<p>Hi I’m a high school freshman.
I sometimes have bad procrastinating problems, trying to quit x_x
All my classes are CP,
classes and grades are:
Algebra 1 - A (96%…Top in class surprisingly)
P.E. - B (87% I believe…My teachers are too obsessed with being high ranked in P.E. to beat all the other school, so they don’t give a crap if someone can’t run well.)
English - A (110%…My teacher likes me and she gives me extra credit on a lot of things, I’m a good writer and I have excellent grammar!)
Int. Science - A, borderline B (90%, I freaking hate this teacher! But I’m top in class, which surprises me…And I was the only one who aced the first final. I must be placed in a stupid class, sigh.)
Spanish 1 - B, ALMOST an A (88%, had missing work from when I was absent…I do well on tests, homework…not so well!)
beginner Art - A (94%…The teacher likes me Also in Art club which she runs!)</p>
<p>I’m considering taking summer school P.E. to get it out of the way, but if I wanted to, I’d have to have a reason WHY, which would be having a second elective (art) in my sophomore year, and if I took art every year, I’d be put into AP art in senior year. But is it worth it? Would I be just taking up space of other important AP classes I could be taking?
Or should I just take Health…?</p>
<p>Also should I take 3 years of Spanish since it’s recommended for UC’s? Or just stop after 2? Should I take all four years and maybe be put into AP Spanish during senior year? </p>
<p>Also can I have some tips for the last of my freshman and beginning of soph year :)?
Should I take AP World History during my sophomore year? I heard it’s super hard…
And should I try to do as much community service during this summer?</p>
<p>RainieYu, hey. i’m а sophmore here. and there is a tip, if you don’t want to have a major in history, don’t take it. take honors. I took this year AP NSL and i’m literally failing it.</p>
<p>and my biggest mistake for right now in high school is taking classes which are too hard. i took for next year only 1 hard class, AP bio. hopefully i will not fail everything again. need to bring my GPA to at least 3.15 like it was in my freshie year…</p>
<p>Not having a clue what is EC, AP, and Honor until half past my senior year! And refused AP Stat and AP Calc offers… And starting my college application in March! Which is what I am doing right now… hahaha nice blunders huh? r</p>
<p>Seize all extra credit options whether or not you need them at that moment; you may need them later. Also, don’t think you can magically pull up your grades at the end of the semester. My biggest problem is quite the opposite, though. I always do really well at first and slack off towards the end of the semester, thinking I have left myself enough leverage to slack off without my grade being really affected. Unfortunately, this has left me with lot’s of 89%'s in classes that I should have gotten an A in…</p>
<p>-when signing up for classes for sophomore year, i didnt want to take honors science and my parents forced me into it. needless to say, i got Cs both semesters. basically letting my parents choose my classes
-sophomore year in general
-taking French, but I dont know if i would be doing well in Spanish assuming i chose that instead
-just grades in general. my gpa is horrible and i wish that i was more lenient on the course loads i decided to take</p>
<p>Something tells me that people who stayed up for 5 hours every night doing homework are fibbing a little bit; I can’t imagine 25 hours of homework a night for high school. I’m taking the most rigorous courseload at my school, work til 9 three nights a week, and still find myself in bed by 12 most of the time.</p>
<p>^Same dude, I’m in the hardest classes in my school and most of the time I can slip by with 1 and a half to 2 hours of homework a night, but then again there are those nights where everything piles up and I have to grind out seven or eight hours of homework and not get to bed until 2 in the morning.</p>
<ol>
<li>Taking classes I wasn’t ready for my freshman year (AP Comp Sci–death) </li>
<li>Not trying hard in math!</li>
<li>Joining clubs that were unimportant my frosh and soph year</li>
<li>Deciding to go to a High School that had more competitive programs!!!- I could have gone to my home school and been ranked #1!</li>
<li>Quitting the gifted program when I got to high school…I wanted a life in HS!</li>
</ol>
<p>Well a lot of it is about budgeting your time wisely and staying focused. I still did have a lot of homework, but now that I am an upperclassman, I don’t spend as much time on it because I’ve learned how to be efficient.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Not realizing the value of AP’s in admission to top schools. I went to a small suburban high school 45 minutes outside of Boston that despite being well-ranked by USNWR and having kids go to decent schools only offered 10 AP classes (and did not allow you to take any until junior year, and even then it was a max of 2). Basically, unless you took classes over the summer to get them out of the way, it was impossible to take more than 6 AP classes in all of high school. I just stayed on the regular honors/AP track and will only graduate with 4. Truly, honors and AP classes are looked at differently by adcoms.</p></li>
<li><p>Quitting girl scouts in middle school. While it is weird, it would have been a great thing to put on my college apps (and would have added a lot of volunteer hours!).</p></li>
<li><p>Quitting my church youth group. Also looks great on college applications.</p></li>
<li><p>Not studying for the SATs/ACTs/SAT IIs. I test well so I figured that a 2260 was good enough. I honestly probably could have gotten a 2400, or pretty close. My ACT composite was good but not my writing subscore. SAT IIs were 780/720/690, but probably could have been all 800s with consistent preparation.</p></li>
<li><p>Applying to more schools early! Or maybe figuring out where I truly wanted to go and been able to ED somewhere. It is so stressful not getting in anywhere until March/April (as I write this, I have only gotten in to one safety). Also, get a good start on the application process before senior year starts. DO NOT leave everything to Christmas break.</p></li>
<li><p>Appreciate freshman and sophomore year of high school. You will miss them.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>^ number 5 is so true! Seriously don’t leave everything until Christmas break. That was two weeks of what was supposed to be relaxation that I’ll never get back…</p>
<p>Here’s my biggest mistake:
Grades. Don’t underestimate the importance of grades and gpa to college admissions.</p>
<p>To all those contemplating EA/ED/SCEA, I would suggest researching and visiting colleges as early as possible. You’ll miss a lot of school traveling and it’s best during the school year not the summer so that you can actually see the students and listen to the classes. If you visit during your junior and senior year, it can be hard catching up in classes and you already have so much going on. </p>
<p>ONLY APPLY ED, if you absolutely 100% know you would attend. Do not make the mistake of applying ED and then trying to find a way to retract your admission. If you are not sure which school to apply to, I would suggest that everyone should just apply EA/ SCEA to at least some place. It honestly doesn’t hurt you unless you need more time, but then you can just apply to a safety early. That way you can see if you need to drastically change your app for other schools. It’s also nice knowing you have at least one college acceptance.</p>
<p>1.sticking with a private prep school
when a public school
would have been better prepared to help with extra tutoring/savvy about Learning Disorders.
2. Taking a week in my sophomore year taking campus tours of a few more school. The two I did go to are are selective school now recruiting me whereas those equally cometitive see me as part of the wallpaper. Most school don’t openly say they will visit with sophomores, but if you call, say you are very interested on their ----- department, they will most likely give u a tour, take u to class and it puts u on their radar .</p>
<p>Being apathetic towards math and then, after a discouraging Algebra II class in freshman year, letting myself believe that I was actually really bad at math.
Had I not developed such a severe disliking for it so early on, I might have done better. The way you think of yourself & your abilities plays a big part in how well you do.
I’ve always thought I should and COULD do well in the Humanities, and by God I did. On the other hand, I thought math was not my forte, and thus it became a chore and a pain in the arse.
Now I’m in Calc AB and have one of the top grades in the class.</p>
<p>My advice to underclassmen (& whoever else) reading this forum: believe in yourself. Know that, if you really want to, you can do just about anything.</p>
<p>Uno: Completely and hopelessly infatuated with one college- completely obsessed but probably will not get in due to…
Dos: Conflicts with teacher first semester senior year. Warning: Do not take a course merely because others took it. Do not be too ambitious; balance your course schedule with the challenging and classes you are confident about. Ended up with a “C” and five "B"s. Left me crushed and depressed.
Tres: Obtain license as soon as possible. I did not have much choice regarding the matter, but I noticed that early independence from rides will render you much more capable (i.e. volunteering, ec’s, social life)
Cuatro: Try to have some fun. Many parties and social activities were compromised for the sake of college.</p>
Also in Art club which she runs!)</p>