<p>Just got my grades back for my second semester. I feel like a bit tense now because I'm sitting exactly on a 3.50 overall (slightly lower than last term). I'm a new sophomore and I beginning to feel the college heat rising. I can't let my grades drop, but maintaining and improving them seem so difficult. Does any one have any idea as to how to relieve stress? I'm on break now and the last thing i want to think about is school....</p>
<p>What school are you at; 3.5 is excellent for the top BS.</p>
<p>I go to loomis, which isn’t exactly exeter but the academics are still rigorous. The classes that are killing me are honors chem and english. chem by far being my worst class…</p>
<p>i can relate to the stress youre feeling. first off, cut yourself a little bit of a break. like keylyme said, a 3.5 is excellent for a prestigious boarding school, which i consider loomis to be. next, try to get more organized. i dont mean with books and pencils and stuff; i mean make a schedule for yourself. ex: on mondays, i take an hour after school ends to relax, and then i do my english homework, then language, then math, and then i take another break. after that i do bio and electives. this might sound kind of stupid, but setting a schedule for yourself kind of relaxes you in the sense that you feel more secure because you know what youre going to do next.
as for chem… can you get extra help or something? that might seem obvious and stupid too, but thats as best i can offer with the level of detail i’ve been given :). sorry if this whole post was sort of redundant…</p>
<p>I just couldn’t get my head around physics at Exeter so my grade was not great. But I had a high B overall gpa and I still got into MIT. (back in the dark ages).</p>
<p>Do your best and don’t stress out.</p>
<p>High school grades are important in order to get into college. But, according to Michele Hernandez who wrote the seminal book “A is for Admission”, many top colleges (like Dartmouth, where Ms. Hernandez was an admissions officer for years) weigh grades less than 25% of the total factors reviewed for admission. The big boys are SAT’s and SAT II’s, which are given almost 50% of the weight for admission at many colleges. Assuming such weights are right, it seems to me that every BS should be doing everything it can to assure its students that they are fully prepared to take these SAT tests. </p>
<p>So, pound those grades, but nail those SAT’s.</p>
<p>Putting youself under too much stress to do better can make your grades worse. To relax I read and look at landscape photos.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice everyone. I’m back for spring term now and so far it’s gone pretty well. I feel I’m doing better in my weaker classes and I can strive to get the 3.7 GPA that I’m hoping for.</p>
<p>i was a little diappointed to find out this isn’t really about walking on a tight rope. at all.</p>
<p>hey wiz,
Just wondering how did you end up with the final grades? I`m really intested in your school. So far, how to you like it?</p>