I'll do really well in a castings, and have strong challenge scores in comparison to others. I'll feel really confident and think "I should join survivor and actually get somewhere". But nope, I still get the lowest scores in comparison to everyone else.
I've tried waiting to join a decent tribe with high-levelled players so we have more chance of winning but it just means i'm the under-dog and gone quite quickly as the weakest player.
Whenever I join with friends, I survive a little bit longer but somehow we are always up against some sort've super tribe - proving impossible to beat.
I try to hunt as much as I can and complete every single challenge.. It's very rare that I miss a challenge.
Maybe it's because i'm not well-known, maybe because I don't make alliances or maybe I just need to practice challenges more often.