Almost everyone knows that 2023 is here and the new school semester is coming quicker than expected. This means new classes, teachers, grades, and possibly more stress. It’s a struggle sometimes to move forward with different things in school. Especially if almost all of your classes are changing. So here are 6 ways to succeed in this Penns Valley school semester.

#1 Stay organized

“One of the main things people struggle with, I think, is staying organized.  Not getting organized, but staying organized.” Mrs. Ripka told me. Staying organized can help you ensure you have everything you need so you don’t forget anything important. For example, homework or an essay that you printed out. This is important so you don’t get a bad grade on an assignment. One thing you can do is put papers in the correct place, instead of throwing them where ever you want. This can make it easier for you when you need a certain paper. You can also do things on your computer to stay organized. You can create folders in google drive so that you know where everything is on your computer. This can help you with knowing where everything on your computer is. 

#2 Ask for help from the teachers in classes that you struggle with

Many students never ask for help from teachers even if they need it. This can affect their overall understanding of a concept and can negatively affect their grades. Asking a teacher for more information on a topic or concept in a class you struggle with will benefit you. Doing this could give you more of an understanding of what you are learning about. Having more of an understanding of a topic makes you more likely to succeed on a test or an assignment that is based on the topic. Getting better grades on an assignment or test overall makes your grade higher. Getting your grades higher can give you more opportunities to do other things in school like joining clubs or a sport. This makes you have a better high school experience and make you have a more successful semester. All of this can come out of just asking for help. So if you are struggling with an assignment or class, I would strongly suggest that you ask for help. 

#3 Check your schedule

This one is very simple and basic. Checking your schedule lets you know what classes you have at what time. It just makes it easier for you to manage your time when you are switching classes so that you are not late. It is also so you don’t forget any class you are going to. This is a very easy task to do and practically everyone can do it. At the beginning of the year you most likely got a paper handed to you with your schedule for both semesters on it, so you can look at that. If you didn’t get one or you lost it, you can go into your skyward account and look from there. 

#4 Try to get around 8 hours of sleep

Yes, sleep is a very important factor in your learning ability. If you don’t get enough sleep it usually lessens your comprehension of a topic or class. Your ability to learn and remember things could drops by 40% when you haven’t gotten 8 hours of sleep or any at all. People from ages 12- 18 should get at least 8 hours of sleep each night. Sleep gives you more energy to learn and interact. Multiple studies show that sleep can help students not just do well on tests, but also help them memorize, recall, retain, and use the knowledge that they received on that day. Yes, sometimes it is impossible with sports and other events to get at least 8 hours of sleep at night and that is fine. On any other day that you don’t have any sports or important events, you should at least try to get a good amount of sleep.

#5 Take notes in class

Taking notes can help you remember things that happened in class. If you take notes on important points that come up during your class, you can use them to do homework or for an essay. Staying focused in class is a very important thing to do and writing notes helps you do that. Taking notes makes you pay attention to what is happening in class, which helps you learn since you can’t take notes on a topic that you didn’t pay attention to. The notes that you took during a class can be very useful when studying for tests as well. Your memory of a topic can increase as much as 70% when you take notes, so if you are struggling to remember things in a certain topic, taking notes can help.

#6 Manage your time wisely

Managing your time is important to stay caught up with school. If you focus too much on one class, then you might fall behind in another one. There are multiple ways to manage time on assignments. For one, you can chunk assignments into parts. For this, you just do one part of an assignment and then do a part of a different assignment. You just keep doing this until you finish your work. Don’t take too many breaks between work either. This can make you get distracted and lose focus on your work. You should take a 10-minute break every hour you do homework, but that is it. One way to keep you from taking an extra long break is setting a timer to get you back on task. Being able to manage your time is a good skill to have, so make sure you know how to.

Hopefully, these tips can help you not have as much stress in 2023 and will take some weight off your shoulders. You should be able to have a good semester and these tips I gave you can help. 2023 can be a new, amazing start for you, so now I hope that school will be a little less stressful and more successful.