So I guess my suggestions is find something your DD is passionate about and encourage her to work on that. Find something that challenges her to reach just a bit outside her comfort zone. It doesn't have to be school that challenges her or teaches study habits. DD spent 100's of hours researching a topic for a hobby. She never understands "what the big deal is" when she does some of the extraordinary things she does. It's just normal for her. I'm guessing your DD may be similar. Even if she does some amazing work she will probably not see it as anything special. Just guessing.
Oh and as a freshman at a highly ranked university, surrounded by some of the best and brightest who graduated at the top of their respective high school classes I distinctly remember the week the first round of test grades came back. They landed like a nuclear bomb. Hundreds of kids who skated through HS doing minimal work for top grades had their worlds impload. Scores of 29 or 36 were like daggers in their hearts. Partying came to a screeching halt, people learned to study. Not everyone made it - there was a very high attrition rate. Very high. So your DD is not alone.
Just my 2 cents...
Oh yes, doing research is absolute joy for DD. After school is her fun zone. We need to shove her out the door to make her get some fresh air and exercise. I will have to think carefully about finding something challenging while dealing with the reality that the AP teachers are asking for summer work plus we plan to travel quite a bit. Balance is key. I wish I had posted this earlier in the year and set up something for DD at that point.
That situation in college in which kids hit reality hard is one we want to avoid. We have asked the HS teachers to up the difficulty of DD's work, but only one teacher jumped at the chance.
