I need serious help!

Freshman year I did ok not great but not bad either. I really didn’t put in any effort but still got A’s and B’s and one C+ in academic classes. This year (sophomore) I have been doing so bad. I took 2 honors classes (history and geometry) but I’m doing bad in all my classes. This year I already got like 6 C’s and it’s not because I can’t handle it. I have a problem where I don’t study and do my homework and it’s just a habit. Every day I say it’s gonna change and it doesn’t and this year with out me trying I’m not getting by. This is really causing me to get mad because I know I can do so much better. I really loved biology and wanted to do something in medicine and now I don’t even think it’s possible. I don’t even think I can go to a 4 year college out of high school. I really would love to just attend Rutgers nb but I ruined those chances. What should I do to help these awful habits?

My grade averages right now just to get an idea of how bad I’m doing.
Chemistry C
Hon Gemoetry C+
Hon History B+
Italian A
English C+

Can I go to summer school to fix these grades or will they always show. I really wish there was some way I can just learn how do study and do good but I clearly have some type of problem. The sad part is I’m really motivated too ;(

It’s easy to always tell yourself that you are going to “do better next time,” but next time will never be different unless you make a real effort to change your bad habits. You need to stop worrying about your bad grades in the past – no matter how bad they are, you can’t change them now. You need to make concrete plans to change your habits – get a tutor, don’t go out/play games/go on social media until you get better grades. If you’re serious about improvement, you need to do what it takes. No future has been ruled out for you yet. Even if you can’t go to a four year college out of high school, go to a community college and transfer – you’ll even save a lot of money this way. Do well in your junior and senior year of college, then apply to med school (or whatever you want to do in medicine). But step 1 is really committing yourself to do better from now on, not just saying that you will.

The thing is I want it so bad and maybe I’ll step up for one week and do really good but then the next week I’ll just be lazy and do nothing and start doing bad again and it’s frustrating cause it’s starts off with me coming home wanting to do it I keep pushing off little by little till its late at night and I say I’ll do it in school and half the time I school I don’t even study or do my homework.
And I know I shouldn’t even be worried about this only my grades but it would really help me to know if there’s a chance of me still going to a school like Rutgers Nb because knowing that I am going to a cc will not help at all.

Sure, there is a chance that you can go to a school like Rutgers, but only if you start studying. Right now would be a good time. Check back in later tonight and tell us what homework you have completed!

Good point!

It could be just really bad study habits and a lack of commitment and connecting your future aspirations to your current actions, but there could also be something else at play in the way of untreated or possibly undiagnosed ADD/ADHD or some other issue treatable with counseling, coping strategies and/or even medication. In either case it is up to you to look into what you need to do to turn things around, and talking to your parent/guardian and/or a school counselor might help you really parse through what your problems are.

I was a terrible HS student through my junior year despite testing as gifted all through school. Class rank 77 of 94 in a podunk HS after 11th grade. I was lazy and took it for granted that being smart entitled me to good grades without doing homework, while also dealing with some social issues at home. A good SAT score and a great GC who gave me the option of working my butt off during my senior year or working fast food the rest of my life helped me turn it around. Getting away from home to a small LAC helped me flourish, though my first semester was really tough with under developed study skills. I always presumed I would go to college, but until I grew up that senior year and beyond I really didn’t connect current actions to future goals in any tangible way.

On the other hand my youngest is diagnosed now with high functioning ASD and ADHD, a brilliant kid who would have been labeled a problem child and driftless dreamer 20 years ago. He needed and receives plenty of professional help to overcome his obstacles, ones that look to some people like laziness when actually his mind works a million miles a minute, and with that help is thriving again.

It is great that you have aspirations about going to college and want to go to a very good school, but right now you have to figure out what the problems are that are getting in your way and how to address them. Do that and you have plenty of time to turn things around. You already know there is a problem, now go about asking others to help you identify it and come up with strategies to address whatever it is. Good luck!

A lot of bright kids do poorly in HS because, frankly, a lot of HS work is pointless. Med schools will not care about how well you did in HS. Nor will most care about how prestigious of an undergrad school you attend. In college, wherever you go, you need to decide to do the work and get good grades. And then kill the MCAT. And it is also possible that during college you will decide on a different direction, which is fine. I wish you the best.

I actually struggle with procrastination issues too. I found this blog to be very helpful, sit down and read through it, it helps you kind of understand why you do the things you do, and then has suggestions about how to fix them (not to mention that it’s pretty humorous) http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html
And
http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-procrastination.html

Good luck OP! All is not yet lost for you - work hard, and Rutgers may still be in the cards for you (and stay out of the Dark Playground!)

@chargers312 , did you get all your homework done this evening?

Yes I did and it feels great… Thanks everyone for all the support and help. No more trips to the dark playground for me.

  • Just a quick question someone above mentioned a possibility of ADD. I looked up the symptoms and I have a lot of them but I feel like a bunch of other people do too. Should I get this checked out?

I have an ADD parent taught me a trick to do at home to find out if your kids have ADD/ADHD. Drink a red bull and if you still feel calm as a cucumber, you might need to see a doctor. I don’t know if it works but if your parents allow you to consume one, try it!

Take summer classes to “fix those grades” but at this point, yes health professions sound pretty unlikely unless you get into good study habits, sit down as soon as you get home from class with NO computer, NO phone, NO devices around you… (if you need to look something up, write it in your notebook and once you’re done with everything else, look it up, because otherwise… whoops, timesuck, you’ll come out of that internet blackhole 1 hour later). another trick is to go to the library and sit in a carrel with nothing to distract you until you’re finished.
Note that in addition to physicians, other jobs in the medical field include nursing and PA, both growing, but you’d need to get your grades in order to have a shot.

DO get checked for ADD ASAP.

You’re a sophomore, so you still have time to turn things around. Did you do your homework in the evening every night of the week?

Hi. I’m a high school math teacher.

The other night we had Parent-Student-Teacher interviews for kids who struggled last marking period. There are 33 teaching days left in the year. Here’s what I would have said to you had you been at one of my conferences.

-Right now is not the time to worry about college. Right now is the time to worry about your sophomore grades. Pull them up, and we can talk about college over the summer. You’ll have more options if you can pull up your grades. It’s time for Academic Triage.

  • What has happened up to this point is no longer something you can control. It's over, forget about all your mistakes from last year and earlier this year. All you can change is what happens in the next 33 class days. So no regrets, no explanations, no thought to the past. It's over. Deal with the present and the future. Worry about ADD testing over the summer; there's no way that a diagnosis will come through in time to make any difference in terms of your grades. Right now your focus should be what you can do between now and the end of the school year to pull those grades up.
  • What I want you to do this weekend is go through your planner/calendar/whatever you use. I want you to figure out what's coming up in every single class you take. I want a list of every single test/quiz/paper/homework/project whatever. Download a blank calendar from the internet, one with big boxes and open a Word document. Color code each class, and input every thing you can come up with in terms of a deadline. Get an overview of what's due in each class. Update it every single day. Every day when you get home from school, have a snack and hit the books. (Not sure what time school ends, but if you were on my son's schedule, I would say you should be doing homework by 4 pm.) Put your phone, your IPad, and every single piece of electronics on your mom's bureau (with her permission) while you work, after you set them all to "silent."
  • For geometry in particular, I want you to write a formula sheet. Go through your notebooks, and write down every single formula you've covered. (My geometry kids have one formula sheet for each trimester, each a different color. I ask them to keep them in one of those plastic page protectors. Each time we cover a new formula, I ask them to take out their formula sheet and add it in. When they're studying for finals in June, those formula sheets will be a lifeline.) Do NOT just print one up. You need to physically WRITE the formulas (typing them is too much of a nuisance.) Writing them will help them work their way into your brain.
    If you haven't been good about taking notes, you can certainly find such a sheet online. But don't just print it up-- HAVING the formula sheet isn't the point. Re-write it; THAT'S the point. Do something similar in every course that involves a lot of memorization. Yes, it will take HOURS. But you'll have condensed a year's memorization into a few sheets of paper--- much easier to handle.

-OK, next. Do your teachers each have a website? (In my school, everyone does.) Hit each teacher’s site and figure out when their extra help is. It looks like you’ll want to hit extra help in Chem, Geometry and English. Work out a schedule so you can hit each teacher at least once a week.

Or, alternately: What I told my kids Thursday night is this: I’m around before homeroom and after school every day. If you were to stop by each of the next 33 days for exactly five minutes, that would be over 2 1/2 hours of extra help. Five minutes-- absolutely painless five minutes of math instead of hanging out at your locker. But you’ll be amazed at the difference those five minutes a day can make.

There’s a GREAT extra help site out there. Google “Oswego Regents prep.” Oswego is a city in NY, and the site is the one their public school system has to help kids prepare for the NY state Regents exam. You don’t have to live in NY or be taking a Regents. That site will help you get through many of the courses offered in high school. It’s a great combination of review and quizzes.

Before you do all that, I have a question for you: You’re doing great in Italian. Why? What is it about Italian that has your grades so much higher than your other classes? Is it a personality thing with the teacher? Is it just native ability for languages? (though your C+ in English would seem to contradict that idea.) Figure out what you’re doing right in Italian, and see whether there’s a way to translate (cute, huh?? ) those study habits into your other classes.

And, while you’re at it, figure out whether that strength in Italian is something that could translate into a college major/career. But that’s a conversation for over the summer. In the meantime, get busy with all the other stuff I gave you, OK??

I hope that helps!

First of all no academic path is closed to you. None. If you wanted to be a major league pitcher, and you don’t currently play baseball, that path is probably closed but medicine however is not closed.

A year from now, come back and we’ll figure out where you stand and find a path that will take you to medicine if that’s what you still want.

You need to find out what’s keeping you from achieving and correct it. You may have some kind of undiagnosed mental condition like ADD. It’s nothing to be ashamed about. Get your parents to get you evaluated by both a psychologist for therapy and a psychiatrist for medication. Get to the bottom of it.

Without correcting the problem, it’s unlikely you will be able to make a change. It may not all be on you. Get professional help. That’s what they are there for.

Once you get help, start doing better. Just to give you some idea, there are public flagship schools like Kansas where you only need a 2.0 to get in. You can still go on to medicine from there. You do need to get your academic game in order before that, and you do want to get issues with your brain chemistry figured out before that. There is always a path however, and I suspect that you will have many paths.

My older son’s grades weren’t much better than yours, and he got into Rutgers (in-state). He had good, but not astronomical, test scores. Be sure that you take all the required courses. he did not take Math senior year, and never took Pre-Calc. Rutgers - huge as it is - actually called his secondary school to check on his Math classes. They accepted him very soon after confirming that he had fulfilled their prerequisites. That was the School of Arts & Sciences.

Thanks everyone for all the help and about Italian people in my family speek it, that’s why I am doing good.

I’m guessing that you also speak English, yet you’re not doing quite as well.

I say you give that strength in Italian some consideration as a career path.

I suggest you do your best and try to get to pre-calc in 12th grade if you can.

It is NOT a major concern to go to a two-year college first, then a four-year college. I was looking at a student’s transfer record the other day, and they had four semesters of calculus at the two-year college, and did not have to take any math at our four-year college. Saves a lot of money too to go to a two-year college first. And there is no “note” on your degree if you are a transfer student, no matter where you transferred from.