Post-secondary jitters

I stood in the middle of the classroom this afternoon answering a stream of questions from my grade twelve students -all questions pertaining to marks:
-how did I weight this assignment?
-what assignments can be upgraded and resubmitted?
-how can they raise their average?

The question that stunned me, though I tried not to show it, was J's :
-is this mark entered in the gradebook as a portfolio assignment an assignment she should include in her portfolio?

The sheer redundancy of the question shocked me. Then I realized J is likely so stressed about marks for post-secondary opportunities she is unable to accept the obvious. She seems to believe that nothing is a given. All must be questioned. Is the education system ( and my teaching ) so Machiavellian our students cannot view results as anything but a guessing game?

But I've been good today!

I have an identified student in grade nine who struggles to focus. Today he decided to sit at the back instead of in the middle of the classroom. I said that he needed to be closer to the front. His response suggested he viewed moving up as some kind of punishment : "But I've been good back here!" I quickly pointed out that he was a good person, but that he would be able to focus better closer to the front.

How do we as teachers help teenagers when they fail to perceive "help" as a positive thing?