How to prepare for the next school year

May 26, 2023

With SOLs and exams happening these next two weeks, the 2022 / 2023 school year is coming to an end. I believe I can speak for a lot of students, teachers, and faculty when I say that this year went by so quickly, possibly even too quickly for some of us. Even though the year hasn’t officially ended yet and our summer awaits, it’s never too early to start preparing for the next year. Here’s how you can start preparing for the next school year.

There are 5 tips that I used and practiced for the past few years that have been great for aiding me when it comes to the beginning of a new year. The first step is being able to mentally prepare yourself. Mentally preparing yourself is one of the most important things to do when you are cooling down from summer vacation and dreading the upcoming work that you predict in your future. Creating that positive mindset will help you get more motivation for the new year and help influence others into having a great year.

Second, You should get organized for the “back-to-school” lifestyle. Organizing your desk, bookbag, and getting yourself together helps you physically get ready for classes, as you’ll have your materials ready for use. Something that raised my excitement, and might possibly raise yours, for the new year was school supply shopping. Being able to have a fresh start and get supplies that portrayed things that I liked made using them even more enjoyable.

Third, you should create a good study schedule. A vast amount of students have bad studying habits, which causes them to either do badly in class, or hate the action of studying. For example, there are a lot of students that tend to go to sleep really late, and try to cram studying in at 3 or so in the morning or wait to study the night before. There are even students who fail to study at all because they have no motivation or they believe they “don’t need to study.” Creating a good study schedule allows you to get into the flow of studying, and it helps boost your grades.

Fourth, you should make sure that all of your possible summer homework is done. If you had reading, summer packets, or any work from classes that you decided to take in the summer, then you should make sure all of that is done in an adequate amount of time. Having to cram all of the work near the end of summer isn't enjoyable for the students that have to do the work, and the teachers that have to grade the work. This tip is hand-in-hand with the previous tip, as this all relates to time management.

Lastly, you should compare and contrast how you did in your previous year(s). If you had a listless amount of great habits and adapted to the year pretty well, then take factors into consideration and do the same things that you did that year. If you were someone who was struggling the majority of the year and you had a lot of bad habits, then try to avoid doing what you did that year.

Even though these tricks may not work for everyone, I think that they’ll help a good amount of you in adapting to the new year. I hope you take these into consideration and I wish the best for you all!