<p>I have successfully completed my first week of Junior Year...and it was hell! Lol I went to sleep every night at about 2AM! This is where the generic "help me I'm a junior and I need advice" part comes in :P. </p>
<p>Basically, I start my homework at 4PM (when I get home) and finish my homework at around 12AM. THEN, I do SAT prep and all of the assigned reading I have for my English and Leadership class. That takes about an hour and a half. THEN, I have to shower and eat something since I don't have time to do so when I get home. I thought that I had mastered the concept of time management, but now I'm starting to second guess myself. Do any of you have advice for what I should do?</p>
<p>*Below, I have listed my schedule.
1- PreCalculus
2- Japanese 3H
3- AP Chem
4- Advanced Leadership
5- AP Bio
6- English 3H
*7- Science Research (I had to drop this one because there was no way I could stay after school for another hour.)</p>
<p>*TL;DR
My problems are as follows:
-I sleep at 2am every night even though I start my homework at 4PM (when I get home)
-I have NO social life whatsoever since I have to get home right away to start my homework
-Do you have any time management advice?</p>
<p>*Extra info
-I want to be a biomedical scientist specializing in microbiology, so I doubled up on science. That's why I am taking both AP Bio and AP Chem. This is not where the problem lies, however. It's not the material that's hard for me, but it's the amount of work I get in total.
-Since I am kind of a perfectionist, I try to make sure that every single assignment I turn in is neat and organized, but not so much that I am spending an unnecessary amount of time on each subject. However, the work I get in my AP Bio and Chem classes plus other honors classes' homework results in me getting about six to seven hours of homework a night--not including studying. </p>
<p>@nickchan1 Yeah, I feel like I might end up getting depressed and feeling worn out at the end of the year–or maybe even earlier. But your schedule looks so crazy! I really wish you the best of luck! Thanks for the advice, too. I think I’ll focus on the classes that I need expertise in and prioritize. I just have one quick question. During your junior year, what did you have to give up in order to get those perfect grades?</p>
<p>Well you have to remember that in competitive situations there are no solutions, only trade offs. I basically gave up my social and family life except on maybe 1 day a month. I was basically doing something for EC’s whenever I wasn’t doing school stuff. I don’t really know much about you so I can’t really recommend anything, but there’s really no obligation to do a bunch of busy work if you already know the content (my precalculus teacher never checked HW and I already knew it all, so I didn’t bother). You just have to learn the ins and outs of your schedule and what you can do to maximize your potential</p>
<p>Hmmm that course load should not be taking 8 hours to do homework every day. How much do you spend on each class? Do you have every class every day? 6 hours I could believe (Assuming an hour per class), but there seems to be something off.
Walk me through a general hour by hour (if you don’t mind). There may be some ways you could make this more efficient because there’s no way you can keep that up the entire school year (I know, I’ve been there). What I would suggest though is moving SAT prep to the weekends primarily so that you can go to bed around midnight instead. If you can make your work more efficient, you could do SAT prep on the days you have a lighter homework load and then make up for the days you “skipped” on the weekends. </p>
<p>@guineagirl96 I’d be happy to write you my afternoon hour by hour!
4:00pm - PreClaculus Homework
4:45pm - Japanese 3H Homework
5:30PM - AP Chem Homework
7:00PM - AP Bio Homework
9:30PM - English 3H Assignments
9:45PM - Assigned reading
11:00PM - Advanced Leadership Homework/Volunteer Log
11:30PM - Study for upcoming test/quiz
12:30AM - SAT Prep
1:30AM - Shower, eat and all that good stuff</p>
<p>I never considered doing SAT prep on the weekends! I think I’ll start doing that.</p>
<p>Hmm Precalc, Japanese, English, and Leadership are taking completely reasonable amounts of time. AP chem is taking 1.5 hours, that’s a lot but not unreasonable on a heavy day (this should hopefully even out a little bit so that its not like that every day). AP Bio also is taking 2.5 hours. Thats a lot. What’s your typical homework for that? My guess is this is where you may be able to condense your work time the most. I would also recommend putting studying for tests earlier in the afternoon instead of late at night, you’ll retain the information better. </p>
<p>Another thing that was suggested to me junior year when I was having trouble keeping up was to do the homework for my least favorite/worst subjects first. The later it gets at night, the harder it will be for you to complete these assignments effectively and efficiently. I remember even sophomore year trying to do reading for english at 11 pm and I would literally read a page and have to go back because I wouldn’t remember what I just read (Im still guilty of that 1.5 weeks into college). Your favorite subjects you should be able to complete no matter the hour (At least that’s what I found- there were times where I was up til 2 am doing multivar or calc hw). </p>
<p>The other thing I would recommend is looking at ways to speed up your reading. I don’t know how many pages you have to read (your time actually looks pretty reasonable), but even speeding up your reading by a little bit will allow you to do all your homework faster because you’ll be able to process the homework directions and questions faster. </p>
<p>@guineagirl96 Usually, bio homework consists of writing/redoing prelabs and labs, reading up to three chapters a night and filling out a short packet to go along with the reading. My reading speed is pretty average, so I’m sure that’s what is making the process take so long. The strategy you suggested sounds awesome, though! </p>
<p>Try to do some of the assigned reading during the day at school or on the weekends. YouTube has audio recordings of some books, especially classic literature, so if you find a book with a free audio version you can listen to it while you’re doing something else. At night, though, you should do the rest of your homework before the assigned reading when possible, because you’ll be less tired and you’ll work faster.
I’ve found that typing my homework (if it’s not a worksheet) is way faster than writing it out because I never have to start over again completely. Teachers will always say, “You don’t have to type it!” as though typing is some kind of burden, but I think it’s easier and looks nicer than handwriting. </p>