Unoriginal

I personally see myself as relatively smart, but not smart enough to get A's in AP classes without studying. Next year, I decided to take 3 AP courses and a college course, usually only offered for twelfth grade honor students, in my junior year. I have a decent GPA this year, but next year is going to kill my GPA. My question is, how do you guys and girls manage to do so well in all 1,000,000+ AP courses you take? What are your study habits like?

circumlocution2

there are some kids who never really have to study or put forth much effort to earn A's. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them.
Before this year, I thought my courseload was pretty challenging-- i had a decent amount of homework, i studied a reasonable amount, etc.
However this year, i've learned what HARD work really is-- so my study habits basically consist of 1) going to my room and turning off all distractions (except music)
2)staying in my room until my work is done, which is usually till the time i'm ready to go to sleep- i go to bed at 1-2 usually.
it sucks. but there's not really much choice for me if i still want to get A's.

freetshirtsorg

I Need Serious Study Help from Students with 90+ GPAs and sleep ~6 or more hrs/night
Forge your own skills.
Go you.

thelittlemermaid

Well, I do all the homework and pay attention in class. Studying with someone else from the class really helps too, as well as participating in class discussion (unless it's a math class, in which case there is no class discussion). In any case, it's all about working hard. I tend to concentrate more on the honors classes (next year, it'll be AP classes) than the regular classes, which helps.

Sheed30

NUMBER ONE PIECE OF ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU!

and this is coming from a valedictorian....is to pay attention in class. Seriously pay attention in class like you're life depends on it and you'll be fine.

prints

I agree with Sheed30. Putting a lot of focus and attention into the time you actually spend in the classroom makes the homework much more easier to do and to handle.

ivanadoeslimbo

Time management will save your life.

I had a really hard time with this beginning of my junior year. I was put in a living situation with 11 other people in a relatively small home, and I found it really hard to focus. It hurt my GPA, but I think I've become a better student because I was forced to learn how to focus and manage my time.

For a few months, I would actually schedule my time at home. I would write down my schedule, planning my entire day hour by hour. It was really hard to adjust to, but once I had written my schedule down I was determined to follow it. Obviously, sometimes you finish something early so you move up your schedule, and I would always leave extra time at the end to finish up anything I didn't have time to do.

Now that I've become more accustomed to sitting down and doing my work without getting too distracted, I don't usually need the schedule (but on really busy days, sometimes I'll still do it).

As far as projects/essays go, definitely at least start THINKING about what you're going to do well ahead of time. Even if you don't start doing the actual work until later on, thinking about it will get your juices flowing, so to speak.

I also take notes in class, and take the time to review my notes everyday, or at the end of each week (depending on the amount of notes per day). It may seem a little silly to go over it, since you JUST wrote it but I found that I would remember details much better.

Highlighters, post-its, and planners are my best friends. Actively reading almost forces me to pay closer attention to the text, post-its are awesome for remembering small details, and writing deadlines ahead of time will make your life simpler.

You basically have to create good study habits, and reinforce that behavior until it becomes natural. Good luck, and feel free to PM me if you need anything!

Unoriginal

This is all very interesting. I don't use planners, highlighters, or sticky notes in my classes. I do pay attention in my classes, very much so in fact, but sometimes I think it's not enough.

I had a dream that I was in AP American(I signed up for it next year) and I was writing an essay, and I completely freaked out! I don't know if this is a sign that I shouldn't take it or something!

Seriously, I feel out of place on College Confidential. Everybody talks about getting 4.0's, 5's on AP tests, self-studying AP's, and getting in Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc, yet I seem to have difficulty maintaining a 3.7 when I'm not even in an AP class....

MBP

you need to challenge yourself, even if you end up failing (which is a horrible idea, to most people here).
If you're working your butt off to keep a 3.7, then maybe you should only take a couple of the AP classes that you're planning on. However, if you're not working very hard to get your 3.7, then I would say to take all the APs.

JteH

In addition to all these ideas, you need to be extremely motivated (find something that you can gain from getting straight A's like a good future or bragging rights).

For me, I generally despise getting B's because from my experiences on CC, B's seem to be looked down upon by the AdComs.

1337scrub

My keys to success:

1. Unless you are legitimately capable of teaching yourself from the book (AP Stats and much of AP Chem for me), pay full attention in class. This means not merely listening, but asking and answering as many questions as it takes to "get" the material at hand.

2. Do your homework as it was meant to be done. Take your time as you do the problems - don't BS anything. I personally check my answer at the back of the book immediately, and if its wrong, I hunt through the logic that led me to it. I don't rest until I figure out how I get the right answer. I've spent as much as 20-30 minutes on a problem before, but it pays off: I now understand exactly what I have to do and the rest becomes easy.

3. Study without distractions. Some people work better with music, but personally, that distracts me too. If you don't actively need a computer, then get as far away from it as possible to remove the temptation. Sometimes the best study spots are away from home - I once studied at the local YMCA and was amazingly efficient.

4. Drink lots of water. Dehydration accounts for somewhere between 95-98% of all headaches, and even being slightly dehydrated will hinder your performance. I personally keep a nalgene (1L water bottle) with me at all times, and drink generously from it as soon as I feel the least bit thirsty. When it is empty, I fill it immediately. This simple habit is probably one of my most potent.

5. Learn how to manage sleep. A sleep cycle is roughly 90 minutes in length. After 20 minutes into a sleep cycle, your body enters "deep sleep", where it becomes hard to wake up and doing so will make you feel bad/groggy. Thus, you want to sleep such that you wake up in that 20-minute beginning of the next sleep cycle. At minimum, a person needs 3-4 sleep cycles a night to perform well and 4-5 sleep cycles is ideal (more than 5 is actually bad for performance, though I personally sleep in at least once on a weekend). Never take a nap that's longer than 20 minutes unless you can commit to a 90 minute sleep cycle. If you get too little sleep, and have a free afternoon, capitalize on the chance to get a 1.5 or 3 hour nap (going any longer will make it very hard to get to sleep that night).

6. Learn what you can and can't do with caffeine. I personally minimize my consumption of it so that it's most effective when I need it. Caffeine has a half-life in your body of about 5 hours, and it ruins deep sleep. Never have more than one caffeinated 12-ounce soda at night. I generally only use it for effect on the occasional all-nighter.

Unoriginal

I do pay full attention in class, and such is the reason why I think I'm faring quite well in some classes I normally wouldn't.

I try to do my homework as it should be done, but when I do it late at night, sometimes I just don't care about if it's correct or not.

I do study with no distractions, usually at least.

Yeah, I usually tend to drink water when I'm studying.

Ugh, sometimes I fall asleep right when I get home from school, and it screws up my whole sleeping cycle. But yeah, now I'm managing a good 6-7 1/2 hours worth of sleep, as opposed to the 5 hours or less I usually managed earlier in the year.

I don't drink coffee, and I'd prefer it to stay that way. I also do not drink soda at night, only water and milk.

Thanks for the tips though, I'm glad you posted.

MonoTombo

"sometimes I fall asleep right when I get home from school"

I was doing Track & Field and I tried my BEST to not fall asleep when I came back. It screws up my sleeping schedule for the entire week if I decide to take a nap. I suggest finding a better schedule so you stop doing homework so late.

skp

My idea is that one key problem is that when homework piles up enough, you start to not care about how it's done, and just want to get it over with, like you said, when it's late at night, you just don't care.

One way to remedy this is to start studying as soon as you get home and get all it over with early on, leaving you time to do whatever you want. Some people here I've heard start studying at insane times, such as 11 PM and end at 2 or 3 AM. You sound more like me in this category. If I start too late, I can't concentrate and do badly. Just start earlier.

On paying attention in class, I think that this is often not enough, especially for some like me. I need to take clear notes, keep interested, and mainly, understand what's going on. You can pay attention for the entire lecture and still not get it sometimes. Therefore, it's key to ask for help after and during class from the teachers and from other classmates. Get extra practice (in like math or chem) if it's necessary.

Finally, a key piece of advice is to keep up in class. It may be easy at first, but as time goes by, the work is going to pile up. Don't let it. Keep in mind homework deadlines, and don't leave everything for the last minute. If you know you have some volunteer activity the same day before a 4 page essay is due, do the essay maybe a few days in advance. Above all, don't procrastinate.

DOC32

Well I am not in a lot of APs. I did a couple and I did pretty well. I didn't work hard, but when it came down to the day before a test I crammed. Some people have good work ethic basically spending a little time everyday to do work instead of little time and a lot of work.