I think i’m the most sick of being treated like a child- I have been told countless times that because I am “only a teenager”, I’m hormonal and can’t make good decisions. I mean, I have done well in school, have balanced varsity sports and music lessons and leads in musicals and community service and a social life. I don’t drink, I’ve never even experimented with drugs, I’ve never tried to hurt myself and I’ve never really done anything “rebellious”. So I may be a teenager, but I can still make good decisions.
Also, I want to go into music/theatre, something I’ve wanted for as long as I can remember, and I’m sick of being told that my goals in life (as I am auditioning for vocal music degree programs) are definitely going to change because I am “only a teenager” and I “don’t know what I want”. Ugh, i can’t stand it.
And to continue my rant, I’m sick of vague college admission essays. They’re really annoying to write and I feel like an idiot writing them.
Some middle school students come from families that never went to college (including me back when I was in middle school). Therefore, they lack the knowledge and importance of high school. They aren’t really aware (they care but they are blind in some aspects of high schools) that your attendance and performance in high school is important because colleges speculate on that, as well as other factors such as test scores, ECs, ranks, etc.
It’s upsetting that most counselors do not emphasize this to incoming high school freshmen. I’m in that pool of students who had to do their own research on how to be a good,competent college applicant. But the problem is that I became aware of my college and career readiness by the end of 10 grade. Had I known before I enter 9th grade, I would have been in a better academic status.
I’m not blaming counselors and teachers for not helping (am disappointed in majority of them as well). I had aspirations to attend college and there are other students (with families educated at a high school level) that do as well. Yet, counselors and other advisors are aware of this, and they make no effort to fix this issue. When they do, it’s too late: it is their senior year, and college applications should have been submitted.
Very upsetting and unfortunate for this category of students. They have potential but don’t know how to start. Luckily, I myself became aware of how important high school is just in time.
@Apollo11 and @otherpeople , Yes that’s true that in majority of high school students do useless work, but I will not necessarily say that it’s useless. You will often run in those similar situations in college as well. No instructor is perfect. My reading teacher once said, “in order to be successful you have to do things that you don’t like.” Think about it, if you do those useless homework which you don’t like and actually take the time to do it according to the instructions, then you’ll likely get a good grade. The grade is important.
Now, you said that something about not beneficial or something similar to that. Yes, it’s not beneficial but that’s when you come in: do self-study, study at home, do some online research on AP concepts, etc. Point is that it’s up to the student to do this him or herself. I know people who have decided this path, and became very successful. Not all Ivy applicants had good teachers, only the wealthy ones LOL. But they worked hard on their own.
For example, there are students getting 5s on AP exams, and complained about their teachers.
GRINDWORK. I feel like some of my teachers just throw us hours of homework for fun. The only classes I feel that the work we are doing isn’t just busy work are Biology and Math.
I don’t like how people just look at the grade you get. There’s also the time factor involved.
Ex: Student A gets an 85 on a test. Student 2 gets a 90. Student 2 is p/o’d at his grade but Student A is even more p/o’d, adopting the close-minded ideology that a 90 is a good grade, no matter what. However, Student A fails to realize that Student 2 spent 3 hours a day the past week studying for that test.
Honestly, one of the most frustrating things about HS is how they treat you like a kid. In most of my classes, I have to ask to get the hall pass and I would be yelled at if I were working on homework for another class. At this age, I think it should be MY choice what classes and work I prioritize. If I’m not bothering the people around me, I should have the option of playing on my phone all class or even not being there at all.
At this age, you should understand the impact of not going to class/not working hard and should be able to choose for yourself. High schools shouldn’t coddle you (especially if you’re a Senior) because in less than a year or so you have to choose your own responsibilities and prioritize your own activities.
The one thing I couldn’t stand about high school was the babying nature of many lower level classes; I honestly felt like I was back in middle school or even elementary school (in the case of taking my required health class).
Unfortunately, I exhausted almost all the rigorous classes @ my HS during junior year, when I took all APs and loved the experience. Yes, it was tough, but the independence the teachers allowed me was awesome. If I wanted to prioritize a certain assignment, they wouldn’t get in my face about it. They didn’t baby me, probably because they knew that without hard work I’d end up performing poorly in the class. There was no mercy, just total intellectual/academic freedom. I consider myself fortunate that my high school offered such rigorous classes.
If I can sleep/do other subjects during class and still get an A, and the teacher doesn’t want it, then I shouldn’t be able to get an A in a class by sleeping. Simple.
Unfortunately, senior year is a slightly different experience right now…
PE was useless; I could’ve burned more calories walking around the school for 45 minutes.
Tech was actually fine (because of my teacher) but it could’ve easily become another time wasting nightmare. And because I have to take health, I can’t take AP Psych!! which, when coupled with AP Bio (which I took) pretty covers everything in health + 1000% more.
And I completed the required number of science credits (3) in my HS after grade 9. The others (around 10-11) were/are absolutely useless in counting towards my graduation.
ahaha there’s a lot of negatively in my posts. But I stick to the topic of “most frustrating” experiences in high school. There were many great things in my high school like a lot of decent people (character+academics wise), good course offerings, and status as a near “feeder” for top colleges.
The load of graduation requirements and the lack of individualized education.
Like I had to drop 3 AP classes over the course of 4 years for general education classes like health, where many immature guys just asked stupid sex questions “for their friends,” and driver’s ed, where we watched videos of cars getting hit by trains and crafted our own road signs.
I have exactly the same problem right now! I did most of the ap/ib offerings at my school and I put off a lot of my graduation requirements until this year. I’m stuck in marketing and health and it’s about the most painful/ infuriating experience in HS.
Gosh I’m such a whiner, but it is really annoying and this is a frustration thread. I almost got detention for leaving class with the hall pass without “asking” first and writing my name on the board in Health. It was such a culture shock! I was genuinely surprised I couldn’t, you know, leave class… I mean, I’m nearly a legal adult. In all my AP classes, they understand that you have bladder functions and they implicitly trust you. In lower level classes/ grad req. classes, they treat you like a criminal and they automatically think that you’re planning nefarious things.
If I had no PE/health/career tech requirements in my school, I would’ve learned sooo much more over my HS career. It’s really a shame.
People who don’t take school seriously or appreciate the access to the resources they have. I go to a really big school and HUGE library that most people don’t even step into. I have cousins abroad who get excited to go to a tiny 2-room neighborhood library.
People who don’t focus on their grades, blow off work, and disrespect teachers and other faculty, and then complain about having a bad grade and go on and on about how the teacher hates them
This was probably already mentioned but cheating. Cheating, cheating, cheating. In my school, it happened in almost every class and most of the time it was by students in the top of our grade. It made me sick, especially since most of them got into great schools while other students who worked their asses off didn’t.
Oh, and also bias in the classroom. I find it so odd when students and teachers become really close to the point where they are texting each other. One of my AP teachers had a group of students she preferred and offered exclusive study-time to before the exam. Irony is, despite getting the best grades in class, most got 3’s in the exam. Though, the teacher still thinks they are amazing. Okay one last thing before I finish this rant, some students had hooks with their teacher to the point where they went through as many drafts of college essays as they wanted. Ultimately, they had the perfect essays and I think it is completely unfair. At this point, the teacher is practically filling out their apps
Okay I am done I should sleep lol
When a teacher gives you busy work that has absolutely no freaking impact on the subject at all. My APUSH teacher does that all the time, she gives busy work that is completely irrelevant to the topic and makes it so that it is around 3-6 pages. Also, she always says this during our note taking time,“Oh! You don’t have to write this, but did you know that Abraham Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches??” (Our APUSH teacher is so bad, that she only has a 6% pass rate for the test, let me remind you… 6 FREAKING-PERCENT).
