How to do better in high school?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hey. A little context: I’m a second semester sophomore and my grades are dropping like flies. I was unlucky to get some of the hardest teachers - not a reason to do poorly, nor do colleges care, I know - but they’ve all upped their grading process. I did great freshman year and okay first semester sophomore year, but my grades currently are poor and I need to get them better. Any tips or suggestions? I’ve been working on streamlining homework and I have a math tutor (math is my hardest subject as it is one of my two honors classes and my professor is very difficult and doesn’t curve or allow corrections.) Also, my school doesn’t have a weighted GPA, so I have to get an A in math anyways for my GPA (and A-'s count as lower.)

Freshman year (all classes 10.00 credit)
English (required) A
Honors Geometry A
Biology (required) A
Honors Spanish 2 A
Art (required) A
Tech (required) A+
P.E. (required) A
Year GPA: 4.00

Sophomore year 1st semester:
English 2 (required) A-
Modern World History (required) A-
Algebra 2 Honors A-
Chemistry (required) A
Honors Spanish 3 A
Tech (elective) A+
Film (elective) A-
Semester GPA: 3.83
Overall GPA (cum): 3.94

Current grades (have not been entered into gradebook or recorded, but I can track my progress. Grading period ends March 12)
English: Unknown, but assuming to be in the B–B+ range. Apparently he curves and gives everyone an A-, but his grading has gotten much harder and my essay grades are far lower.
History: Unknown. Not feeling super great about it though. She grades weird. If i had to guess, I’d say I have a low A-.
Algebra 2 Honors: B+, currently, with 100% on quizzes but I got an 80 on the test. No matter how hard I try I can’t seem to do well on tests - this was true last semester as well.
Chemistry: B This is a real shock, because Chem is one of my best classes, but my teacher’s gone kinda nuts and is giving everyone D’s and F’s on assignments. I got a 65 on a partner project, which she said I could revise, but has not given us back the grade yet, so it’s still a 65 for now. I understand the material of this course, but not her expectations, as she’s completely changed from the teacher she was last semester.
Spanish 3 Honors: Not positive, but I think a high B+ or low A-. I’ve been doing much worse on homework assignments as well, because again her expectations have skyrocketed with no warning.
Tech: B+ (but not for long: I just need to turn in another paper and I should have a 98)
Drawing & Painting: No idea, but I had the teacher last year and he’s pretty chill.

Any suggestions for how to do better? I have exactly a month. A few quizzes coming up in A2H, but no other major assignments, I don’t think.
Also, how competitive is my GPA? Apparently at my school we’re divided into “quintets” like 5 groups and as long as you’re above a 3.9, you’re in the first quintet, which I am currently. I test okay on standardized tests, 1320 on the PSATs which apparently is 98th percentile, but I have to do better on the math section (95th but I missed a ton of problems.)
How should I optimize myself - academics wise - for college admissions?

2

From what you’ve described so far, I think that you’re well on your way to having great grades for the semester! As far as how to increase your scores, I would keep asking for help from your teachers and peers (sometimes fellow students are a whole lot better at explaining things than teachers. Also, I would like to recommend a website called Khan Academy. It’s a free website that has a lot of helpful videos in a whole range of topics, including math and sciences. Make sure to spend a lot of time studying the materials you will be quizzed on and try to use previous quizzes as references for how the next few will be set up.
As far as your GPA is concerned, it is very competitive! Lots of high-ranking colleges have relatively average standards for their general GPA admissions (though some majors in different universities have other requirements outside of the general university admissions - make sure to check this). Just be sure to do your research when searching for colleges in order to know which schools are options for you.
To optimize yourself, just keep doing what you’re already doing! Working hard to maintain good grades is always a plus. Study hard for the SAT to ensure that you get a good score (lots of scholarships have SAT score requirements and a few schools have automatic admissions based on SAT scores - again, check individual colleges for their particular requirements).
I wish you the best of luck with your classes and keep trying hard! You’ll do great this semester!

3

My grades were getting sort of low middle of last semester. I started making study groups with friends in my most challenging classes to help me study. We have block schedule (different classes every other day) so I started doing homework the day it is assigned. If you have any time over the weekend and your teachers happen to post the homework for the next week or you can predict the homework, use that to your advantage and get ahead on your homework. You’ll actually end up doing the work and learning rather than rushing through it the day before it’s due in the middle of the night.

4

I would try and talk to your teachers. After you get a grade back (and I mean right after, not like a month after) schedule a meeting to talk about it. If you ask about the expectations and you know what you got points off for, you’re hopefully going to know what to do on your next assignment.

I totally get what you’re saying about the math tests. I understand the material really well and then I go in for the test and it all goes out the window. I had two bad tests, so I got a tutor and my grades skyrocketed. I don’t know if that’s an option for you, financially or time wise, but it’s worth looking into. This is also of course an option for chem, but it sounds like you get the material, but the assignments don’t go well? Are you including tests in the assignments?

If you’re not doing well on the tests, then extra help might be the best thing for you. But if the tests are fine and it’s just classwork and homework and other assignments that aren’t where you’d like them to be, I’d talk to your teacher and really find out about expectations.