<p>Any tips for us incoming sophomores?</p>
<p>lolz Sophomore year pwnz freshamn year </p>
<p>I was actually curious…</p>
<p>I’m an incoming sophomore as well. First day of school tomorrow. I don’t see how sophomore year is really distinct in any way, for someone to give you advice on it. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing, but better I guess. </p>
<p>The novelty of high school has worn off, we don’t have upperclassmen privileges, and college admissions and tests are in the relatively distant future for most of us. </p>
<p>The potato of high school years. </p>
<p>Sophomore year was a real challenge for me. The work load was a big jump from freshman year, as I was taking three honors/AP classes sophomore year and probably hadn’t mentally prepared myself for that commitment. Oops. 
In any case, I learned a lot about myself and about balance.</p>
<p>Get good grades and try your best at everything you do. Have a fun year! Don’t worry about junior year or colleges. Find out what your strengths and interests are, and then use that information to decide on which APs to take next year. Join something at your school so you are part of a community there. I joined the journalism program as a sophomore and realized that journalism is one of my passions. I also made some really good friends and pushed myself outside of my comfort zone. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>From the top of my head, I would say just maintain a good GPA and narrow down your EC’s to what you are really passionate about. I would definitely recommend taking the PSAT to get a feel for what it’s like if you’re planning on taking the SAT in the future. For me, sophomore year was the first year I took an AP so it definitely opened my eyes to class rigor (I went from planning to take all AP in senior year…to like 3 APs in senior year hahaa). but most importantly remember not to stress out!!</p>
<p>Keep up your grades, take the PSAT, and start studying for the SAT! I seriously wish I would have started studying earlier for the SAT. It is not a bad year.</p>
<p>I’m a Junior this year. So sophomore year, right? I’m probably not the <em>best</em> person to give advice considering how last year went, but I definitely have some things to say based off of experiences. Keep in mind that most of this is geared towards the problems that I faced as a sophomore, so it may be biased towards the mistakes that I personally made. Take no offense to anything. </p>
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<li><p>Okay, odds are that you’ve taken at least one or two rigorous classes freshman year. If you’re like me, you didn’t do as great as you would’ve hoped, and you feel like you could’ve done better. One thing I can vouch for for sophomore year is that it gets easier. I went from taking one AP as a freshman and getting a “B” all year to taking two the next and actually doing pretty well in them. </p></li>
<li><p>That doesn’t mean that you can slack off, believe me. Especially during third quarter, I didn’t try as hard in some of my classes, like Pre-Calculus Honors and AP World History. I kid you not, my progress report grades were “C, B, C, A, B, A, C.” (This makes me wince.) Most of those grades were justifiable because of the way teachers were inserting grades, but my point still stands; stop and imagine the difficulty of raising those grades up before report cards. I don’t even know how I managed to get all "A"s for semesters last year. Pretty much, don’t procrastinate, pay attention in class, and participate as much as you can. </p></li>
<li><p>Extra Curricular Activities. If you don’t participate actively already, I suggest it for both your own sanity, and to establish yourself in clubs and organizations. Best example in my case would be Beta Club. I generally made an attempt to participate as much as I could during meetings. At the end of the year when it came to club elections, I won the position of president for this year. For SECME, since I was already voted Vice President during the end of freshman year, I was able to take the president position since she wasn’t doing the job properly. Really, just take the initiative to show that you care about the activities.</p></li>
<li><p>Extra Curricular Activities. Yeah, I just stressed their importance, but you also have to give yourself time to focus on your classes as well. You see, what I did was I decided that I wanted to be in <em>everything</em>. I was a member of BPA, Beta Club, SECME, NCSSSMST, Experimental Science, and Student Council, and then NHS at the end of the school year. That’s not to say I didn’t have fun in them, I did, but It got extraordinarily stressful at times. Between club responsibilities, competition dates and deadlines, and your actual homework and studying for class, you can really cut yourself too thin.</p></li>
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<p>@ThatOneWeirdGuy I actually found that sophomore year was distinct in that it’s kind of a time where you establish yourself. It was definitely a lot different than freshman year, and I think it’s understandable that people would want advice on it. I will admit that it kind of is a potato. It was really disappointing, and for most of the year I just couldn’t wait for it to be over. At the same time though, all things considered, it wasn’t a bad year.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Take an AP (or honors course if you haven’t)- You may have felt comfortable (or not) taking the easy CP or Core courses but if you want to be an elite student with 4.0+ GPA you want to start taking more rigorous courses.</p></li>
<li><p>Start researching colleges- I did this and currently the same college I looked at my sophomore year is still my first choice. Doing this now saves time for when junior year comes you know what test scores you want to hit. This also gives you time to start thinking about financing college.</p></li>
<li><p>Join a Club and/or Sport- This tip may not be for every one but you should take part in student life at your high school, because before you know it you will be graduating and regretting not being active in the student life at school. This also a great way to make friends.</p></li>
<li><p>Study for the ACT/SAT- Doing this now will improve your scores as to doing it in the middle of junior year.</p></li>
<li><p>Keep up your grades (give your self a positive trend)- You will praise this tip later on when you see your transcripts senior year </p></li>
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<p>I’m sure by now you have a group of friends, and you feel conformable in HS now. In my opinion this year is the only time you don’t need to work your butt off (if you have a nice and solid GPA from Freshman year). I would enjoy as much of this year because after you will have to start College entrance test, College Essays, etc…</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>