Eagle's Voice

In High School, we have the work cut out for us. With A&B day scheduling, the work can pile up and you can often lose track of it. Even worse, some students could be struggling in or failing their classes. I think we can all agree that we’ve had a hard time once or twice before, whether that be with a test, not understanding a lesson, or being so backed up on work that you’re drowning in assignments and due dates. Luckily for you, there are many resources available to help those succeed, and one of those is my advice to try and help people struggling with school or possibly failing classes. Now, before I continue, just remember that you are your own person, some of these tricks might work for you, and some might, so don’t take what I say to heart, and do what you think is best for you. 

Let’s tackle one problem at a time here, starting with missing assignments or drowning in make-up work. The leading cause of missing work or make-up assignments for me is forgetting about stuff not outlined in class. Many assignments are meant to be taken home and worked on, or straight up only meant to be worked on outside of the period. For work like that, or even if you need to remember important club meetings, you can use your Google or Apple Calendar. It should come pre-installed on your phone and with the app, you can schedule your work, due dates, club meetings, and more. It can notify you on important dates, and help you stay on track and on top of the work that once bothered you. If these don’t work for you, there are many alternative apps. One alternative app I use is Habitica, which allows you to make your tasks feel like challenges that you can conquer. That makes you remember to put in dates, and holds you accountable if you procrastinate or do wrong. If you want to be serious about applying yourself with your work, you can get a planner so that you can personally write down dates and check them so that you create positive habits for yourself and remind you about what you learn. 

Now for the hard part, completing your work and succeeding in your classes. For many of the people in this school, they could be struggling with their classwork. I am not an exception, for I have taken extremely difficult classes and have failed tests before. In these classes, if you do not understand the work fundamentally, I suggest first and foremost to stay after. By staying after you have the opportunity to be one on one with the teacher, or if that is not possible, you have the chance to make up for your late work and learn from your mistakes or others in the class. If for some reason your schedule is not open for staying after, you can and should take it into your own hands to learn and study for your assignments. The reason many people fail tests is because they either don’t care, or they don’t understand the fundamentals. If you can’t talk to your teacher or stay after class, you should study after school. Some resources I highly recommend are Quizlet, a website that can help you learn terms and concepts in order to memorize your lesson, and Khan Academy, which can help you relearn Math units and even help with SAT prep. 

One thing I would never in my entire life tell you to use is AI. While it might be helpful in the short run, it’s basically cheating, morally and ethically wrong, and has detrimental consequences in the long run. The AI most used to answer questions, like Chat GPT and Gemini, are very harmful to not only the environment, but your brain as well. Learning from such volatile services that are being diluted by constant wrong answers doesn’t give you much to memorize and could lead you down the wrong direction as well. Not to mention how making a robot do everything for you doesn’t train your brain, and doesn’t allow it to think outside the box, making it so that you aren’t ready for critical thinking problems or the type of challenging questions that appear on tests. Do yourself a favor and never use AI, it won’t actually teach you anything, can have dire consequences if you are found using it such as receiving 0’s on assignments, and takes away critical thinking. Out of anything here, please trust me on this, as there are alternatives to it that can augment your learning much better.  

More advice I’d give you, which relates to when before the school year starts, or early on, is to reach for the stars. If you are looking forward to college, going into higher level classes, such as honors, can give you a helpful challenge and prepare you for college very well, making your resume look better if you do succeed in these classes. Don’t always take advice when it comes to the type of classes you choose to take, but with our helpful guidance counselors, making your decisions and talking through them becomes easier, as it comes from a place of experience and trust.

My last point of advice is to talk with your friends about school and your classes. Talking with people about shared experiences helps create stronger bonds, and can make your struggles even the smallest bit easier. If your friends are understanding a topic or getting higher grades than you, don’t feel jealous. Instead, talk to them and maybe they can give you helpful pointers or even teach you the lesson entirely; unlocking it in a way that maybe others. This can work both ways however, as you shouldn’t change your classes only to be with your friends, and if your friends start to drag you down in your studies, try to stay away from them in group projects if you know they won’t do their part or jeopardize the project entirely. 

With the first marking period of the school year coming to a close, I hope we have all learned something and are able to apply it so that we can progress and succeed. Nothing feels better than seeing your hard work pay off, and watching those 100s start to roll in. Not everything I’ve said can help out everyone, but I hope at least one thing that I’ve detailed has a positive impact on someone out there. When I first started High School, and my journey throughout the years, I would’ve wished that someone out there could’ve told me this.