<p>Ok, I'm horrible at this
in 9th grade, I was able to party all weekend, barely do any work during the week and still get atleast an A in all my classes. While doing nothing, in all honors and the one AP that was offered, my ninth grade GPA was about a 93 unweighted.
I carried that same strategy into 10th grade (last year), and I really struggled. My workload nearly doubled, and course difficulty exponentially increased....My GPA fell like 6 points lol</p>
<p>Now this year I'm putting grades first, and my social life is paying big time.
I haven't been to a party since August. barely any social activity,other than school clubs. very sad I know </p>
<p>yet my Q1 grades are looking VERY good. 95 unweighted GPA, in 5 AP's.</p>
<p>are there any of you out there who maintain a mid 90's GPA, and still manage a normal social life, girlfriend,etc.</p>
<p>or is this a sacrifice I must take to get into my first choice, NYU. (and then party in NYC for 4 years !!!!)</p>
<p>I'm only a sophomore, but I balance it. It's hard though.
I have four honors, one AP, and five electives. (three online - I finished one moving on to the other).</p>
<p>I'm busting butt to bring up three grades to an A since they are like 87,88,89.
Hopefully I'll do it.</p>
<p>Anywho, it can be done, just take time management skills. Trade homework. Stuff like that. I also am a soccer referee for about 20 hours a week maybe a little less.</p>
<p>^^ LMU, try balancing it when you have 3 honors, 5 AP, and 2 electives (2 honors + 1 elective online at the same time). That's when you have to have real time management skills to keep up with all that plus having a social life. My life gets pretty interesting, but I still manage to hang out with my friends and see my little cousins every other weekend (they live like two hours away).</p>
<p>The best advice I've ever heard (and it was on this site, but I don't remember who said it) is to sit down every Saturday or Sunday and plan out your week. Saying "Okay, so there's this party on Saturday, so I should do some homework Friday night and Saturday morning" or "My mother's birthday is Friday, so we're going out to dinner so I can't plan to do anything but homework Saturday and Sunday" will really help you prioritize; live your life in weeks instead of in days.</p>
<p>Yeah plan stuff out. I party a lot and end up hanging my friends more than I should on weekends. But I never fall behind on work. Sure, some Sunday nights are brutal, but I think its worth it. =D</p>
<p>You need to be able to focus on one thing at a time. When your out with your friends, don't worry about school at all, just enjoy yourself. When your doing your homework, don't think about what your gonna do next weekend, just get your work done. I go out with people almost every friday and saturday but on sunday, I don't get distracted and I just do all my work. If I know I have a big test that monday, I'll skip goin out that weekend, but for the most part, you just need to discipline yourself and you can have all the fun you want. O yeah I have 4 AP classes and 3 IB classes while I'm doing this. It's hard at first to learn to manage your time, but it really works. good luck</p>