How to Excel in High School, Part 1

Know the truth -- high school is now all about endurance; no longer can you coast by. With competition for high-demand courses and tuition fees in colleges rising, and consequently scholarships becoming more and more of a necessity, it's time to face the facts: you'll need to do well in high school to get the college admission you want and scholarship you need. Steps: 1. Make the best grades you possibly can in your 7th and 8th grade year. Many students think that it isn't important to start doing your best until your first year in high school, but this is far from the truth. If you want to start off your freshman year with Honors classes, you have to make A's (or high B's) in your 8th grade year; otherwise you won't get accepted in any Honors classes. 2. Do very careful research to find out exactly which classes you should enroll in. Read the class descriptions and talk to other students who have taken the class. Taking a class just because a friend is taking it too won't help you and your friend will probably be a distraction. Instead, look for classes with students and material that is slightly above your level as the best motivator is competition. If you can, look at the textbooks for the various classes. Oftentimes the rigor of the textbook will reflect that of the class. Also keep in mind the subjects necessary to pursue your intended career. Your class choices in high school could be the most difficult in your life. Be sure you won't regret them later. 3. Obtain supplemental textbooks. Ask your teachers, older students or consult the Internet to find the best sources. Use several reference books that will augment your understanding of the material. Don't be afraid of seemingly difficult material. Think of it as a challenge and face it head on. 4. Get a tutor. A good tutor will able to help you understand concepts, make the class fun and set problems which are neither too easy nor too difficult for you. 5. Prioritize your after-school activities. Continue doing the extra-curricular activities that you love and are truly committed to, but allow yourself enough time to study. Your activities are important to becoming a well-rounded student, and often very important on college applications. Figure out how much time you need to perform at your best and add thirty minutes to be safe. Then add on at least 8 hours for sleep and the number of hours you spend commuting to or attending school. Subtract this number from 24 and you have the amount of "free time" during your day. Find a calendar for the year and write down all of the activities you would like to do and the amount of time each will take. If you have more scheduled on one day than you have free time, prioritize and cut back on your activities. Also keep in mind that you need some "down time" where you can do nothing but think. 6. Organize everything. Organize all of those loose papers and notes. Invest in some binders. File away any homework that is more than a grading period old (if you have rolling grades, you should keep all of your papers with you until the end of the year just in case). Use topic-wise indexes for easier access when you need them. Use database and flowchart applications to maintain a complete record of your empire of studying. Label each paper clearly with a colored pen: CW for classwork, HW for homework, N for notes. Clear out your backpack. Dump it on the floor, sort everything into piles, then place all necessary papers into the correct binders and throw out what you don't need. 7. Make and maintain a study place. If you don't have a set study place, make one now. Is your study place organized and clean? Is it well-lit? Is it quiet and well-ventilated? Do you have necessary materials at your fingertips? If so, good! If not, work on it. Store all textbooks, notes etc. within reach as well as a computer (desktop/laptop) with Internet access if possible. If your house is always crowded or noisy, try the library. 8. Set a high standard for your academic work. Promise yourself, and others, that you'll get acceptable grades on tests and complete all homework. Take action if your marks start falling before someone else has to point it out to you. Find ways to motivate yourself, convince yourself that you want to get into college more than anything. Motivation is the key to success! 9. Study every night. The night before every class, read through the material in the book that you predict or have been told will be covered that day. Use review questions at the end of the chapter to make sure you have a basic understanding of it. Write down any questions you have and ask your teacher. 10. Take Perfect Lecture Notes. A good rule of thumb is to copy down all diagrams as completely as possible and write down anything you think you might not remember. Write them down to where you can read them. Try to go home and retype the notes, adding any extra information. Some teachers bounce back and forth between topics. Then study your notes and any extra information. 11. Start studying a few days before a test. Three days is usually sufficient. If you procrastinate until the night before, you probably won't remember the material after the test. If you have leftover time at the end of your study session, review some old material so you keep it fresh in your mind for the final exam. A few minutes here and there will greatly reduce the amount of time you have to spend studying at the end of the year when you really want to coast along until summer. If you have several tests scheduled close together, think about the difficulty of the material and proportionate your time accordingly. If you spend the same amount of time studying material you already know as more challenging material, your grade in the difficult class will suffer. If you know the material already, studying more isn't going to do much good. 12. Avoid pulling an all-nighter to study for a test. It does not pay off. It's sometimes necessary to stay up late to write essays or complete projects since it's better to be exhausted and get credit for the assignment than to sleep and lose the points that could make a difference between an A and a B, or a B and a C. But remember, if you can't concentrate, you won't do well on a performance based assessment. If you have a test the next day but need to finish a project, coffee is your best friend, but be warned that once the caffeine wears off, you will probably be even more exhausted than before. 13. Do the homework. Make homework time fun. Turn up the music and have some snacks handy. If that doesn't work, reason with yourself. Remember that teachers have to do the same amount of work you do but for all of their students so they only assign homework that is necessary for you to learn the material. Make sure you don't slack off because it is "just graded for completion." There is no point in doing homework if you aren't going to do it right. 14. Do some extra. After you finish your homework, do some difficult problems from your supplemental resources. Do past exams or learn new techniques to help you get the most out of your class. These are the last few years of your free education. Milk it for all it's worth. You'll miss it when its over and you are paying thousands of dollars a year for the same education you could have gotten now. originated by: Anonymous, Ben Rubenstein, Sondra C, Jack Herrick Source: www.wikihow.com