How to Handle Your New, Stressful School Schedule

Today was the first day of my senior year in high school. Basically, this is the beginning of the end of high school. When I was choosing the classes for this year in my junior year, I really only had in mind what would be best for me to take credit and college-wise. This, of course, was before I was interested in joining the Navy, so I wasn't aware that I wasn't going to be going to public college.

I chose the classes that would challenge me, and give me some work. I didn't want to take super easy, boring classes in my senior year and be miserable when I'm stuck in classes with no friends around and no work to do. Classes like that really make the day drag on. However, if you load yourself up with a schedule like I have, the day can become even more stressful.

I took some of the hardest classes my high school has to offer: AP psychology, College English, physics, and FST. AP psych isn't even offered at many high schools, and is extremely hard due to new curriculum requirements. This class covers around eight times as much information as the intro to psychology courses, and typically is just as grueling as a college undergraduate course. Physics is easily the most difficult class in my entire school, for the teacher, curriculum, and standards. I wouldn't suggest physics to someone looking for an easy class, for sure. I also took FST, which is now pre-calculus, another grueling class for anyone, regardless of their math level. College English is the highest english offered at my school, and is much harder than the "regular" senior English, because it prepares you for college and covers much more material.

By the time you make it through your first few days of school, you may find yourself a bit overwhelmed with your schedule, I usually do myself. You're going to discover that classes or teaches you may have assumed are going to be easy will require a lot of time and work on your part, even outside of school on many occasions. You may have taken harder classes just to be with friends and what not. Be aware that some of these classes are going to assign homework on a regular basis and take away from your time outside of school majorly.

So what do you do?

Dropping classes is an option, however not always recommended. If you're taking a class you need, do NOT drop it, drop harder classes which you don't need right away. If you're in need of a certain credit, don't drop that class because it may be hard to get into later, the course may drop, or you might not ever have the chance to make it up. If you need all of the courses you've taken, don't drop any. Unless you absolutely can not handle the work from all of the combined classes, don't drop any. If you think it's completely necessary to drop a class or two and take an easier one, make sure that you can take these classes later on without much trouble. Drop the least amount you have to while being able to manage your work still.

Make sure to use your time in class! You're given time in class for a reason, and a lot of the time the work that you take home winds up only taking you a few minutes to complete, but still managed to stress you out all the way up until you started working on it. Use every minute of class time, i necessary completely avoid socialization. Don't pack up 10 minutes early. Make sure all of your homework from every class is done before you sit there and do nothing or talk.

Come up with some sort of homework schedule. If you're able to complete homework at a given time every night, it'll be much easier to manage your homework. Make sure that you're most able to do homework at this time and keep the schedule pretty firm. If you're someone who's tired when you first get home from school, don't choose then. I personally prefer to do my homework later into the night, when I'm more awake and willing to go above and beyond. If you have a ton of work and need to get started, but are still tired, take a nap and eat before starting!

Good luck with your new school year, and regardless of how stressful your schedule may be, make sure to always do your best and keep those grades up!