Do:

• Organize your binders, folders, and backpack – Organization is a small act that can go a long way. By keeping all your school materials in spots that are easy to access, you reduce the risk of losing papers and wasting time hunting for that extra pencil.
• Set aside the same time to do your homework each night – Sticking to a schedule makes it far easier to get your homework done quickly and painlessly. By setting aside a window every night to work on assignments you can start to fall into a routine and not have to worry about procrastinating.
• Study a little every night even if nothing is due – If you keep what you’ve learned in class fresh in your mind, you’ll be much better equipped for tests and classwork. Just glancing over your notes briefly after school is enough to keep your brain on track.
• Try and get your required credits out of the way early – Required credits can be a pain, but they’re easy to work in during freshman and sophomore year and then you don’t have to worry about them later because they’re already completed.
• Try out an elective that interests you – Electives are wonderful for figuring out what you’re passionate about as well as keeping your schedule fresh and not all overwhelming.
• Ask questions – Believe it or not, teachers love being asked questions. It’s their job to help you learn and understand the material they’re teaching, and they’re more than happy to clarify when you don’t understand something.
• Check your grades often – It’s always best to be aware of how you’re doing in your classes. If you know what your grades are, you can work to try and fix or maintain them and not have to worry so much about what they’ll be at the end of the term.
• Be respectful towards your teachers – Teachers work their hardest to help their students learn and succeed. The least you can do as a student is pay them respect in return. This means doing your work, not talking back, and treating them as they treat you.
• Make the best of high school – High school is only four years, and it flies by faster than you’d expect. So take those four years and spend them well.

Don’t:

• Be irresponsible with your papers – It’s really easy to lose papers if you don’t know where they are. If you don’t put your assignments in a designated spot, finding them to complete can easily turn into a stressful mess.
• Finish all your homework at the last minute – By pushing homework off until right before class, your stress increases and the quality of your homework decreases. If you leave your homework up to sloppy sentences and answers copied from your friends, it’ll show in your grade.
• Cram right before a test – Leaving your grade on a test up to last minute recollection of information almost guarantees you a poor grade. You can only learn so much in the five minutes you spend staring at your notes before you have to take a test, and it’s rarely enough to succeed.
• Wait until senior year to worry about required credits – Senior year is the best time to put electives that will help you decide your major into your schedule. If you have too many required credits to worry about then there’s no way you’ll get to take all the classes you want.
• Overwhelm yourself with too many advanced classes – Taking honors, AP, or dual enrollment courses is a great chance to enrich your learning experience, but too many can end up being a bad thing. The stress and workload that comes from taking solely advanced classes can be too much for most, and lead to reduced work and learning quality. So try your best to lighten up your schedule, even if only by a little.
• Stay silent when you don’t understand something – By not asking for clarification when you’re confused in class, you’re not hurting anyone but yourself. It can be nerve wracking to raise your hand sometimes, but both you and your teacher will be happier if you ensure that you understand what’s going in class.
• Wait until midterm to look at your grades – By midterm, fixing your grades is extremely stressful and rushed. If you unaware of your grades prior to when your teacher hands you the paper, it can easily come as a shock when your grade has completely dropped.
• Have an attitude – There’s nothing that’s a larger hindrance to you, your teacher, and those around you, as you talking back to or sassing your teachers. It accomplishes nothing but perhaps a detention for you, and completely interrupts the class.
• Worry too much about having the “perfect high school experience” – No one has a high school experience that’s exactly like the one they pictured, but that doesn’t make it bad. Life isn’t something to be meticulously planned out, and the perfect high school experience is overrated anyway.