How to Survive Junior Year

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Hey guys! Well, I just wanted to get advice from the seasoned juniors and seniors on how to survive the chaos that is junior year. This would not only help me, but all the other soon to be juniors here in HSL.</p>

<p>This is just what I have on my plate next year:
Classes:</p>

<p>Adv. Pre-Calc
AP English Lang
AP Chem
Adv. Physics
APUSH
AP Java</p>

<p>EC's:</p>

<p>Science Olympiad (Chem Lab, Environmental Chem, Write It/Do It, Health Science, more...) (Co-President/Founder)
Robotics (Co-Head Programmer)
Interact Club
Student Government (Student Council Member)
Academic Decathlon (French Revolution) (Most likely A-level starter)
MOON (GBML, HMMT, Mandelbrot) (Treasurer)
Model UN (Two big conferences) (Vice President)
Knowledge Masters (Planning meetings, practice, and finding people)(Co-President/Founder)</p>

<p>Other Junior Year Stuff:</p>

<p>SAT I
SAT II's (Math II, USH, Language, Physics, Latin)
AP's (Java, Chem, USH, Lang)
Science Fair Research (Fiber optics and solar panels)</p>

<p>So how do you manage to do something like this? How key is time-management, sleep schedule, and such?</p>

<p>Thanks guys!</p>

2

<p>Junior year was super easy. i mean i had a ton going on but i just had things planned well and i weathered the storm and fun too. it’s senior year that’ll kill. have fun</p>

3

<p>I had a killer schedule junior year ^^ 7 AP classes, killer ECs, etc etc. That and debate kept me up till the early hours in the morning nearly every night during the season, which is quite long…
Oh, good times. Anyways. The first thing to do is time manage all your activities. Prioritize stuff- this sounds lame, but it’s TRUE. Also, know your limits, and if you feel like stuff is getting to be too much, drop some things. I had to do this with XC, because it was just getting to the point where I couldn’t do it…
Also, realize that if you’re like the average CC junior, you’re probably going to have to stay up late. Get used to it. Buy some coffee/tea/cocoa and a water bottle, and healthy midnight snacks (carrots were my favorite…)
Depending on your school/courseload, junior year could be anywhere from fairly fun and easy to totally strenuous and backbreaking. But just remember that what you put into it, you get out of it :slight_smile: GL!</p>

4

<p>^^Average for the CC Ivy applicants maybe… >></p>

<p>It’s all about time management. Make sure you know what’s going and when it’s going on.</p>

5

<p>Haha touche, sorry I think I came across as a bit of a ***** there :stuck_out_tongue:
But good advice Rixs, and very true.</p>

6

<p>hey, it’s JT!!</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/734833-things-juniors-should-do-high-school.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/734833-things-juniors-should-do-high-school.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

7

<p>I would say just pay attention in class really well. That way, you will have a minimal amount of studying to do. Also, don’t procrastinate that much; it is only going to make things very difficult.</p>

8

<p>It is called coffee. Get used to it. Energy drinks cause annoying crashes from the sugar. 5 hour energy is a decent substitute as well.</p>

9

<p>I never drank coffee and did alright my junior year. If you need coffee, drink it, I guess.</p>

<p>Also, you seem very busy with your courseload, extra-curricular activities, and standardized tests. Set aside some free time every day just to unwind and relax. You are going to need it.</p>

10

<p>I also never succumbed to the forces of caffeine. Looking back on it, junior year was not entirely that bad. I just wished I had wasted less time on Facebook/blogs/shopping/talking to friends. Then I would’ve gotten a lot more sleep, and better grades.</p>

11

<p>Everyone says don’t procrastinate, but you will. Anyone who said they didn’t is lying. </p>

<p>You probably know what works best for you by now, so just keep doing that. The most important thing to keep in mind is that it’ll all be over in June.</p>

12

<p>That’s not an average schedule. Don’t slack off like I did.</p>

13

<p>Coffee simply made my time a hell of a lot easier. I could procrastinate a lot more and get by with it.</p>

14

<p>DON’T skimp on sleep–it’s really bad for your health. Nap in the afternoon if you know you’re going to procrastinate until a certain time at night anyway.</p>

15

<p>My key was to get my homework started as soon as I got home from school (~10 minute break for snack, then GO!). Generally, that varied from 3:30 to 6:00, but I never stayed up past 10:30 doing homework (okay once). When I finished my homework from 7-9 generally, I would relax, but not before that (unless I was taking a 5 minute break). On weekends, I would do some HW either Friday or Saturday so that Sunday I could relax and get ahead if I wanted to.</p>

<p>Some people would procrastinate nightly, meaning they’d get home, facebook stalk for a few hours, eat, than start their HW at 10:00. These are the types that stay up until the wee hours of the morning getting stuff done. If you have trouble concentrating at home, I highly recommend that you stay after school in the library or something and do your HW then. During the winter, once a week, I stayed at school (because at night I had a function at the school) and did HW, and I got done considerably quicker than at home, even though I’m not one to get distracted at home. </p>

<p>Also, try to get some free periods junior and senior year. I didn’t have any free period besides lunch junior year, so it was tough. But senior year, for the month I had a free period (due to passing out of gym because of varsity sports), I only had about 10-30 minutes of HW a night. </p>

<p>Junior Year is consistently brutal. Senior year had some killer tough moments (where I did need to work well past 10), largely due to college apps.</p>

<p>Oh, and for APUSH, I found a good strategy for note-taking. I would first read the textbook and just highlight noteworthy stuff, then after reading I would go back through the chapter and take notes on what was important. This is beneficial for a few reasons: 1. it is much more relaxing, as I could read the textbook in bed versus reading upright and taking notes at the same time; 2. it broke the assignments into two manageable parts versus one long session; 3. I could focus on the text more; 4. When I finish the entire section, I knew what was more important, so it made sense to take notes after you realize a central theme or the main events of a chapter.</p>

16

<p>It’s not so hard. You realize you have to do it, so you do it. I usually didn’t start my HW 'till 9 or so (I was home to mess around for 1.5 hrs, then ballet, get home at 8, eat dinner, HW) but I had no problems. Work out your own schedule and don’t listen to anyone who says you have to do things a certain way. If you need all of your sleep, then sleep. If not, then don’t. If you need caffeine, drink it, if not, don’t. Etc. I had my way of doing things and it involved no coffee, lots of procrastination, and very little sleep. That’s how I like it.</p>

17

<p>two key phrases to remember:</p>

<ul>
<li>Whatever happens, happens.</li>
<li>Do it.</li>
</ul>

18

<p>Junior year is not bad, at all… I didn’t do anything all year.</p>