<p>Have you thought about being screened for depression and anxiety? These are real things, that through no one’s fault can make a huge difference in how the world feels to you and how you treat yourself. Your gc or your family doctor can help you look into this.</p>
<p>You’ve obviously got a lot of insight to have figured out on your own that you’re creating your own stumbling blocks. All activities have meaning, so creating them has to serve some purpose for you. When you find out what that purpose is it, you can decide whether it’s really what you want, and if so, how to go about it in a way that doesn’t cause you problems.</p>
<p>You can work on these issues anytime but the ideal time is definitely young adulthood or when they first present a problem. When you wait and do it later, you realize how many wonderful things you missed out on while you weren’t feeling yourself. </p>
<p>ITA with Smcnair about AP scores having little impact on admissions–you pretty much have a clean slate for standardized tests. </p>
<p>As an aside…you may not have done as badly as you think you did. Have there been other times that thought you did poorly and ended up with a better score than you expected? (I’ve walked out of classrooms expecting an F and ended up with an A).</p>
<p>I read about a study not that long ago that showed that people who are good at something tend to rank their performance lower than people who aren’t. Oddly enough, after seeing an example of really good work, people who aren’t good at something actually rate their own performance even higher than they did before–and people who actually are good re-adjust their perception of their own work downward. </p>
<p>So what I’m saying is that you probably know a lot about your AP coursework to have reason to believe you did poorly, so you could be in for a surprise, though only time will tell of course, and if you didn’t do as well as you’d like, it’s still not much of an obstacle to your college plans.</p>
<p>Back on track…One thing that might help you get into gear with the SAT studying (besides working on the underlying issues) is to first, give yourself permission to take a little time off and do something fun, perferably outdoors. In the long run, an afternoon at the park, the driving range, or whatever it is you enjoy, won’t take away much from your studying, but it can help you feel refreshed and satisfied enough to tackle a new challenge. </p>
<p>Then, when you’re ready, instead of jumping right into studying, first sit down and develop a plan for how you’re going to study. What materials and methods you’ll use, when you’re going to study and for how long, etc. It used to drive me crazy when my D. and her friend did this (“just study already, you could be done by now…”), but turns out, I was 100% wrong. Making these kinds of plans is actually a very helpful metacognitive task that helps you structure the incoming information. (It also helps you feel less overwhelmed).</p>
<p>You’ll probably get tons of advice. Please let us know (if it’s not too personal) what things ended up helping.</p>