Hey everyone! As you probably know, I’m a tenth grader in a CBSE school right now, and I wanted to give all the students who entered ninth grade some advice!
Most of this would probably apply to the ninth grade equivalent of any school system but there are some things which may only apply to CBSE schools.
here we go:
STUDY
I’m going to warn you right now, subject material will get more complicated. Don’t be fazed by it, it’s actually quite simple when you get down to the basics. It’s basically embellishing everything you’ve learnt in middle school, and giving you extra information on it.
What I’m trying to say is, TRY AND KEEP YOUR MIDDLE SCHOOL BOOKS (especially for Math and Science!!!)
Please, please, PLEASE pay attention in Chemistry. Especially during the third chapter with the mole concept and valency charts and all of that. I, unfortunately, had the bad luck of being stuck with a chemistry teacher who was absolutely, completely and horrendously bad less than perfect, which ended up messing up my TENTH grade chemistry. Please. Pay attention to Chemistry, even if it’s your best subject. It WILL come back to haunt you.
For Math, please keep track of all the formulae you’ve learnt in past years. Remember them, they’ll come up later. You’ll show up to a test on algebraic functions, and realise you need the formula of a cylinder. Keep. Track. Of. Your. Formulae.
Talking about tests, figure out your mark distribution. I’ve made a post discussing CBSE’s current marking system, but you should also find out how MANY tests you will have, as numbers vary.
Social Science (History, Political Science, Geography, Economics) is a soul-sucking subject which deserves no love ever requires a lot of memorisation techniques, so I’d suggest making various types of notes for it from the beginning of the year.
Chapters to look out for:
Sound (Physics)
Ch-3,4 (Chemistry)
Biodiversity in Living Organisms (Biology)
Russian Revolution (History)
Climate (Geography)
EVERYTHING in Hindi (sorry I’m terrible at Hindi)
Polynomials (Math)
Get people to ask you questions! If you aren’t sure if you Truly know something, hand your notes to your mom and tell her to ask you everything.
Read your book. Read Your Book. READ YOUR BOOK.
Here’s the most important part. Your grades WILL drop. I promise you, no matter how great of a student you are, your grades will drop. People told me this before I started high school and I didn’t believe them, but it’s true. I entered high school as an A+ student and by the first unit tests my Social Science, Hindi and Maths marks had dropped to Bs. I later ended up pulling my shit together and got my grades back up to an A+, but the grade drop is a well known and horrible phenomena. Prepare yourself as best as you can. Work hard and become one of the lucky few who may avoid it.
SOCIAL LIFE
You’re going to go through changes in friendships. It’s totally okay.
You’ll meet some great people and some not so great people! Try to learn from all of them!
Don’t feel pressured to be in a relationship because it’s cool, or somebody likes you. Focus on you. Do what makes you happy.
You’re going to make mistakes. You’re gonna lead someone on, or hurt someone’s feelings or make someone feel small. Take responsibility, and learn from it.
BUT! Don’t blame everything on yourself either! Sometimes, people are toxic and you need to leave them right there! remember, do no harm but take no shit.
Go out and have some fun. Go to a coffee shop with your friends, spend a whole afternoon sleeping in your friend’s bed as they study. You’re going to make unforgettable memories.
+MISC
Deodorant!
Find a good skincare routine that makes you feel fresh.
If you like instrumental music while studying and harry potter, play an instrumental playlist from 8tracks or something and put on an ambient room in the background (harry potter common rooms are amazing!) my personal fave combo is this ravenclaw playlist and this ambient room . Don’t want harry potter? There’s a bunch of ambient rooms. This one is another one of my faves.
Start paying attention to certificates and stuff you get. Write them down somewhere!
DO ALL THE FUN STUFF THIS YEAR. RUN FOR COUNCIL. LEARN A LANGUAGE. THIS IS T H E YEAR.
Take care of your health, mental and physical.
It’s never as bad as it seems.
I believe in you!
Now, go ahead and enjoy your freshman year!
