Ironically, here at Thacher surprises are to be expected, ranging from random munch outs (that inevitably run longer than what you have time for), a pop in-class essay on a Monday morning, unexpected (and possibly unwanted) visits from family, faculty dogs eating your homework, sudden craves for Thai food in town, and the list goes on (trust me). Even more distracting than surprises is the annoying instinct that many of us have to procrastinate. With all of these distractions, it becomes difficult to learn and get good grades. Thus, the question that all keeps us up at night is how does one succeed in high school. Hopefully these tips will help you, regardless of what grade you are in or which school you attend.

• After about 2 years of being a student at this school, I have learned that consistency in work ethic is the key to success. Although it is difficult to sustain consistency in an environment that has countless surprises in store for you, if achieved it will guarantee good grades on your tests, quizzes, essays, etc. If  you don’t understand something it should be your duty to study that subject everyday for an allotted amount of time. And I promise, the gratification that follows acing a hard exam is great in magnitude. This persistence and consistency in your work ethic will make it easy for you to succeed, even when you didn’t believe that you could.
• Another tip I have is to USE YOUR TEACHERS! They became teachers to teach you. If you don’t understand something you can easily arrange a certain amount of time out of class and they with explain more clearly. As for in the classroom, don’t be afraid to raise your hand and ask questions. I know, I know. It’s nerve-wrecking. ‘What if everyone else thinks I’m stupid’ has cropped up many times in my mind before. What I have realized is that many of the other students in your class have the same questions that you do and they also are too shy to raise their hand and speak out. So, there really is no need to be bashful. Take the initiative and learn!
• It’s vital to really know your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to studying. You need to know when and where you’re prone to procrastination and what you need to do to focus. Different things work for different people. In your first two years, you will basically just be going through trial and error. You will learn where you work more efficiently, at what times you are the most alert, and even how long it takes you to finish homework for a given class.  So, my advice here is to be very perceptive of your tendencies so as to learn these things more quickly. Eventually, you’ll learn what works for you and it will become habitual.
• The attention span of a teenager can be a bit annoying when I have a lot of work I need to finish. To lengthen it, when I get bored of doing a homework assignment, I quickly move on to another subject before I get distracted (by facebook, tumblr, twitter, etc). Although it may seem odd and counterproductive, who says that you have to finish a homework assignment in one sitting? If you can sense your mental clarity clouding, odds are that you are no longer interested in what you are doing and you need to switch things up.
• My final tip is to be your own cheerleader. Mommy and Daddy will not be with you every step of the way. High School is the place where you become more independent. This means motivating yourself to study and keep focused. However, this does not mean that you don’t have support. You will have the help of your parents, teachers, advisors, and fellow classmates, but you will eventually learn to become less dependent on them and more dependent on yourself.

There are many ways to succeed in school, but these are the top five ways that I have learned and that I wish someone had told me when I first entered high school.

I hope this post helped! Thanks for reading!