Having just finished my sophomore year of high school, I feel qualified enough to give some tips on how to make the best of your sophomore year :))
1. Join as many clubs and outside school activities as you can. As this year will most likely be your last non-hectic year, I think it’s best to take advantage of your free time while you still can. I personally didn’t get the chance to do as many after school activities as I’d like, but I would recommend it for anyone else!!
2. [dependent on your current age] try to start/look for a job! It’s best to start looking for work earlier on, so that you can get a head start on things! I’ve been tutoring for three years now at a reasonable pay, but now I’m planning on verging into other jobs! If you’re not old enough to legally work at a job, try babysitting, tutoring or watching people’s pets/houses. You’d be surprised how much people would pay for you to just sit in their house all day when they’re not home!!
3. Discipline is key! Being able to focus and prioritize your time is essential, and it will help you sooo much later on in your life. Making time for your school life and personal life can be a challenge; but once you develop a strategy, you’ll achieve so much! I think that completing your work the day you receive it is very efficient and it definitely helped me when I started to have more tests later on in the year.
4. Study smarter not harder! Before my chemistry class each day, I reviewed my notes from the prior class and also read ahead in our notes so that when I got to class I was able to understand everything a little bit better. Chemistry was my best class and I really enjoyed it, and I honestly believe that simply reviewing my notes each day, had a big impact on your grades!
5. Speaking of grades, they’re not everything! I know you’ve probably heard this about a million times, but it’s true; grades aren’t everything. I don’t always believe this myself, but one bad grade doesn’t define you. You can learn from your mistakes and improve from them! Reviewing old questions from quizzes/tests and seeing why and where you went wrong is sooo helpful for future exams. I made a huge chart on Google Docs on common mistakes I made on quizzes in my math class, and I saw which topics I struggled most with, and I spent the most of my time reviewing and practicing those types of questions. It was really helpful!
6. Make some time for yourself! With classes getting harder and harder each year, it can become difficult to set aside time for yourself to relax. If you can, hang out with your friends on the weekends, or just be by yourself! Take a day or two and just binge watch all those shows you couldn’t watch throughout the week and just be lazy!!!! You deserve it! I probably had too many lazy days throughout this school year, but I got my work done eventually so that’s all the reaaalllly matters hah.
7. Make connections! Try to reach out/become friends with older students! Especially older kids who have had the same classes you did, so that they can give some tips and advice for later on! 10/10 would recommend this tip for everyone because it is sooo helpful! I’ve made so many new friends this year who are all older and they gave the best advice!
I hope this was helpful for everyone! But forget about school for right now, and enjoy your SUMMER VACATION!
*credit to the original owner of this picture!!**
