Thanks for answering and have a great Labor Day weekend! (If you have not started school yet, good luck and to everyone who has started school yet, hope everything is going well in the year!)
Do the daily reading to prepare for classes. Don’t wait until the night before a test to study. Write drafts of papers at least a few days in advance and learn to edit. Work all the math problems to make sure you understand them. The biggest way folks get themselves in a jam is not keeping up. Same thing can happen in college.
Honestly, just turn in everything on time. That made the difference of about 10 percentage points in some cases between me and all the other people in my honors classes. When you go home, do all of your homework immediately. I was done in 1-2 hours at most the majority of the time, and then I had the rest of the night to do whatever I wanted.
I hope you have fun this year! Some free side advice: I’m sure you’ve heard this a million times before, but don’t be afraid to try new things! Something I wasn’t even going to do going into high school (marching band) became one of the biggest parts of my high school life during the fall semester. If an opportunity to join a new club or organization that seems even vaguely interesting comes your way, do it. This is the best time to experiment.
Keep up to date with all your classes. Don’t procrastinate with any big projects and essays! It’ll only make the situation worse. If you have any problem with grasping the material, don’t be afraid to ask the teacher. Do extra credit whenever available to boost your grade in case you get a low test/quiz score. Good luck!
I feel old because I was a freshman last year and there are now Class of 2020 people posting as Freshman.
ANYWAYS, this schedule should be very manageable, just be prudent and do your homework in a commendable manner when assigned. Also, do not forget about extracurricular activities and volunteer work in your busy year of academics.
Ask your teachers for help when you are struggling.
Make a schedule and stick to it. Don’t procrastinate! And don’t slack in easy classes- I did that in Spanish 2H second semester of 9th grade and got a A- when I easily could have had an A or A+.
Turn off your cell phone, TV, and computer (unless needed) while you are doing homework. If you need your computer, turn off all tabs and music except those that are for your work.
Do your homework, participate in class, have good time management and if you don’t understand something, make sure to figure it out/get some help right away and don’t put it off.
Don't be afraid to ask for help - If you're having trouble with something, it isn't a bad thing to admit that you need assistance
Time management - If you're in many ECs and have tons of homework, it helps to have a schedule to adhere to so you can avoid procrastination. Google schedule is a good one to use.
Limit procrastination - procrastination is fine, but its not something that you should do so often that it starts to mess up your grades
Sleep - At least 6-8 hours a night
That’s all I can think of so far, but good luck starting your freshmen year!
This is for college, but very applicable for HS. Replace “professor” with “teacher”.
GO TO CLASS,READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!
Go to Professor’s office hours and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.
Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
For your tests, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study…there may be a study skill center at your college.
How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job.
At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)
If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etcetc) then immediately go to the counseling center and talk to them. Talk to the dean of students about coordinating your classes…e.g. sometimes you can take a medical withdrawal. Or you could withdraw from a particular class to free up tim for the others.Sometimes you can take an incomplete if you are doing well and mostly finished the semester and suddenly get pneumonia/in a car accident (happened to me)…you can heal and take the final first thing the next semester. But talk to your adviser about that too.
At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The professor may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.
Make sure you understand how to use your online class system…Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the prof wants).
If you get an assignment…make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.
If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.
I’ll add one: stay off of this website. You are way too young to be worrying about college stuff now. Enjoy your high school years. You don’t get them back. (And 95 posts already, and you’re just now starting freshman year? OY.)