So today was the first day of cross country tryouts at my school, but I couldn’t go since I’m going to be at summer school all week, with this week being the last week of summer school. I was, however, debating on whether or not I should even do cross country. Since summer school started, I’ve been waiting for it to end so I could have more available time to prep. If I decide to do cross country, it’ll be like my PE summer class all over again, where I’ll be so tired after practice, I won’t feel up to doing prep. So I was wondering what I should go for, prep or cross country. I would honestly love to do cross country again, because I kind of miss being with all of my track friends and being on a team, but I’d be fine with starting in November doing indoor track.
@ak2018 No such thing as overprepping unless you are getting 1600/36 consistently
Well, today was my first day of junior year, and this coming year is going to be hard.
APUSH is going to be quite a bit of work, and there will be lots of quizzes.
AP English Language is going to really improve my writing and grammar skills. The teacher is also very nice.
AP Statistics is going to be a very fun class. I am the only person who is not a senior, since all of the other juniors chose to drop AP Spanish to take AP Calc. I really like AP Calc and I plan on self-studying it still, but I would rather become proficient in a language. The teacher is very nice and will really make the content interesting. I already like math anyway, so this is going to be a very fun class.
AP Spanish is almost entirely in Spanish, and even though I want to be fluent in Spanish, it was confusing/tiring when I was translating everything to English in my head. I think that I will get much better at Spanish though.
AP Art History is going to be a really cool class. I have heard many people say that it can really change the way that someone looks at art, which I would be welcome to. There also isn’t going to be that much homework/work, which is nice.
AP Chemistry will no doubt be the hardest class that I will take in high school. The teacher wants everyone to get a 4 or a 5, which I think is great, but it means that there will be a huge amount of work, and that the tests will be extremely hard. We are also going to have about forty quizzes this quarter (which is forty-five days long), including four this week.
It is going to be hard to get A’s in all of these classes, 5’s on the exams, and still keep up with my EC/standardized testing stuff.
I don’t know about you guys but I’m ready to kill this year and have the best academic year I have ever had
I just felt like I needed to say this: guys we are going to do exceptionally well this junior year of High School, we will apply to great colleges, and get accepted into awesome schools, and we will become the future generations of leaders that will revolutionize the medical, political, economic, and social aspects of the world. So lets go into this school year, and remember to just be freaking AWESOME!!!
@TP2000 Good luck! I know you will do well! I don’t start till September 6th.
@Tobster18 Thanks for posting that. I always need a little bit of pushing to do better! I can’t wait to be FREAKING AWESOME this year!
@kassh4 Good point!
Okay, I’ve made a decision. I have decided that for the rest of the summer, prepping will be my first priority. I’m no longer going to make myself read any more novels, learn anymore coding, and I will not do cross country. I feel that I should be taking prep more seriously. I mean, none of the things I mentioned are really going to help me that much college all-wise. I can always learn how to code next summer as well as reading even more novels. I’ll be doing indoor track in November anyway. I feel I need those first two months to get settled into the new year and try some clubs.
I’d be thrilled if I got into my state school… RIP
I’ve been in New Hampshire on vacation with my family for the past few days, and today we took a self-guided tour of the University of New Hampshire. My stats would make it a decent safety, I don’t know too much about its academics, but the campus was pretty nice! According to an alumni student on the campus, the food is amazing, which is always a plus. 
@LeopardFire I’d also be thrilled to go to my state. That part was mainly for those who are Ivy League-bound.
Also, how did you go about your self-guided tour? I actually just e-mailed Virginia Tech and they said they could definitely have my family sit in on an information session on August 22nd, but might not have enough space available for us to go on a tour with a tour group. They said they would try and work things out, but that the only other options are seeing if a representative of The College of Engineering can give me a tour or go on a self-guided tour. I’m going to try getting a representative because I don’t really know how I feel about going on a self-guided tour. I feel like I wouldn’t get as much information as I would if I was on a regular tour and my parents would just rush me. How did you handle it?
@kassh4 Do you think I should wait until Sunday to start doing some actual prep? I currently 5 and 1/2 hours behind on prep because I’m always so tired after my PE class. I literally have class from 7am to 12:40pm, get home at 1pm and, somehow, wake up at 8pm. I feel so tired once I wake up, I only do about 45 minutes of prep before I go back to sleep. This week is the last week of my PE class, so starting next week until the end of the summer, I will finally have enough free time to devote to prepping. I just kind of feel like I’m doing a little too much at once and putting a lot of pressure on myself when there’s literally one week left of my class. The week before my class started, I was doing pretty well when it came to prep.
@ak2018 When does school start for you, and when are you planning on taking the ACT.
@kassh4 I go back to school on August 29th and I plan to take the April ACT.
@ak2018 Ok so you have like a month to prep for the ACT before school starts. I’d say take a break until PE is over and after that start studying. You don’t have to go immensely hard cuz you still have until April and you can study during the weekends and during breaks.
@kassh4 Thanks for the advice! 
@ak2018 Are you going to take the PSAT?
@kass4 Oh yeah! I almost forgot. My school requires that the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors take the PSAT in mid-October. The freshmen take the PSAT 9, the sophomores take the PSAT 10, and the juniors take the PSAT 11. The seniors get to go on a field trip to some museum. All I know is, I’m definitely not shooting for NMF.
@ak2018 Does anyone actually study for the PSAT 9/10?
@ak2018 so you sleep for like 15 hours a day!!!1
@kassh4 Not anyone I know of at my school. In fact, a lot of people at my school just take the SAT the first time to figure out where they are and how much they need to study, then take it a second, and final, time. A week before the PSAT was given, we were given a little study guide complete with a practice test. I did parts of the practice test, but I pretty much just decided to wing it. No one really cared about the PSAT after that until the paper score reports came back. I don’t think anyone at my school really even knows the National Merit Scholarship exists considering the fact that not that no one at my school was a semi-finalist last year.