Advice for Students

Throughout my three years of high school so far, I have learned many things that I wish I had known before I entered high school, or things that I learned way too late into high school.

For starters, exam season is incredibly stressful. For example, this year I had a total of nine exams I had to take (each Paper is counted as an exam for reference). This left me with little time to adequately study for each exam, as I felt constantly overwhelmed by all the studying.

My best advice to avoid this is to prioritize studying topics so that you end up studying closer to the exam date so you can remember everything. Also, try to strike up a conversation between your friends about whatever topic you are studying, as it makes it easier to remember it.

Another thing I wish I did sooner was join an honor society. My junior year was my first year actually attempting to join one, and I ended up joining three in the end (Quill and Scroll, National Environmental Honor Society, and National Technical Honor Society). Next year, I plan to join Rho Kappa (history) instead of NTHS.

The main benefit to joining honor societies is that they look good when you go to apply for college. Along with that, honor societies can help you make more friends that may share interests with you. Anyway, joining at least one won’t hurt you, and I definitely recommend it.

So far, I have managed to keep my general levels of stress quite low (except for exam season, but that does not count). This is probably due to the fact that I do not have a job and mostly focus on my school work and individual hobbies rather than trying to make friends. 

I would not entirely recommend this, as I feel incredibly lonely most of the time. But, having at least one or two friends that you know you can trust is important, and I definitely recommend it.

In general, the key to a stress free high school experience is to not overthink everything. By overthinking, you cause yourself to make irrational decisions, which can then lead to disastrous consequences. Just take a deep breath and relax, everything will eventually work out.