This times 10. My "gifted" sophomore just failed 2 classes. sigh. college algebra and biotechnology (we are still waiting on AP lit and health). Of course, he also has an IEP, so he has a gifted plan and an IEP, so no one has a clue what to do with him. Hopefully he can pull it together next year....
my 2E rising sophomore son is presently struggling with whether to take AP capstone program (requiring 7+ AP courses) starting next year - he has a 504 (qualified for an IEP but attends a charter school and they are very accomodating and flexible so went with the 504 instead...) and is such a perfectionist that his tests take him more than double time EVEN when he has all the answers correct in the first 30 minutes...he'll try to prove his geometry several ways to "make sure" he's right, for instance...he also is trying to balance trying for Level 10 (due to age, not skill set...) in gym and whether he wants to push musically for a solo violin career or just shoot for chamber and relax...
I don't know what to suggest for him and the school is set up to allow motivated kids to push as far as they want, but his advisor also has his testing results, so wonders if he can succeed even with the double time he gets on all standardized testing....what I notice most is that he can't really balance trying to excel in everything at once (duh) and ends up petting his cat and watching classical music and gymnastics videos while thinking about astrophysics for hours when he gets overwhelmed...now he's behind in his advanced humanities course and will be up until midnight all week to finish it on time....which means me too, as his 504 includes dictating/proofreader for papers (severe dyslexia...)...
My DD is classic mod gifted...99% on testing but not 99.99999%. School is easy, quickly done, she's done all high school courses for 8th grade, and will take double math and science next year. Now that gym is done for her she spends hours writing each day...she's intense but not nearly as quirky as her brother - and much more flexible....She homeschooled though 7th grade, and honestly never worked to her ability, but did get exposed to in depth learning and great literature, music, art, experimental science, etc. She entered 8th grade and placed 2 years ahead of where she was working and has excelled in those classes, is getting extra credit in her electives because of her writing ability, etc. She loves school and learning and its easy for her. She attends the same charter as my son, and will slide through AP capstone, could graduate early, etc. She naturally chose to drop music when she realized she wasn't passionate about it and although good, not interested in being great, gave up gym and similarly doesn't push herself like her brother.
I think kids like DD do fine with gym and tough schedules - but unfortunately, its often the ones like DS who want to do it all....
I bring my kids up because they weren't in mainstream gifted track in elementary and middle school but in high school (essentially HS for DD due to all classes being at the high school this year other than electives and health) have been able to jump in where they are ready/willing to do the work. Sure, both have had to double up to get to calculus by junior year - but they are choosing to do that as high school kids, not being tracked there as 6th graders. Not to say its wrong at all to accelerate early - again, I kept them home and stimulated until high school level - but its not at all impossible to "ramp it up" later and accelerate. And gifted does not mean easy...