<p>Hello, I'm very sorry if this just sounds like a complaint/foolish helplessness. Please forgive me.
I'm in 9th grade, and my grades have been dropping; my GPA for the first semester was a 4.0, and a 210 PSAT, while this semester I'm right now getting 2 B's (one in Honors English and one in Intro to Law). Both will probably be very hard to raise (or even, impossible, mathematically speaking). I was very carried away by making USAJMO this year, from my previous 88.5, and although I achieved it, I'm still worried about my grades. I've also spent too much time preparing for academic team finals, and other EC's of some sorts, which got me these grades. This is not the point however; the main problem that I'm worrying about is my motivation and dedication, because I'm lacking very much in those areas, and it's been a big change from my past motivation. For example, I now don't even want to start school-work when I get home, and I don't have much motivation to see the purpose of it. Please tell me how to regain my motivation, as well as a sense of confidence?
Also, would colleges look down upon this sort of behavior? (such as MIT, Caltech)?</p>
<p>What I am motivated more is what I learn, not what grade I get. Just gaining the knowledge pushes me. Some one asked me why I took AP classes. I am not doing so well in those classes. Why did I bother? I know regular classes would be too slow and too shallow for me. Even the AP classes seem very shallow TBH. I honestly do not care much for grades. I rather take a class to gain knowledge, not a good grade. Hopefully that will help, if it does not, chances are you are taking all the wrong classes.</p>
<p>Re-visit your purposes. Why exactly is it that you care about your grades? Is it to impress other people(parents, colleges), to live up to their expectations? You need to find a sense of purpose inside yourself, and use that to motivate you. If it is YOUR dream(not your parents) to go to a competitive university, it might help to find that spark that began your dream use it to motivate you again. If it’s not really your dream or if you’re not really willing to do the work needed to get into these colleges, then maybe you are taking the wrong classes. But it’s not about the grade or the college anyways, it’s about the learning. If you’re taking hard classes for the grade or for someone else, then you’re taking them for the wrong reasons. I actually agree with the guy above me, for the most part. I really do love to learn and in harder classes I learn more, but I try not to overwhelm myself. That could also be a problem. I’ve learned if you over-achieve to a point where your life is not balanced anymore, then you lose a sense of what you’re really passionate about and your motivation dissappears. I think the best thing to do in that case is take a break. Or atleast try your hardest and discipline yourself until you can take a break and then contemplate on what’s really important to you.</p>
<p>@davidthefat
good for you, broski. that’s the attitude i try to have; it’s truly admirable.</p>