For me it didn’t hit me until junior year of HS (when I knew what colleges to target and what kind of grades I needed and what goals to achieve).
I believe at that point it was way too late - you probably need to start in middle school to get on the right track.
Eighth grade, when I finally had a class that required even the slightest bit of brain engagement on my part. Before that, I was the 100 on the test / 0 on the homework kid.
7th grade when they started giving me grades lol.
8th grade, when our classes started getting study/work intensive (well, more from 7th anyway). I didn’t try at all in 7th grade, and still got As, but now you have to fight for an A.
@raventhemage thats funny, my 8th grade year was easier than my 7th
Same here! @snowfairy137
8th grade. Although for me 9th was easier than 8th…
The beginning of grade 9. Before that I didn’t even want to go to college - which seems almost bizarre to me now.
I was basically @allyphoe . I spent all my time making video games and messing around on Counterstrike…
ah, childhood
10th grade. High school here actually doesn’t start in 9th grade, which is probably why that grade was easy for everyone.
On the other hand, at least 1/3 of sophomores I knew failed left and right because of that.
6th grade.
In elementary school, I was a really good student. I went to a different school for 6th-8th and my other school didn’t prepare me for it. I stopped caring about school. I got a 65 on my 8th grade math final!
Before high school, my mom gave me speech and told me that no one ever stressed the importance of high school to her and she was left without opportunities. She ended up in a community college, which turned out well, but she wanted me to be aware.
I took her seriously and when I got to high school became a very good student. In retrospect, I wish I let myself have a little more fun, but at least I have options because I’ve worked my butt off for the last 3+ years.
seventh grade
Tenth grade. I don’t really remember why I became interested then or why I wasn’t interested before that. I don’t think it’s necessary to care about college in middle school, but it’s good to have a love of learning and I didn’t have that as much as I could have.
1st grade, since my father went to prestigious college and I wanted to go to the better, more reputed college than his.
The importance of getting good grades was always on the back of my mind prior to high school, and during 9th grade, I became more aware that whatever I did academically would affect the chances of college acceptance. But it wasn’t until 11th grade that I said, “this is actually going to affect me very very soon, so I better take things more seriously.”
11th grade for me. That was also the year my grades really improved. The thing that got me to really start caring about school was how close I was to having to apply to college. It finally hit me that I need to focus on my grades and standardized test. This was also my first year at a new school that was really small and had a familial environment, so I felt like more than just a number. I joke and say 11th grade was my only year of high school that I didn’t have senioritis
Cared about school in 8th grade. Didn’t really think about college but knew I was in the process of working for that. Early junior year was when I first started thinking about college.
That happened in 7th grade when I got to high school (well middle school but it is connected to the high school). Since the next step up from high school is college, I started thinking to the future and stressing lol… I still haven’t stopped.
I coasted through elementary and middle with ease. I never dropped below an A in those halcyon days. I was that kid who planned out his future: go to Harvard, go to grad school, get a PhD, become rich, live long and happily, die old and happily.
High school hit me like a ton of bricks. I could no longer walk into a test with no prep and ace it. I had to study. And I never developed study habits before high school. Suffice to say, freshman year was not kind.
But I think that was where I had to step back and reevaluate my future plans in a bigger scope. Did I really want to go to Harvard? Did I have the potential to go to a top school? I cared about grades only because I did well; I never cared about grades to be driven to work for them.
I’ve been ‘repenting’, so to speak. I work harder than I have ever worked in my life. I haven’t touched a video game in over half a year. My schedule is just one task after another. It’s sad, in a way, but it’s just something I had to learn. I can’t reap rewards without putting in the work.