X, Y, and Z are three MCSM students who will use this space to offer advice and solutions to common problems all high school teens face. They welcome anonymous questions from the student body on health, academics, the college process, or how to keep family, friends, work, and school from driving you crazy. Submit your questions either on paper (dropped into the “Ask XYZ” Questions Jar in the Writing Center, with or without your real name) or via email sent to MCSMrampage@gmail.com. Remember: we are here to help you!!!!
Q. I really goofed off during my freshman year. Now as a sophomore I feel behind in my preparation for the SATs and raising my grade point average. Should I give up, or do I still have time to turn things around?
X Responds: SATs…ew. No one likes them but we eventually have to get over them. You still have some time before the SATs arrive around the corner so you should not feel discouraged. I also goofed off sometimes during my freshman year, but no worries!
Just because you didn’t do well in the beginning of the school year doesn’t mean you must continue along the same path. It’s time for you to walk down another route.
Preparing for the SATs is a lot of work…let’s just put it that way. You’re going to need all the help you can get if you want to achieve a high score. There are so many ways to start preparing. One way the school helps is by providing juniors with mandatory SAT classes after school. This program has actually shown an improvement in students’ SAT scores.
There are also SAT prep books by Kaplan, Barron’s and College Board.
So try meeting up with your friends to have study sessions, and also try practice exams. Even Flashcards! (FYI, there is going to be some intense vocabulary on the SATs by the way.)
Studying, reviewing, practicing, listening to teachers, tutoring…preparing properly is going to be a huge pain in the neck. You’ll break down, shed tears, break a few bones (just kidding :D) and start to doubt yourself. It’s okay, you aren’t alone. My best advice is to never “over do-it” meaning-you should know your limitations and to just relax. Time-management is key when getting ready for college aptitude tests.
Now for your grade-point average. You still have time to improve and raise your GPA because when applying to colleges, colleges will start looking at your grades from the eleventh grade. But that doesn’t mean you should slack off while you are in the tenth grade—you shouldn’t slack off in anything at all.
If you’re struggling in a certain class, ask your teacher for assistance or your classmates who understand the class well. Actively participating in your classes will show the teacher that you are putting forth your best effort. Gradually, your GPA will increase if you learn how to manage your time properly and try not to stress out.
Never give up. I wish you the best of luck on the road to SAT success!
Q: Does being in Love mean that everything else doesn’t matter?
Y Responds: Love is hard to explain. I feel like everyone has their own different definitions and meanings for the word. On the other hand, “Love” is a word whose definition can be compared to wine, because it only gets richer with time. Being that I am so young, and I know you readers are as well, it is something we cannot fully understand no matter how much experience we think we might have. If you are asking me if being “in love” with your significant other means you should drop everything that’s important to you just for them, then my answer is no.
At such a young age we’re naive about the importance of our surroundings and sometimes even about the importance of our future. Our everyday events are what can determine what our future may hold, so you should be extremely careful in whose hands you place your future. To answer your question briefly (because no one likes a chatterbox!) in my opinion, if your significant other really cared about you, they wouldn’t let you drop everything that’s important to you in order to please them. In the future you’ll regret letting that person control your actions, it and with regret only comes misery. I believe your significant other should only bring you happiness.
Q: I am very shy. How can I develop more courage to do the things that scare me, like going on job interviews or speaking to new people to make new friends?
Z Replies: Building courage is something that all people deal with. I am personally, still building my own courage and self confidence. Sometimes I over think situations and it holds me back from doing what I want to. The actual building of confidence and courage is both easy yet hard. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut feelings and make sure that you’re not the one holding yourself back. Especially when it comes to making friends, I’ve learned that people are not as scary as you would initially believe. When I meet people I refuse to make assumptions based on looks and “I heard”s from others. Unless someone has actual experiences with certain people I don’t really take in what others say. As people say-don’t judge a book by its cover- Treating people as ugly book covers just holds you back from reading a really good book. I always like to do what people wouldn’t expect from me, stepping slightly out of my comfort zone, so I’ve been trying to go around making sure that I don’t get scared of things that I want to do, I just go for it and try my best. If you knew me in person you would know how much I hate awkwardness and I usually try to break the tension by either saying REALLY corny jokes that end up making people laugh, or I just try my best to make people laugh. Even in newspaper, when I was first there it was really tense and now I consider them a family and they all listen to my corny jokes. When it comes to building courage the number one thing that I can say is to believe in yourself more than anything. If you truly try your best in anything and you’re being authentic, no one can stop you.