The Secret to Get Work Done in School

 Do you want to get all of your school work done and still have time to RELAX?

It is impossibly hard to get all of the work done that students get in high school. There is always some sort of project, essay, reading, studying, bookwork, or other homework that needs to be done and there is not enough time to do all of it. It would be great if the day was longer just so that teens could sleep more, but unfortunately, that is not a possibility. So I present the next best thing; the ability to get work done quickly and efficiently.

First I will start with the same stuff that everyone always says. "Teens need to manage their time better" is usually what others say when teens complain. I hear this all the time from teachers, counselors, parents, etc, but this advice is useless. First of all, these older people do not understand what it means to be a teen in this day and age. They think that life is just as simple as it was 20 or 30 years ago when they were teens, but that is simply not the case. For one, there is much more work in high school today than in the past. American students are just so competitive that more work is inevitable. Added to this are all of the other things that teens need or want to do in order to get into college. Teens manage their time as well as they can, which "everyone" does not understand. So now I will get to my advice to get work done.

1. Stay off Facebook until work is done. I do it, my friends do it, adults do it, almost everyone uses Facebook, usually wasting about an hour every day online. Facebook looks so innocent in the grand scheme of time wasters, but in reality, it is the worst. A few minutes can easily turn into a few hours on Facebook, so if students have work to do, Facebook is not a good way to take a break. I advise to stay away from Facebook, especially if students need just another hour to get everything done. Save the socializing for truly free time.

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2. Prioritize!! This is what I will spend most of my time explaining because it is rather unorthodox and controversial, but absolutely necessary. My advice is to do only the bare minimum of work. Do the minimum but get all of it done. Lets face it, most teachers do not read every single homework assignment word for work before giving you points; these teachers have soooo much other work to grade. Take advantage of this. In my freshman year, I used to put all of my effort into homework, about an hour and a half per assignment and I usually got around 5 points for each one. For freshman year this was fine because nothing was too hard, but sophomore year was completely different; I had AP classes which changed everything. My old system of spending so much time on my homework would not work any more because I did not have the time. I realized that AP teachers could care less about homework. The tests are the most important part of AP classes; homework is just a few extra points.

Now comes the unorthodox part; students can half ass this homework because they will get the points either way! Although it helps to do the work so that students can preform better on tests, it is not necessary, and with all of the other work, it is not possible. Most AP classes are taught lecture style, so students will learn everything from the homework in class. Do the work just for the points, then pay attention in class. It will make life much easier. Tests reign supreme in AP classes, so they always take priority. ALWAYS!! A student is better off losing 3-5 points on homework than performing poorly on a test. On days with multiple tests, my homework usually waits until lunch. I must warn though that this method is not for everyone, so students should try it out before committing fully. This takes much patience, practice, and maturity. Learning this skill in high school will be beneficial in all aspects of life late on.