<p>I'm at the point of my life where I'm like omg-I'm-going-to-high-school-in-a-few-months! I really enjoyed being a good student in middle school (not goody, but the one who got high grades and was involved in extra-curriculars) and I want to keep that up in high school. For some odd reason people keep telling me that my grades will drop a heck (cus I'm takin honors) and that I'll end up dropping out extra-curriculars...I don't want that happen :( Can you give me any advice to handle things well in 9th grade? I would appreciate your comments</p>
<p>well heres how it usually goes, you will notice that your only a number, there are many smarter, better, prettier, more social than you and you will not really care about the things you did in middle school./ high school is a slap in the face, things are really different from middle school...</p>
<p>not to sound harsh or negative, but the little things you worried about before dont matter anymore...and please act mature, being a senior I now notice how stupid and immature most freshman are and i just want to run them over with my car!</p>
<ol>
<li>Proper grammar (most of the time)!</li>
<li>Start your foreign language in 9th grade.</li>
<li>Get required courses out of the way early on.<br></li>
<li>Get good grades.</li>
<li>Get a life! (that's an <em>important</em> one)</li>
</ol>
<p>Don't worry so much about college, and do things for yourself because you like them and not to "boost apps." And be cool!</p>
<p>The most useful piece of advice you'll ever hear: Don't visit CC til your junior year of high school. It's extremely addicting and you'll waste a LOT of time on this site. Come back your junior year to learn about applying to college, otherwise, you may go nuts here. You'll literally freak out once you see the stuff that people on this forum do. If you keep reading around, you'll begin to think that you won't ever get into MIT even if you build a nuclear reactor in your basement.</p>
<p>Don't listen to them, but you will need to work a lot harder next year to get As!!! What classes are you taking next year anyways???</p>
<p>Well, for most people, high school is a total shock. I know a girl who went from being valedictorian of ms to failing out of my highschool. Not to scare you, but most ms' are a JOKE. Really. So just be ready to work, and not completely whine and moan about the two pages of math hw. Most people settle down into the groove, but in soph year, and they've already blown two years of honors. You WILL drop extracurriculars-if you're in a billion. You can really only have 3-4 MAIN ones, maybe a few little ones. You can't do Speech and Debate, Student Council, Dance Comp, Band, Varsity Track, Swimming, and the Play. (Maybe if you VERY strategically placed all of it around each other, but still...why?!). Don't go OCD on doing 1000000 clubs-it's REALLY a lot more important to be in one of substance than a stupid, obviously name-only club.</p>
<p>i guess i'm the only person who didn't find high school a shock at all?</p>
<p>it's like when in 2nd grade they tell you you'll never be able to wright in pencil again, that never happened. or 3rd when you won't be able to wright in print again(for everyone that's taken the sat's, what part takes the longest? that little part that you have to wright in cursive)
then 5th when they tell you how much harder middle school will be, blah blah..
8th grade they tell you how in high school blah blah...take it all with a grain of salt the size of a boulder</p>
<p>i've found none of it to be true.</p>
<p>^^ I agree with that. My transitions were smooth.</p>
<p>But now looking back on it all, I can still see the differences between the two (MS and HS). There gets to be a lot more freedom in high school (probably not in freshman year, I guess) course-wise and you should try a lot of different things to see if you like them. You might end up finding something new that you thought you hated before. (That happened to me w/ history.)</p>
<p>Are there always this many < Freshmen here?</p>
<p>Build up good habits from the start.</p>
<p>Think of it this way: your work ethic will probably degenerate through high school no matter what. If you start out with a better work ethic then you might still have a decent one by the end of high school, but if you start out as a procrastinator then you won't be able to get ANYTHING done by the time you're a junior.</p>
<p>Advice from a former valedictorian:</p>
<ol>
<li> Get your drivers license as early as possible.</li>
<li> Figure out classes you can slack in and still pull the grades, and slack away.<br></li>
<li> Best grade possible for least amount of work - figure this equation out and you're golden.</li>
<li>Go out on weekends, don't commit yourself to a demanding weekend extracurricular...have some fun. </li>
<li> Get completely, totally, and obscenely trashed at least a handful of times during your junior/senior years...go to a few parties!</li>
<li> Live for the moment, don't devote yourself to trying to acheive a future people here on CC say is ideal. Things change, plans fall through, etc, why not enjoy the here and now. The grades will come and you'll be fine, but dont' kill yourself or close yourself off just to get into Harvard.<br></li>
<li> HAVE FUN!!!</li>
</ol>
<p>GET DRIVER'S LICENSE. It's not as easy as you think it is :)</p>
<p>My recommendation: have fun. Just do what you want to do. Don't worry about college stuff and doing too many extracurriculars. Pick one or two and stick with them for all four years. Other than that, not much else is necessary.</p>
<p>Honestly? Take things seriously, but not too seriously. Get good grades but do not worry about pulling a 99 in all your classes. hunter1985 has it right: Do the least amount of work for the best grade possible and figure out which classes you can slack off in. Don't do homework if it's not going to be checked and you know the material-- spend your time elsewhere.
Also, don't slack off freshman year. A lot of my senior friends have been constantly griping about how they wish they'd done better-- they figured that freshman year "didn't count". It does (in most cases- some colleges drop freshman grades, but there's still class rank).
Bottom line: Don't stress more than you absolutely have to and have some fun.</p>
<p>The problem I've noticed many people have in high school is that they try to balance out two completely separate lives and eventually bomb out in college. Honestly, just let go and simply be yourself. I cannot put anymore emphasis on that point as it was probably the biggest problem a lot of people I know went through. </p>
<p>Take for example this girl I knew at my school. She was very well liked in general by the student body and the teachers completely adored her. She worked really hard to get good grades but when she got into college she failed miserably and got kicked out. Her problem was that she never let go and was herself and carried herself to much with a crowd that didn't represent her beliefs, creed, or morals. She decided that the same crowd was the safe one in college and rather she torpedoed herself down a gutter. </p>
<p>I can give you many examples from a girl that graduated as valedictorian from my school to a guy that got accepted into Stanford on a full ride. Just let go, be happy, and don't slack off on the studies. Have a great social life and enjoy the freedom and the ability to mooch off your parents for another four years. Just make sure you don't get carried away with something that doesn't fit your soul.</p>
<p>This year:
-go to your HS a day or two before school starts, with your schedule if at all possible, and familiarize yourself. find your classes, figure out where the caf/library/gym/theatre is, etc. makes it much easier in the first week. (grab a HS kid you know, they'll probably be happy to give you the tour.)</p>
<p>-get INVOLVED! join clubs/organizations that seem interesting, and spend a good chunk of your year figuring out what you like. i had friends who went into HS intending to do theatre and have now done three seasons of sports each year. this is an amazing chance to try everything out.
-on a related note, go with the flow socially-- some of the most annoying kids freshman year were the ones who didn't speak to anyone who WASN'T in their old group of friends. you will meet new people, and your circle of friends will change. let this happen. there are some amazing friendships to be made. and often, if you do drift apart from people, you'll reconnect later on.</p>
<p>-don't worry about being 'cool'...you WILL, i promise, look back at yourself in six months or a year and go, 'oh my god, i was such a freshman.'</p>
<p>-work, but don't freak out about academics yet. </p>
<p>other stuff:
-DEFINITELY get your license ASAP. go online, check out your state's driving laws, and start going to driver's ed as soon as you possibly can.</p>
<p>-get in the habit of getting sleep. don't spend hours screwing around on facebook/cc/whatever.</p>
<p>-do fun things on weekends! personally, i can't bring myself to work on fridays/saturdays-- i set those aside for going out for meals/shows, shopping, seeing friends, unwinding, and so on.</p>
<p>-do stuff on your own that makes you THINK: read poetry, learn about string theory, watch classic black-and-white movies...anything. there are times that HS can be very frustrating and not intellectually stimulating, and learning SOMETHING interesting on your own is a nice thing.</p>
<p>-learn the art of looking like you're paying attention while playing sudoku or doing homework in class. very important.</p>