Advice To Underclassmen

     When you enter high school it’s never going to be how you expected. You're never going
to leave as the same person you entered as, and there’s a very slight chance that you are going to
leave with the same friends you came in with. But these aren’t bad things. This point of your life
is all about finding yourself, character development, and maturing. There’s going to be drama,
tears, stress, and there’s gonna be a lot of times when you feel like giving up. So I’m gonna try to
help yall as much as I can to make sure you have the calmest, best high school experience
possible. Today’s article is going to be about grades.

     Getting good grades isn’t about being the smartest person in the room. Most of the time,
it comes down to habits. The students who always seem to do well aren’t magically gifted —
they’ve just figured out how to manage their time, stay organized, and actually put in consistent
effort. If you want better grades, you don’t need to change who you are — you just need to
change what you do every day.

     You're gonna get real tired of hearing this but if you want to get into a good college and
have a stress free life, you have to make sure you get the best grades you can your freshman and
sophomore year. Obviously you should try to get the best grades you can throughout your whole
4 years of highschool. But the reason I say freshman and sophomore year specifically is because
these are going to be the easiest years academically. These two years are gonna be the ones that
affect your GPA and class ranking the most. If you slack off these two years, especially freshman
year it’s going to be really hard to get your gpa up.

     Some ways you can make sure you can make sure you stay on top of your grades is by
discipline. Discipline is super duper important, because without it you're not gonna be able to
accomplish the things you want. It’s really easy to say “oh trust next report card im gonna lock
in” but the hard part is actually implementing ways to actually see a difference. Everybody has to
set up their own system that works for them. But something that would be a great way to start is
to stop procrastinating. Procrastination WILL be your biggest enemy. It will always be better to
do your homework or finish any school work you have while you're in school. Procrastination
feels harmless at first. You tell yourself, “I’ll do it later,” and you go watch a video or scroll on
your phone. It feels good in the moment like you’re giving yourself a break. But what actually
happens afterward? The work doesn’t disappear, it just sits there in the back of your mind,
building stress. You try to chill, but your brain keeps reminding you of that unfinished task.
Suddenly, relaxing isn’t relaxing anymore.

     One other thing to help is not comparing yourself to others. School isn’t a competition,
you should solely focus on yourself and your goals. Looking and comparing yourself to the
people around you isn’t going to help you, if anything it’s gonna make you feel bad or worse

about yourself. Comparing yourself to others is a great way to lose your confidence and make
you insecure. You're always going to see somebody who is getting perfect grades, understand
things faster, or just do better in school without trying. But you aren’t there when they aren’t in
school. You don’t see their background, study habits, or personal struggle. You only see the
results. Instead of comparing yourself to them, use them as an example or motivation.

     Having good grades isn’t about being perfect, it’s about being consistent. Stay organized,
find what schedule or system works best for you, and stick to it. You don’t have to change
overnight, just try to implement little things into your everyday life little by little and see the
progress. Build the right habits, work hard and the hard work will show in your grades.​​​