Academic despair

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>First and foremost, I would like to plead to the CC community to offer tips on how to work efficiently, manage my time, and avoid procrastination. It's a tremendous struggle for me right now and it's hindering my academic performance considerably. (Apologies if a similar thread was already posted, feel free to link me.)</p>

<p>Second issue at hand: this term I received by far the lowest GPA of my life, a 3.2. I was close to tears, feeling horrendous, am terrified of dealing with how angry my advisor will be, as well as that of my parents and older siblings. I haven't read my teacher comments because I'm so scared of what they say. What are the possible consequences of this bombing, and what would you recommend to "recover," if you will? Are top tier colleges out of the question? (And to be clear, I promise I'm genuinely freaking out. This is not some ploy to get attention or sympathy, though I wish it was.)
(Misc. details you may or may not care about)
I'm a sophomore at a boarding school, procrastinator, social butterfly, typically very sleep-deprived and have a habit of turning in assignments late. Right now I'm taking English, History, Chinese 3, Precalc H, and AP Bio and am very involved in extracurriculars and community service.</p>

<p>Thanks for your help guys,</p>

2

<p>And while we’re (or rather, me because I’m the only person up this late because I’m on vacation…awk) on the topic, do you guys think it’s fair to fault students on the basis that they are not hard-working? Just as some students are naturally more intelligent, others are naturally more studious as opposed to those who simply don’t have the mindset to prioritize and get their work done (aka yours truly).
I know I’m making excuses, but at the same time I feel this is a fairly legitimate argument - a student can’t change his/her work ethic without CONSIDERABLE struggle, is it fair to them to punish them for it?</p>

3

<p>If you mean by “punishment” not getting into the college you want, then how would you be being punished any more than someone that tried hard but had the same results? It’s the results that matter. If you mean should your parents be patient with you, they should remember that people mature at different rates, have different issues, etc. Perhaps one of them went through a similar phase. Maybe your school has a counselor that could help, or maybe your parents could find one. Don’t despair anyway. If you turn things around, you can still get into a good school. They look for improvement, not just average over four years. And not getting into a “top tier” college doesn’t ruin your life either. There are many, many schools in which you can get an excellent education, once you are ready to take advantage of the opportunity.</p>

4

<p>Well I didn’t give a damn about high school grades and no one really should. College grades matter more so.</p>

5

<p>Impala exaggerates, but yes, you shouldn’t place too much emphasis on high school. If you want to work hard, I don’t know what to say. Turn off the computer, and give yourself a choice between studying and reading a good book. After a while, you’ll run out of good books, and you’ll have to study. I guess that would work. And you’d also get a lot of reading in.</p>

6

<p>You put in what you get out. Simple as that</p>

7

<p>Stop procrastinating.</p>

<p>Seriously. I still got into a college with a great merit aid packet package but if I tried in every single one of my classes I think I’d be top-10 material. But then again I’m fine with being a bigger fish in a smaller pond so ^_^</p>

8

<p>wow i used to be in almost the EXACT same position as you from the eight grade to the first two months of the current school year (no matter what i did to motivate myself and despite my best intentions, procrastination got to me and had quite an effect on my grades and GPA and i am also a social butterfly, typically very sleep-deprived and had a habit of turning in assignments late.) </p>

<p>I think its obvious right now that the consequences of bombing can lead to not being able to qualify to take the advanced courses you want to take and it can have a negative influence on receiving potential scholarships and awards and eventually college decisions and disappointing your teachers, friends, and family. </p>

<p>But to me, i always wanted the best and knew i could i can be the best if i actually tried to do the work and take advantage of the opportunities given to me, but rather i did the exact opposite and i felt so guilty and ungrateful since there are people that would kill to have the smarts and opportunities i had. </p>

<p>Thats why i think that it is fair to judge people on how hard they work but I obviously think its not really fair to be punished for it although i can understand the logic for it.</p>

<p>But a few weeks ago, I forced myself to get over this “disease” (I call it a disease since its easy to develop and once you get it its not easy to get rid of it) and i followed a few steps to help me deal with this “disease” and might help you too:</p>

<p>1) Make a reasonable schedule where you have time for everything along with a to-do list and carry it EVERYWHERE (and I do mean everywhere) and stick to it like CEMENT GLUE!!
2) Set your alarm clock as soon as you go to your room and as soon as it goes off (assuming that you use one)
3) As soon as you wake up, do some deep breathing, stretch, and tell yourself that today will be a good day and that you will do well and be a success</p>

<p>4) When you’re in class, participate as much as you can even though you might not think you dont have anything good to say or dont want to do something cuz thats one of the only things that kept me from falling asleep and missing things and just keep interest.
5) Make sure you copy down ALL assignments in an agenda book and copy them correctly
6) Make good use of free time during school hours if you have any</p>

<p>7) Take a nap as soon as you are done with school and afterschool activities cuz you’re going to be quite tired if you’re as busy as you say you are (always remember to breathe deeply and stretch after sleeping to stay awake)<br>
8) Eat something, turn off your cell phone, isolate yourself and get to work!</p>

<p>9) As for assignments that dont require reading, feel free to play your favorite music to get yourself in the groove of homework and make it seem less lame and take a break after
45-60 mins of work so you can stay focused and not get lazy
10) For assignments that do require reading, you have to sit in silence and tough it out till the end of it (I highly recommend taking notes during textbook reading and going to Campbell’s website for reading notes and just outlining the history textbook or your preference of taking notes in general)</p>

<p>11) As for studying, review sheets, practice problems online and in the textbook are your best friends so take advantage of those and make sure to thoroughly go over your notes and mistakes for pre-calc</p>

<p>12) Be sure to set goals for the school year, monthly, and weekly so you can have a chance to reward yourself within reason during the weekends so you can remember that there is a point of all of this at the end</p>

<p>Hopefully if you follow my tips for 2 weeks, you can get the hang of it and find that you can do it all and procrastination will be history and make an interesting college essay topic of triumph in the future and no worries you still have a chance at top tier if you stop procrastinating and have unique ECs =)</p>

9

<p>flower161, I’d ask you to marry me but I don’t want to be too forward. Haha. Thanks for all the wonderful tips, and I will say a few explanations or comments in response:
2) My alarm clock was completely and utterly broken. I only woke up on time because of my roommate calling me up. It’s Thanksgiving break so I do have some time to come home and get a new one, thanks for reminding me!
5) I use Google Calendars…is that sufficient?
7) I don’t think the nap is feasible due to the fact that classes run to 3, sports from 3-5, shower, dinner from 6-7, study hall from 8-10…and when I tried it in middle school my sleep schedule went totally wack.
Everything else is just stellar advice.
And finally, this has been a chronic problem since I was very young (by young I mean 7 or 8 years old) so it has truly been a lifelong struggle. It’s only this year that it caught up to me.
It seems pretty pointless and irrelevant to say this but I’ll go ahead: I’m pretty pessimistic about my ability to change just because it’s been going on for so long, and the adjustment will surely be more challenging than someone who’s faced it for one or two years. However, I’ll give everything a shot and maybe send you a PM to let you know how I’m doing.
Thanks again,</p>

10

<p>Well im not really a big fan of google calendar but i think that google notebook or docs would be better for assignments. But either way thats assuming that you would always have access to that and from personal experience, technology can be a ****** at times so i would have a tangible copy of assignments whether be a day planner, agenda book, or a notebook </p>

<p>But hopefully my tips do help you out so definitely PM me an update =)</p>

11

<p>First of all, I am ridiculously jealous because I would cry tears of joy if that were my GPA, I can barely scrape together a 3.0.</p>

<p>Second, colleges look for any sort of improvement. So if you get a GPA score that is way higher than this next semseter, than it will balance itself out.</p>

<p>As for managing time and not procrastinasting, this is something that will really help. Anytime you can work at school or the library, do it. I too struggle with procrastination but I am always much more inclined to work harder on school grounds, where I am not tempted by food and computers. If you’re assigned a massive assignment due tommorow, do 5 minutes of it every now and then across the school day (when the teacher is checking HW for example, or something). When you get home, you could have already shaved off half an hour’s worth of work.</p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>