Early academic difficulties for the freshman student can be highly disruptive. If the range of possible meanings for performing less than one's own or other's expectations is left unexplored there an result a state of floundering in bewilderment, uncertainty, self-doubt, unproductive repetitive behaviors, perhaps promoting premature withdrawal from school. However, if early academic floundering is sufficiently explored and understood there can result alternative and more effective modes of coping and a more coherent sense of self. Rationale is given for the development and use of a phenomeno-logically-oriented account sensitive to the many and various components of the experience of early academic floundering. Items of the self-assessment inventory given here are cast in student-centered terms and are designed to facilitate student exploration on a range of issues which may be pertinent to early academic difficulties and the experience of floundering.