how to survive middle school part 3: Acing academics

                                                     

1 Pay attention in class. If you want to do well in class, the best place to start is to pay attention! It’s amazing how much your grades will go up if you just pay attention and try to absorb as much information from the lesson as possible. Don’t mess with your phone, try not to daydream, and don’t pass notes with friends. There’s always time for fun stuff later!

2

Take notes. Take notes in class. You don’t have to write down everything that the teacher says: just write down the really important or hard to remember information. Write the sort of stuff you’d say if you were explaining the lesson to someone who wasn’t there. This will help you study for tests later and also do your homework.

3

Do your homework. This is really important for getting decent grades. If you don’t do your homework, you’re almost guaranteed to get bad grades, even if you ace tests and stuff like that. Find some quiet time each evening and just work to get your homework done. Get help if you need it too! Your homework shouldn’t take so much time that you don’t have time to relax too.

.4 Stay organized. Don’t just shove everything in your backpack. This will make you forget about assignments or lose important papers. Instead, have a binder for homework assignments and organize them by when they’re due. Have another binder for class notes, organized by subject.

• Consider getting a planner. You also want to keep your life organized! Get a planner and carefully organize your day. Set aside time for homework, time for hanging out, time for getting ready and eating breakfast in the morning, and everything else you need to do during your day.

5

Don’t procrastinate. Lots of people develop the very bad habit of procrastinating. This means that they don’t do things when they should...they wait until the last minute! This is bad, because it means that when you do things, you’ll do a bad job because you’ll be rushed. It will also make you really stressed. Develop a good habit of doing things at the appropriate time and you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble.

6

Ask questions! This is a great way to make sure you improve your grades. When you don’t understand something, ask! This way you know you’re doing something right. Even if you understand something, it’s good to ask questions if you’re curious about something else. Always ask questions and you’ll find yourself getting smarter and smarter.

7

Study as much as you can. If you really want good grades, you’ll need to study. Read all of the books you are assigned and set aside plenty of time to study. Middle school is an important time to develop good school habits, so getting used to studying now will really help you later.

8

Don’t stress over grades. Don’t worry about getting straight A’s right now. Just focus on learning as much as you can, developing good school habits, and get the best grades you can. No college is ever going to look at your middle school grades and no job is going to care about your middle school A’s. You shouldn’t settle for a C- but you shouldn’t worry about a B or B+.