Am I Doing Too Much?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

I’m a sophomore now, and this is my first year taking 2 AP’s (APHUG and WHAP). This year was pretty stressful for me because I already suck at history and I had preetttyy bad teachers. Also because I’m in NHS, CRLP (College Readiness Leadership Program), Advanced Research, the girls’ soccer team, and I’m sophomore student council president. I have a tendency to say yes to everything despite the fact that I may or may not be able to handle what I’m saying yes to.

I will be wayyy more prepared my junior year (next year) because I’m going to self study a lot and not procrastinate and according to other students, the teachers that I’m going to have have years of experience and don’t suck. My main goal is to get as many AP credits done before college and to get a good score on my SAT.

This year, I got my Algebra 2 semester 1 credit by CBE and I’ll get my semester 2 credit at a community college this summer along with my communications/speech credit. Before school starts next year, I’ll take my PreCalculus CBE for first and second semester so they’ll place in me in AP Calculus AB. So next year, I’ll be taking APCal AB, APPhys B, APUSH, APLang, and APPhych. During the fall and spring of the school year, I’ll take Government and Economics at the community college. Then after my junior year in the summer, I’ll take AP Calculus BC at the community college so I can still turn it into the school so they can put it in my transcript before they lock it.

After this year, I’ve realized that napping and procrastination are demons lool. I know for sure I’ll get a head start over the summer by studying and that I’ll do everything before hand instead of waiting last minute because I fell I “have enough time”. If I thought 2 AP’s were hard, I need to grind and get ready for 5 next year.

I need ya’ll to give me advice. If it is too much, tell me so I can drop something or whatever. If you think it is okay, can ya’ll give me some advice on time management? I want to play sports and be in clubs and be in student council and advanced research, but I don’t want that to take away from time in studying and preparing for my SAT and AP exams and getting ready for college. I don’t want that to jeopardize my possible college acceptances because I over did it when I could’ve stopped.

I know handling things and juggling things are different from person to person, but whatever it is,

help. me.

2

You are doing quite a lot. Which is good if you can handle it BUT if you can’t it’s not worth it. My counselor recently told me the first thing that matters is your grades/GPA so if you can do all that without letting your grades drop more power to ya. But if it’s just a little too much don’t be afraid to drop an activity or take 1 regular class. It will only help you in the long run.

3

Can’t tell if fishing for compliments or not but I’d ease your schedule a little. Remember to enjoy high school.

4

@livingitup Got it. In my school, AP’s are weighted more than regular classes, another reason why I’m taking them. They boost my GPA and if I pass the exam, I get college credit. However, if I do bad, they drop my GPA significantly haha.

@erenyeager I’ll try to. I have two more years of school and I don’t want it to be remembered as sleepless nights trying the scratch the surface of an A. Thanks.

5

@canyounot my school does the same thing with weighted/unweighted GPA but I’ve found sometimes its honestly not worth overworking yourself. I am taking a pretty heavy course load this year but I dropped 1 of my extracurriculars and I just find its easier to enjoy life and be happy.

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@livingitup I will do that if I see that I need to. I’m not used to dropping things. I usually grind and do well (with bad consequences like hair falling out from stress or looking sick because of lack of sleep lool whoops), but I don’t want to overwork myself. And yes, this may sound silly, but I’m also aiming for valedictorian. While that is a good goal and all, I realized that getting there is more of competition between other students that just doing well in general. I’m rank 9 right now, and if I do well in my AP’s next year, it’ll surely go up, I’m not complaining. I know I compare myself too much and I look at other people a lot instead of focusing on my own work, but its hard, especially when everyone else is in competition to get a higher rank than to get an actual education. The person who is rank 1 right now in the sophomore class boasts LITERALLY ALL THE TIME about how he’s so much smarter than everyone else, when the truth is he took AP classes where the teachers were easy, or he got people to do work for him or he cheats. It sounds like I’m bashing him or trying to make him look bad, but honestly and whole-heartedly, this is the truth. I try to ignore him and focus on getting a good AP exam score and getting an education while his goal is staying at the top. If I don’t get valedictorian, no problem. I mean yeah, I’ll be pretty disappointed, but I know I actually learned things while I was in school, you know? I hate comparing myself, but legit all I hear in school is “What’s your rank?” “Did you see the ranks yet?” “What grade did you get in ___ class?” “Wow, my rank went up!” “I can’t believe ___ is rank ___!”

7

Hey soph fam (lol), I recommend that you study for your SAT exams during the summer. The new, official SAT prep will be released on April 28, 2015 from Khan Academy. A great deal of the SAT has changed - it is more like the ACT. You are given direct questions requiring evidence from the text, fewer vocabulary words, and writing is optional. This could give you some extra time for your APs and extracurricular. Rn APs (IMHO) should be your #1 priority because the tests are coming next month, May.

I don’t think you should drop anything, because the end of the school year is right around the corner! If you drop a class now, college admission officers might think that you failed the class. Regarding time management, I recommend using google calendar to plan out your day. You will be organized, and the app/widget easily manages your time. Furthermore, I suggest that you prioritize your time on the classes that are (1) more difficult or (2) tomorrow.

Although class rank is very prestigious, it won’t greatly affect your college acceptances. I say this, because tier 1 colleges are holistic - they look at the whole-person. You have excellent ECs that show passion, leadership, and well-roundedness. I applaud you for that! However, your #1 seeded person (the student who is ranked 1) seems like a “braggadocia” and it will not get him or her anywhere in life. No college would like a person with his/her characteristics, and it will bite him in the long-run. You will meet many people like him/her in life, and all I can tell you is to bite your tongue. It sucks and I have been there, but it is a bitter taste of life. Good luck!

By the way, there is also a class of 2017 thread in case you are interested.

8

@1LuckyBrave Heyy soph, hahaha. Yes, I was planning on taking the old and new SAT. ACT, I’m not as worried about, but I will study for all of them. I have 3 months of literally doing nothing over this coming summer, so fasho fasho lol I think I’ll be ready. My school is doing PSAT in our first semester next year, and then the new SAT second semester next year. So I’ll take the current SAT in between that time (I read online that the deadline to take the old SAT was Jan. 2016, so I think we have time).

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@canyounot‌ Fusho, I decided not to take the old SAT. I am going to take the ACT and new SAT next year, because it is more geared to my learning personality - direct and straightforward rather than abstract and logical. The only new SAT prep available are Ivy Global on Amazon for $25. Good luck fam!

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@1LuckyBrave Cool, yo. Lol, I decided to take the old SAT because there’s so many resources and I’ll take the new one because people claim that it is easy and if I don’t do so well on the old one, I can do better on the new one. I’m aiming for a perfect score on the old one, but I need to practice first. And yeah, I’ll check the Class of 2017 thread out. Good luck to you to, homie!