Worried about tenth grade…advice and reassurance?

Pre-College Topics High School Cafe
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I’m taking these classes next year:

  • AP Euro (pretty worried about my first AP…)
  • English II Acc (English II Acc is supposedly way easier than English I Acc, so if that’s true then I have nothing to worry about, but writing worries me in general…more on that later)
    -Chemistry (also concerned about this one because I had a bad teacher for middle school chemistry, my amazing 7th grade bio teacher is the reason I’m doing well in freshman bio)
    -Algebra 2/trig acc (not worried about in the least, should be an easy A for me, I self studied most of the material this year and I’ll have self studied the entire thing by the time class starts)
    -Spanish II (Not too thrilled about what’s apparently the hardest year of Spanish, but I think I’ll be fine if I study regularly)
    -PE or XC/track (if I make the team…sports scare me)

So, this is kinda just me ranting about my concerns and hoping somebody can give me some advice, lol.

Freshman year is actually going really well for me, way better than I could have anticipated. For the first time, I find myself actually afraid for the school year to end, because that means next year will start. Yeah, it’s bragging, sorry, but this year everything (basically) is just going right, and it’s as close to optimal as I could reasonably expect.

My (hopefully quick) rant about writing….

I have a pretty hard time focusing on writing. For most things, once I start and get focused I don’t have too much of an issue keeping my focus, but when it comes to writing, I just struggle with how dense it is and I get bogged down and this makes my procrastinating worse. As I type this, I’m procrastinating finishing my research paper draft for English class. All the writing in English and history class really intimidates me. I’m not a genuinely good writer (as you can probably tell…), but I can use enough pretentious phrases such to get good grades on my papers. I don’t use a thesaurus to find big words or anything, I just use a lot of phrases that seem pretty cliche to me. I could rant all day about how inevitably cliche my writing always seems to me, but I digress. On a serious note, although I can recognize something as bad writing, I don’t really understand what “good writing” is. I figure I must be over thinking it because my writing always seems to dissolve to the point where it turns into mush, but at the same time I don’t think I put enough thought into my writing. Maybe the type of thought is the problem.

Oddly, I tend to do well on my writing compared to my peers, which I don’t usually expect. Maybe it’s a confidence issue, but a lot of times I’ll submit papers that I know have flaws but I’m too lazy to fix them, and then I get high grades on them and I usually assume that I only did well because the teacher didn’t actually grade mine properly (maybe they only skimmed it?) or they weren’t grading strictly. For example, we had lab write ups in biology and I didn’t think I’d do really well because we sort of screwed up our experiment and my conclusion was sort of off topic and didn’t have much analysis and I thought a few sections of my lab were wrong, to name a few things. I was seriously expecting a B, but the teacher gave me 100%??? I know that overachievers tend to do the whole “I thought I’d ‘fail’ it, but I got an A!” thing as a humble brag (or the cousin of it, “I totally failed, I got a 92!”), but I was genuinely really surprised to even get an A.

/end rant

For chemistry, I think I’ll be okay if I do some basic learning over summer, but I’m still somewhat afraid of labs and lab write ups. There’s not much I can do to prepare myself for the fear of spilling HCl all over myself, though.

Cross country and track…I haven’t been involved in organized sports since early elementary school, but I’m trying to push myself because I think the benefits outweigh the stress. Still, new things are inherently intimidating to me.

I don’t really have any specific questions, I really just needed to vent and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get any opinions/advice/study habit tips. Sorry for writing so much, I really appreciate if any of you indulge my whole “overachiever freshie who’s being a perfectionist” thing.

Thank you!

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Hey DogsAndMath!

Remember: everyone in your school who is a junior or a senior survived sophomore year. It may be difficult, and of course everyone is different and doing different things, but I find this is a helpful thing to keep in mind. Right now I’m freaking out about AP Chem for next year, and the only thing that’s even slightly calming is realizing that many a student has made it though that class without too much emotional scarring. Worried about AP Euro? This, again, isn’t to say you shouldn’t be, but know that all around the U.S., kids are taking Euro as their first AP. It’s all going to be okay. :slight_smile:
Your schedule looks balanced and nice-- despite the tiny amount of knowledge I have about your situation, I think you’re going to be okay, especially if you work efficiently and effectively. Find the time you work best, and work through that time. This year I discovered that I’m most productive in the morning, and so I do most of my homework on the weekends, starting at about nine and working till three p.m.-ish. Find what works best for you and do it.
About writing: are you concerned about structure or phrasing/voice or both? For structural issues, I would reccommend making detailed outlines: know what your point is, what evidence you have to support that point, and how you are going to fit that evidence together so that your point is made clear before you start writing the paper. For a five page English paper, I typically have a page or a page and a half of dense outline, though that’s probably more than is necessary. You might run into a paper where writing your argument in premise-conclusion form before starting your rough draft is helpful. I find that having a strong outline helps with focus a lot.
As for voice and phrasing, work to make your writing clear. Pay attention to sentence structure-- mix it up, and make sure your sentences don’t get clunky. Cut down on passive voice sentences and forms of the verb “to be.” Try for precision and eliminate ambiguity. Use strong examples and provide analysis, reaching into the text and applying specific details to help with your greater point. Find words that propel your argument forward, and be precise.
For large assignments, spend considerable time musing on what your thesis is. I tend to do this in two ways: first, by going back to the source and making note of anything that seems interesting, important, or related to the prompt or an idea for my approach, and second, by thinking about it without other things around, say, in the shower, or while taking a walk outside.
Hope this helps, and I hope you have a great year!

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Thanks Pseudoprimal, I really appreciate all the advice! I’ll be sure to keep it in mind.