messed up my soph year, advice to keep my mindset?

[ComputerGuy365]

Got some pretty bad grades this year, I don't know, I still have aspirations, I still have dreams. Anybody have any advice on how to keep that mindset? I already have a few techniques in mind, but I'd like to hear what SDN has to say.

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[JustintheDoctor]

In highschool? Dude, I had like a 2.3 GPA in high school and Im doing almost straight As in college. Take it easy and enjoy your free time while you still have it lol.

 

[Kurk]

Story of my life my bruddah. I'm a rising senior myself. Let me tell you my story real quick for some motivation:

Freshman year: I was very apathetic about school in general; didn't know what I wanted to be; casually thought about going into computer science. Avg GPA: 3.2

Sophomore year: Same attitude as Freshman year for the first semester but a little worse as I got more distracted by friends and such. B's in all my classes with a C in chemistry. I received a D+ on my chem midterm and holy crap I was shocked into high gear. Second semester I was a completely new person. I came to school dressed everyday in slacks and button-down shirt, lived in the library and achieved 95+ in all my classes (minus French lol). Character changed completely and I had casual ideas about the health-field. Unfortunately, because of my stellar grades, I sort of turned into an arrogant-dingus and some teachers began to notice. I have fixed this problem since then. Avg GPA First Sem: 3.0 : Second Semester: 3.9

Junior year: A continuation of the end of my sophomore year; but not quite as good. I averaged Low A's. Second semester I averaged mostly A's and began to slip into the B+ range for a few classes. Unfortunately I began to slowly burn out. I found myself working twice as hard for a B+ when last year I would have had an A in half the time studying. I managed to finish the year with a 3.75 gpa avg.

Senior year: It's time to change tactics. My school is very competitive (everyone is a "good student" since it's a private school) so it's easy to burn out as I learned. I need to develop a social-life because I'm beginning to lose motivation which results in burn-out. My writing skills are going to trash too and I have no idea why. If I don't get this under control, college will be a disaster.

So in conclusion, you have time and room for error. Just kick some butt next year and it'll be good. However, don't sacrifice your social-life as I did. Learn to sprinkle enough of it in to keep you sane while keeping the highest gpa you can.

Best of luck my friend!

 

[ComputerGuy365]

Story of my life my bruddah. I'm a rising senior myself. Let me tell you my story real quick for some motivation:

Freshman year: I was very apathetic about school in general; didn't know what I wanted to be; casually thought about going into computer science. Avg GPA: 3.2

Sophomore year: Same attitude as Freshman year for the first semester but a little worse as I got more distracted by friends and such. B's in all my classes with a C in chemistry. I received a D+ on my chem midterm and holy crap I was shocked into high gear. Second semester I was a completely new person. I came to school dressed everyday in slacks and button-down shirt, lived in the library and achieved 95+ in all my classes (minus French lol). Character changed completely and I had casual ideas about the health-field. Unfortunately, because of my stellar grades, I sort of turned into an arrogant-dingus and some teachers began to notice. I have fixed this problem since then. Avg GPA First Sem: 3.0 : Second Semester: 3.9

Junior year: A continuation of the end of my sophomore year; but not quite as good. I averaged Low A's. Second semester I averaged mostly A's and began to slip into the B+ range for a few classes. Unfortunately I began to slowly burn out. I found myself working twice as hard for a B+ when last year I would have had an A in half the time studying. I managed to finish the year with a 3.75 gpa avg.

Senior year: It's time to change tactics. My school is very competitive (everyone is a "good student" since it's a private school) so it's easy to burn out as I learned. I need to develop a social-life because I'm beginning to lose motivation which results in burn-out. My writing skills are going to trash too and I have no idea why. If I don't get this under control, college will be a disaster.

So in conclusion, you have time and room for error. Just kick some butt next year and it'll be good. However, don't sacrifice your social-life as I did. Learn to sprinkle enough of it in to keep you sane while keeping the highest gpa you can.

Best of luck my friend!

Thanks buddy, that really helped.

 

[UnionJacker]

I'm a sophomore at the moment who got awful grades in my freshmen year. I had a GPA of about 1.5.

I have vastly improved since then, and have gotten mostly all A's, with my GPA being at 3.75 right now. Here are my tips:
- Set a goal (My goal was to get no grade less than a B+)
- Make school your priority and focus on your future (Sacrifice what you want now for what you want out of life. I quit watching TV altogether during the school year.)
- Set aside specific time to do homework/study and stick to it (I'm a night owl so I would study from 12:00 AM to 5:00 AM everyday. It worked for me.)
- Focus on your SAT score in order to help makeup for your sophomore grades.

Most schools hold improvement in high regard since it shows maturity. It is better to start weak and end strong, than to start strong and end weak.