My biggest classes AP US History and AP English III along with band class, and then I have marching band after school. I know other students have much harder schedules than me, but I am currently drowning in the amount of work I have.
Marching band is absolutely draining me. I have practice on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays for 3 hours each. Everyday, I come home absolutely wiped out; I can barely stay awake, much less focus when I do homework. I don’t start homework until about 7:30 because before that, I have to shower and eat dinner. For APUSH, I have to spend 2-4 hours taking notes from a textbook; for AP Eng, I have assigned readings that can take anywhere from 1-3 hours a night. I also have other weekly assignments and projects in English which also take 1-2 hours each.
Often times, I sleep at about 3am if I even sleep at all. This is especially bad because then I come home even more exhausted from practice, but then I still have hours of homework to do so it’s not like I have an option to sleep anyway. I’m so tired I could cry; it’s getting harder to focus in class and on my homework and I’m afraid my grades will begin to suffer.
Could someone give me tips on time management? I’ve tried everything; spreading my homework out, tackling one assignment at a time–but nothing seems to work.
How much work do you do at school? Usually, if I’m smart about it, I can get up to an hour of homework done at school during breaks/downtime/lunch.
You could also try the “smarter-not-harder” approach. Are notes for your APUSH class just something you do to study or are they checked every day? Last year I got through APUSH with about an hour of homework a week and still pulled an A in the class and a 5 on the test by cutting out things I already knew from AP World and focusing on major terms throughout the chapter rather than all the details. Don’t do this if it will make you fail though.
I’m just not really used to taking textbook notes and APUSH has an emphasis on critical thinking instead of regurgitating facts. All my other classes before this required the latter to get a good grade and, admittedly, I’m not used to the critical thinking that APUSH requires yet. Thus, I have a hard time taking notes because I don’t know what I should be paying attention to. My teacher said “broad themes and the effects on society/economy/etc.” but figuring it out on my own has proved to be more than a little challenging.
Also, in the past, there have been quizzes with questions about a topic that literally had about 2 sentences in the textbook so I’m torn between just understanding the main idea and memorizing every minute detail.
But to answer your question, notes are mainly done as a form of studying. However, my teacher does randomly check them so of course I have to do them anyway.
I also have 0 time to work at school. Lunch is about 30 minutes and I spend that time eating.
Check out the book by Cal Newport “How To Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less”
Also, you need to become the master multitasker. Are you saying you never have five minutes in the lunch line where you aren’t doing anything? Two minutes at the end of a passing period to take notes on a couple of paragraphs? No working on some homework while a teacher lectures on something that isn’t too hard to learn in an easier class?
And if it means the difference between a good night’s rest and functioning on only a few hours of sleep daily, just take the grade hit for taking fewer notes. More rest means you retain more info and do better on tests, which will be more beneficial in the long run. To be honest, for me, if I can think clearly, I can actually figure out what a lot of things are even if I don’t remember, so writing about a footnote in the book becomes easier than having actually studied it.
“Lunch is about 30 minutes and I spend that time eating.” My kid has 25 minute lunches and she often manages to get work done at lunch. It’s not ideal but if your situation is a dire as you say, you have to try harder to get more work done. Are you also working on the bus? My kid managed to take care of nearly all her homework all year long for one class just on the bus home.
Get as much work as possible done over the weekend. My kids do everything they can for the week on the weekend. Then get enough rest–everything falls apart if you are exhausted and your efficiency will improve a lot if you are well rested. You should be able to work after you get home. My kid comes home from 2 hours of XC practice in 90 degree heat and launches into several hours of homework. But she gets (nearly) enough sleep, there is none of this staying up until 3 am.
So try it this weekend, get enough rest, work really hard and get much of your work for the week done. Then get to sleep at a reasonable hour during the week. This should help a lot. If you are still struggling, meet with your teachers and see whether they can help you be more efficient. If it continues to be so exhausting for you, you might want to check with your doctor to rule out any medical problem.
From someone who has been in marching bandfor 4 years, dropping marching band in the middle of the season can mess up the whole show and make it harder for everyone. It’s like saying to drop a club when you’re an important officer. You chose your situation, and quitting now would be a huge inconvienenve for everyone. It would be better to just drop APUSH or AP Lang if possible and self study the test.
You are right to be taking notes in that writing is the best way of committing material to memory. But if you’re not sure if you’re writing the right things, then you may be writing too much, and that is a time sink! Over the weekend, when you have a little more time, try to read a paragraph or a section in your text book and then, using voice recognition software (your phone will work fine), say out loud what the point of what you read was. At the end of the assignment, look at what you’ve dictated and write down the key points. It might save you time. It’ll force you to focus on the point of each section – the big concepts rather than the details. It’s possible that you’re losing this when you stop to take notes along the way. You could even try to put each event onto ONE index card so that you’re forced to think before you write. YMMV, but the point here is to capture only what you need and to try to figure out what that is before you’ve captured everything!
The other thing you could do is a get a test prep book for these classes and look at what they emphasize for each topic. It might help you distill what you’re reading into concepts if you feel like that’s your issue.
And lastly, you want to work on critical reading the FIRST time through so that you don’t have to go back. It doesn’t sound like you have time to do the work twice, so looking for what’s important the first time round should be a goal.
But yes, try to get enough sleep. You might be better off getting up a little earlier than staying up late because you’ll work better when you’re fresh. Do what you can over the weekend. And it’s only a few more months of band, right??
Don’t worry, I won’t drop out of band. I don’t know what MB looks like to non-MB people, but it’s literally impossible to drop out after once we start learning the show. It’s a huge disrespect to the rest of the band because people really depend on each other as points of reference, and it can seriously mess marchers up when people are absent. Plus, I’m a student leader so I couldn’t leave if I wanted to; I have an obligation to my band, and I want to be there for them.
I guess it’s true I can spend lunch time doing work. It’s just that I just don’t like working and eating at the same time, and I try to use lunch as a reprieve between classes. @mathyone I don’t ride the bus in the afternoon because I have MB practice almost every day of the week. Even then, it’s only about a 5 minute bus ride. By the time I manage to get the textbook open on my phone, I’d arrive at my stop.
Maybe I’m just making excuses at this point and/or the fatigue’s talking. I’ll try working at lunch as a start and see if it works out. Either way, thank you all for the great advice!
You have to get more rest. It will all be easier when you get enough sleep. I know that marching band can be grueling. One of my kids did it while taking 2 APs and she had to work hard but she still got enough sleep.
One of my kids is setting timers to help her stay focused and stay on pace to get through those reading/note-taking sessions. Maybe that would help.
I’m going through almost the exact same situation. People around me are dropping APUSH, but I’ve told myself that dropping any classes, should be done as a last resort after lots of thought, and that I will never quit marching band.
I have a few study halls that I purposely fit into my schedule, because I knew that I would need them this year. I haven’t had to work through lunch yet, although I know it will probably happen eventually. And I use the bus ride to school (which because the way my bus routes work, is longer than the bus ride home) to do Algebra homework if I didn’t have time to the previous night, and I didn’t do it during a study hall or another time at school.
I wish you (and everyone else on this site that seems to pile so much on and have so little downtime) good luck, and I hope that I helped even a little bit!