do a bit better. Anyhow I ended up giving Son 2 a lot of advice to keep improving (.. should I have done more?). When I asked him how he thought of his performance, he expressed that he was really disappointed of the results. Next question: why did he not do well in the exams? He mentioned that there were some questions for which he was uncertain of the answer. Fair enough. In that case, he needed more preparation. Maybe with past year questions, to improve the chances of success. Left right and centre every friend's child is getting 5As. However I forced myself to recall my own advice: compare you with you, not with others (.. does that make sense?). I take the blame fully for being a neglectful (.. is there such a word?) mother. WILL DO BETTER!!