homework: most freshmen have no idea what to expect for homework from high school. Let me be frank: the workload is increased. Some of the things demanded of you are tougher and more strenuous to do than in middle school. Other things are so elementary that you might find yourself screaming from frustration at the simplicity of a silly little Spanish worksheet. Most work you get is about what you might expect if you continued middle school at a higher level; nothing too weird. The shockers for frosh are science homework, because in middle school science was listening to the teacher talk about electricity wheras in high school biology, many teachers require you to research a certain topic and come back with a one page description of it as DAILY work, and five-page long lab write-ups occur every couple weeks. This isn't intended to intimidate anybody though, and I promise if you receive this as your workload, all of your other classes will feel easier and you will end up being able to draft long papers much faster than you were before.
Speaking of which, English essays are commonplace. I remember in 8th grade, the teacher only had us write those nasty five paragraph papers as progress tests or for homework. All of a sudden though in high school, the teacher will turn on a timer and give your 45 minutes to write up one of those, which they will grade stringently afterwards. At first these scared the bejeezus out of me, but like science homework, you learn to handle them with relatively little stress.
Math is pretty much the same as it was in middle school, with the exception that Honors or advanced classes cover material faster and with less tedious explanations. I'm a math person and it comes easily to me, but some people that take an advanced math class may find that they have a hard time keeping up because they took it just for transcript niceness. At my school, the kids that took Honors geometry formed a clique that skipped lunch every day to study in the library for the class because of the workload and the memorization required. I had taken the class the year before and didn't understand why they were having so much trouble and wasting their precious free time to study, because let's face it: geometry isn't hard. Basically, they had gotten themselves into a class that they couldn't handle and suffered all year for it. Don't let yourself do that or your workload and stress level will skyrocket.
From the required classes to take, like freshman Health or whatnot, don't expect too much work. If they make everyone take it, then it will probably be easy and have simple occasional assignments.
One surprise is that some classes that sound slackery, like drawing, will have homework. Prepare to finish assignments you didn't in class.
If you are on the path to be in the top 5% in your school, you probably already know how to manage your time. If you have not already though, BUY A PLANNER and prepare to use it extensively. Due dates are not as imprinted into your head as they were in middle school, and when a teacher mentions deadlines, be prepared to write them down or compare them to the one you already did write down. I found that many teachers extended deadlines randomly but didn't trumpet it about too much, and when 25 out of 30 kids show up to class with baggy eyes and a crappy paper, the ones who WROTE DOWN that the assignment was due a week later than orginially announced laughed in their faces. Of course, on the flip side, the ones that bit the bullet and finished everything laughed at the procrastinators that did mediocre work. I have a weakness for procrastinating that I still haven't kicked, and I had at least two nights a month where I would go to bed at 3:30 a.m. because I didn't start a project that was due the next day.
Things aren't as spoonfed to you as a freshman than they were in middle school, so develop a good work ethic and stay extremely organized. I cut down stress near those nasty days when every teacher you have seems to decide that things are due (these occur near the end of a semester) by doing one major project a night and getting all of the busy work out of my way first. Plan ahead when you will start something, and be prepared to stay up late or get up early to finish big assignments. (As a side note, having a parent excuse you from school by saying you have the flu when you really didn't do a project is a bad idea. Making up missed work in-class or having to stay after school to watch required videos is very annoying and as a law of nature, will be the worst to make up on the day that you don't come to school. Teachers also grade papers that had more time to be finished tougher, especially if they think you weren't really at a sudden funeral.) |
