#junioryear school survivalguide student

[helloroselyn]

What I Wish Someone Told Me Before Junior Year

It is currently the summer between my junior and senior year, and I cannot wait to enter my last year of high school! It’s a bit surreal to say the least, but I definitely think junior year was my best year thus far. If you asked me to describe each school year in high school (minus senior year), I’d say that freshman year was the easiest, sophomore year was the most challenging, and junior year was the most productive.

Everybody says junior year is one of the most important years of your high school career, and I agree to a certain extent. My junior year was abundant with highs and lows, stressful nights and early mornings, and dreaded days and exciting events. There were times when I was successful, yet there were others when I felt like a failure.

If you’re about to enter your junior year or if you’d simply like to know my advice on what helped me as a junior, here are five tips on what I wish someone would have told me before my junior year:

1. Start everything early.

If you’re like me, you probably like to procrastinate a lot. In junior year (and in any year of your life), that won’t do you any good.

My teachers recommended students to take their first SAT and ACT exams during their junior year, which makes sense. If you don’t like your score from junior year, you can retake it as a senior in hopes of earning a better score.

So I set out to take my SAT in June (more specifically, June 3) and my ACT the following week (June 10). The reason why I chose the June dates and not May or earlier is because I wanted to “accumulate” as much knowledge as possible before I took each exam.

I have yet to receive my scores, but if there’s one thing I regret, it was that I feel as though I didn’t practice enough.

During my leisure, I watched a TED Talk on what top students do differently than average ones, and one of the key things that top students do is take practice exams well before the test, whereas average students tend to reread the material over and over and over again until their brains are exhausted. Unfortunately, that won’t help you on the SAT/ACT.

What I did to practice for the SAT was to create a Khan Academy account and make a study schedule that I would religiously follow each week in preparation for the June exam. Of course, this is extremely beneficial – if you’re consistent with it.

I, however, was not. I said “hi!” to Khan Academy for about one week straight and then completely abandoned my account. I don’t even recall exactly how many months I skipped SAT Practice because there were so many. Needless to say, DO NOT DO THAT.

The month leading up to June 3, I began to practice every single day. I would log into Khan Academy during zero period, lunch breaks, and before I started my homework. It was a super productive routine, which I am proud to have accomplished, but it undoubtedly required plenty of discipline and determination.

Would I probably have scored higher if I practiced way more? Yes. Would I feel more confident about my score if I studied earlier? Absolutely.

Now that we’re on the topic of studying...

2. Find a study schedule that works for you.

I cannot stress this one enough. If you’re still in that mindset of “I can study the night before the test and still score an A+ on it,” this is especially for you, my friend.

I used to be the type of person who lived and breathed that mindset. I would put off studying until the night before (sometimes the morning of) a test, self-assured that I would get an A. And most of the time, I did. But it did result in me losing precious hours of sleep and crying from constant bouts of stress.

To avoid this, I highly recommend creating a study schedule that works for you (key words: “works for you”). You don’t have to strive to be the next Albert Einstein and study chemistry formulas for five hours every night, because if you’re involved in ten extracurriculars, enrolled in five AP classes, and given a list of twenty chores to do on the daily, you’d obviously have to create a study schedule that caters to your specific needs.

What I did was that I would study my most difficult subjects (i.e. Precalculus, Chemistry, and AP United States History) for about thirty minutes each night, and I would give or take a few minutes depending on how difficult the lesson was or when my next exam would take place. Thirty minutes may not seem like a lot, but it’s way more efficient than studying four hours the night before the test. Plus, I had leadership positions, extracurriculars, and other AP/Honors homework under my belt, so I couldn’t afford to study for hours on end.

Depending on your daily/weekly schedule, I suggest finding what works perfectly for you. This does require some trial and error, but trust me, your hard work will pay off!

3. Get more sleep.

This is a piece of advice I desperately needed. When you’re feeling lethargic at school, you cannot – and will not – show your best work. The only (obvious) way to fix this is by catching more shuteye.

This may require some experimentation. If you’re anything like me and beg for a drop of coffee when you’re running off five hours of sleep, shoot for six to seven hours of sleep (at the very least) each night. Many doctors and professionals suggest eight hours of sleep for optimal energy, but your body may be different. Whether you’re a night owl or a morning bird, I recommend testing out different hours of sleep and seeing what works for you.

Once you’ve determined your ideal sleep schedule, you’ve got to stick to it. I have zero period, which means I wake up every morning at 6 a.m., regardless of whether I want to or not. It’s become a habit for me, but of course, it changes drastically over the summer.

For many students, sticking to a consistent sleep schedule may mean finishing your homework earlier than usual, or sacrificing a few extracurriculars in order to make more time for sleep. That’s okay. If you’re losing hours of sleep due to your activities, re-evaluate each one. Ask yourself, “Is this worth my time?” If it isn’t, you may have to consider knocking it off your schedule.

This brings me to my next point, which is...

3. Don’t be afraid to quit and try out different things.

As children, we were taught that quitting a sport, club, etc. is no bueno. We’re shamed for straying away from our commitments, and even in some cases in high school, it’s heavily frowned upon to do so. But as you grow older, it may be of more benefit to quit extraneous activities than to stay in them.

During my sophomore year, I was on the track team. I absolutely loved sprinting and lifting weights – it was my form of stress-relief (plus, it made me more confident in how my body looked, which was an added bonus). But when I was on the team my junior year, I hated it. I don’t know if it was because of the negative people I was surrounding myself with, or because the workouts just weren’t fun anymore, or if it was a combination of the two. The point is, I quit the track team.

And it was difficult. I was fearful of what my coaches would tell me. I was scared of what my friends on the team would think of me. And most importantly, I was afraid of being shamed for my decision.

Luckily, my coaches and most of my friends were incredibly supportive and understood my situation. But to this day, it was one of the hardest choices I’d ever made in my high school career.

Like the track team, I also quit the All Female Dance Team, Book Club, Science Club, Bible Club, and several others. I chose to leave my AP Chemistry class and opted for an easier chemistry course, simply because I wanted to decrease my workload. Different activities were definitely more challenging to say goodbye to, but in the end, I don’t regret any of my decisions. I feel healthier and more balanced with the activities in which I am currently involved (and I get much more sleep!).

4. Heartbreaks are inevitable, but they’re leading you to your next successful relationship.

Like I mentioned in my previous blog post, I went through an excruciatingly painful breakup early on in my junior year. Needless to say, I was extremely depressed because of it. I’ll spare you the details of what happened (simply because that’s a really personal topic), but without a doubt, I’ve learned so much from my pain. I became more assertive and independent, discovered exactly what I want and don’t want in a guy, and uncovered a newfound strength inside of me that I never knew I possessed.

In conjunction, I don’t recommend rushing into a relationship immediately after you’ve endured a breakup. I gave myself a few months of healing before I started dating my current boyfriend. This healing process may take longer for others and shorter for some, so it’s important to surround yourself with your loved ones and to do activities that make you happy to distract yourself from the pain.

5. Don’t rush it.

This is a short and simple piece of advice my APUSH teacher gave us on the last day of class, yet it’s super meaningful.

There will be many days when you’ll want to get out of high school already. There will also be days when you’ll hate your teachers, your parents, your classmates, and so on. There will be plenty of days when you’ll want to be an adult and have your life figured out already.

But don’t rush it. Enjoy your youth while you still have it, because there are only so many years before you’ll have to pay taxes, work for ten hours each day, and take care of crying babies until 3 a.m. This time of your life is valuable, so treasure it.

I hope this helps you, future juniors, in the upcoming school year! I wish you all the best of luck!

Love, Roselyn

#junioryear school survivalguide student