<p>Any god advice? I know that this the bug year, the make it or break it to your dream school. </p>
<p>I am curious. Should we contact our dream school now?</p>
<p><em>good</em> sorry for any typos. I am always in a rush online.</p>
<p>It's a good idea to start showing interest by visiting the campus, responding to mailings (if possible), asking questions, etc.</p>
<p>Don't focus on that too much, however. You need to make sure your grades and test scores are chart-topping this year.</p>
<p>Are you an upcoming junior, or are you now a junior going to be a senior in the fall?</p>
<p>I am going to be a junior</p>
<p>Get the SATs done as fast as you can. It is a pain to juggle college apps and SAT prep the summer before your senior year. (also try the ACT, if you'd like)</p>
<p>I agree. The biggest advice I could tell you is to take the SATs early! If you take them once in the beginning of the year and then you can study for what you think you might need to do better on. </p>
<p>Junior year gets really busy with tons of things going on, but I really wished that I just put time aside and actually studied for the SATs. It might suck while you're doing it, but if you endure the suffering and you can get test scores that you are happy with by the end of your junior year, it will be a great relief over the summer. </p>
<p>Also, it's great that you have a dream school, but you should probably start thinking of other schools and just all around exploring colleges. I was really surprised that once I actually started looking at schools I found a few colleges that were nearly comparable to my dream school. </p>
<p>Once you get a list of some colleges that you are seriously considering, and if you know your intended major, check to see the required classes in high school, because let me just tell you, it sucks going into your senior year realizing that somehow you need to take a few extra classes that you weren't planning on. </p>
<p>And most of all, take some time to relax. You will get stressed! It's worse if you just bottle it up the entire time. </p>
<p>Oh, and have some fun with friends, you never know how much the friendships you build will help you when it comes to school. Whether it's studing for SATs with someone who got an 800 in math when that is your worst section, or a thoughtful friend who typed up a 15 page US History study guide for your final and emailed it to you because she knew that you had to work and wouldn't be home until late at night. Or you could end up forming a WOTD (Word of the Day) group with your friends where you have contests to see who can use an SAT word the most during the day and in papers and such. Hah, I even had a friend who read all of her chemistry notes to me because we had a "thunderstorm day" the day before finals and school was cancelled and I didn't have any of my stuff with me. </p>
<p>And, start getting on good terms with your parents. Build trust with them, do your chores! Junior year is a year where you begin to get some freedom and it would suck if your parents didn't trust you enough to let you have it. Plus, just think you'll be leaving for college sooner than you think. Start building a relationship with your family.</p>
<p>Seriously, it is common among CCers to be unsocial, but my friends have motivated me and made me smarter!</p>
<p>Maybe I'll think of some more later, I hope this helps.</p>
<p>PS. and GET SOME SLEEP at night!</p>
<p>"GET SOME SLEEP at night!"</p>
<p>Ha. Hahaha. Hahahaha. Right.</p>
<p>For junior year, I recommend that you start thinking about what you want to get out of college and find schools that you think will help you achieve those goals. You don't need to go crazy over the SAT yet, just refresh your memory on basic English grammar, try to read the newspaper everyday, and get some summer reading done.</p>
<p>dchow-
Thank you for your advice too! I have been reading the paper daily so I can prep to be editor in chief :) It's nice knowing other kids read the paper. I feel like the only one sometimes...</p>
<p>Wow Ellie, what useful advice! very thought-provoking. </p>
<p>I definitely need to work on the relationship with my mum. My dad moved out 2 weeks ago so not much to do in that field. Besides that, I think everything sounds good! I feel much better now. I relax by runing and volunteering. I am also quite social actually. I'm just worried about SAT because I know it's coming up and I need to take the ACT too. (My grades are low)</p>
<p>Does anyone here know the differences and which a student would probably score higher on? I scored in the 96th percentile for English and 79th percentile in Math on the PSAT.</p>
<p>"Does anyone here know the differences and which a student would probably score higher on?"</p>
<p>That's what search engines are for, dear EASD. I recommend that you take one practice SAT and one practice ACT and just take the one you'd do better at.</p>
<p>One thing I'll add is to keep a list of all the books you read over the next year. A lot of schools ask for one, and it's myuch easier if you keep it throughtout the year.</p>
<p>Glad to help! And, if it makes you feel any better, I did much better my first time taking the SAT (with no studying) compared to the PSAT. Actually, in each area my score increased by about 100 points.</p>