Keeping It All Together

With articulation a looming figurehead in our academic lives, students often feel overwhelmed. Choosing classes for the following year is undeniably one of the most difficult aspects of our school careers. As much as I would like to say that we only have two more years of this mayhem, it only grows more tiring in college. A trend I'm seeing with students currently in this time of indecision is that they plan on taking a ton of AP classes. Honors classes are menacing as well.

http://www.chicagoacademic.com/blog/bid/233000/ShouldITakeAPCourses

In the hopes to attain an impressive GPA, we overwork ourselves. We defy the odds and still manage to get through the day with barely enough sleep. Is there any way to prevent this? Will it get worse than it is now?

I think that our study habits need to continue to gradually develop in order for us to keep up with the increasing workloads that the coming years will present. Especially with the numerous AP classes that everyone it taking, we need to improve our study routines.

One of the most talked about topics within our class blogs is procrastination. It is something everyone wants to stay away from, but somehow ends happening in the end. Whether excessive or minuscule, procrastination must be reduced in order for students to keep all of the school work under control.

Often times, I tend to multitask and do a few things at once all while doing my homework. Often times, I'm wasting time by being distracted rather than just focusing and finishing what must be done. With many AP classes likely in next year's schedule, I think its vital to prioritize the homework one gets and decide which one is more important to finish first.

In order to be successful or competitive, sacrifices must be made to accomplish your goals. Whether it is less sleep or less relaxation, sacrifices can be reduced by better study habits.

How Much is Too Much?

With the time to choose the next school year's classes quickly approaching, students are often faced with vital decisions. Questions often surface and the necessity to find answers become dire. What classes should I take? How hard is AP Chemistry? Should I take the honors or AP level of a course? Most the time, choosing your courses for the next year can be a tremendous hassle.

It is incredibly important to formulate the classes one is going to take on their future career. If one wants to become an engineer, it might be helpful to take an engineering course. Yet, what if that engineering course is not weighted? Questions once again become incredibly pressing. As high school students hope to be admitted into good universities, the competition to earn the highest GPA possible becomes a large part of the high school experience. Many people might decide to take course that are weighted simply to have higher GPA's and often times cannot handle the workload. So, should one decide to take as many AP classes as possible and risk lower grades across them, or take enough of them as to be successful in each? The answer often depends on the abilities of a person and the search to find a balance is evident.

If a student can handle taking many high level courses and still do well in all of them, then they probably have a a balanced schedule fit for them. Unfortunately, this "balance" is different for every person. If you are barely getting any sleep at night because of an overload of homework, then they might want to reconsider the current classes being taken. Sleep is vital for your health and one's overall productivity during the day so it important to take classes that allow for a reasonable amount of sleep at night.  

Creating a balanced schedule for yourself is important. I feel that students should only take the AP level of that course if they feel capable of being successful in it. As vital as it is to challenge yourself and reach for the highest GPA possible, it is always nice to remind oneself that they only go to high school once, and if all you do is overwork, then you are not fully "living". If one feels that an AP class might be too much, then then perhaps an honors class is a great way to still challenge oneself as well as getting the weighted credit.