So basically last year i had a horrible start to my highschool career in freshman year. I ended both semesters with B’s in honors geometry, honors english, honors bio, and spanish 2. But I got over that over the summer and the worst thing is that i’ve been doing worst lately in sophomore year. I am going to probably end the first semester with a C in honors Alg2/trig, and B’s in Honors Chem and Spanish 3, with A’s in everything else. Lately ive been super depressed about my grades. But i did have an internship at a small start up company during the summer of my freshman year. I am also captain of my water polo team for 2 years and captain of swim team for 1 year. I was just wondering how bad have i screwed up? If i do well second semester and junior year and get good test scores, am i fine? Thanks for any help
bump
Generally, improvong grades look good to colleges. If you can bring your grades up, they can only help you. I can’t give you much more advice than what I’ve given you so far, sorry.
thanks. any other advice
I have found that the best way to study for math is to do practice problems. Try to make sure that someone can check your work. If you can’t find someone to do that, try to practice with problems that you can look up the answer. Depending on what you are learning in chemistry, do the same thing for math (if you’re studying something like stoichiometry). Otherwise, try explaining concepts of chemistry (like Dalton’s atomic laws) to a friend, a parent, or a pet.
For Spanish, my advice differs depending on what you’re struggling with. If you have troubling on listening portions, I suggest that you practice listening to various kinds of Spanish audio (songs, movies, radio shows, etc.) If you have trouble with reading, the best thing to do is either a. practice reading more material in Spanish (Spanish versions of websites seem to work well). or b. Work on vocabulary and grammar.
If you cannot get a good grasp on speaking, work on pronunciation. Having the basics of pronunciation down helps when your read things out loud. Sometimes (if you can) reading something out loud in Spanish helps me focus on what I am reading.
If grammar is your issue, there’s nothing (that I can think of) you can do other than study the rules and exceptions. An online resource I like to use is found by searching “colby.edu spanish” and clicking on the first result that shows up. It should display a list of Spanish study resources that I find useful.
For vocabulary, it’s similar to grammar: study, study, study! I like to use flashcards and then ask someone to help me review the flashcards. Make sure you can translate the words from Spanish to English and vice-versa.
I hope I could help.
(Edit: I am also a sophomore in high school, so take my advice with a grain of salt)
Being an athlete, I can relate to your stress. You have to learn to manage time. I’m a lot better than I was 2 months ago, and now I have an hour and a half (most nights) to relax, despite a schedule full of honors (I’m not trying to brag at all, I just don’t know how to word it). Make use of every minute you get. I usually do biology homework and Spanish homework during school. I even get math done, so all I do at home is Hon English, History, and review some. (with the exception of nights before a test). A study hall really helps me out as well; consider it for next year if you don’ have one. Maybe doing so much isn’t the best for you. Doing ECs, but not doing well in school doesn’t look too good. But hey, like the previous post said, I’m a freshman so take my advice with a grain of salt. I haven’t even gotten to the 2 hard years haha
First of all, make sure you turn off distractions when you are working. Many kids seem to think they are multitasking. They are not. They are wasting a lot of time chatting with their friends, doing sub-par work, and staying up too late to complete it. This leads to a cycle of exhaustion and more sub-par work.
See your teachers for extra help. Also check out whether your school offers free tutoring–many schools have student volunteers who do this. Don’t be embarrassed to seek out help. Teachers respect kids who are trying to improve and want to learn.
Go over your work (quizzes, homework) and make sure you understand everything you got wrong before the next exam.
Consider homework assignments to be a guideline. You may have to do extra problems, or spend extra time studying those conjugations, or whatever, to master the material.
Find a study buddy, someone who will really work with you, not distract you. This could be especially helpful in practicing your language–you can practice speaking together. Surely there is someone on your sports teams you could do this with and make good use of all those long bus rides. You can also watch movies in your target language.
Good luck.