1. Do summer school classes
Although I did summer school geometry before entering 9th grade, I didn't skip biology. Because I am going to major in a science, I think skipping biology would have allowed me to take AP biology or AP chemistry in 10th grade instead of taking AP chemistry in 11th grade. Taking an AP science class in 10th grade would have helped me be more prepared for science competitions, especially the USNCO. Studying for the USNCO while learning AP chemistry is harder. Also, taking an AP science class would have demonstrated more preparedness for summer camp applications because I would have taken the AP exam and SAT subject test. Although I would have suffered 8 hours of summer school per day for 6 weeks, it would have been worth it in the long run.
Summary: If you want to major in a science and want to take honors/AP science earlier, skipping biology/chemistry/physics would be a good idea.
2. Take every assignment seriously
This is more of a junior year regret. Because junior year is more busy, I occasionally didn't do my homework properly and allowed mistakes to happen without making corrections or spending time to understand what I got wrong on problem sets. Not putting your best effort to do your homework will make it harder for you to study for the test because you didn't immediately resolve some problems. Also, not putting your best effort on some assignments will lower your grade so that puts a lot of stress on you, especially if the grade is on the border like for me.
In short, put in your best effort for everything because when you take the easy way out, it will bite you.
3. Don't take standardized tests until you are actually ready
This is one of the worst choices I made in sophomore year. I thought it would be smart to take the SAT early but my practice test scores weren't good. As a result, my first SAT score was pretty bad (1450). Another mistake I made was taking the SAT biology subject test before 10th grade. I had to self study around 30% of the content because it wasn't covered in class. I kind of wasted my time studying for the subject test during the summer and got a mediocre score (750).
It wasn't until junior year that I was ready for the SAT and did fine (1540).
I learned from my testing experience that there is no need to take standardized tests so early unless your practice test scores make you feel satisfied. If your practice test scores are bad, they are a good indicator your actual test score won't be good.
4. Spend more time on extracurriculars
In 9th grade, I was awfully inefficient with my time. My only extracurriculars were piano (10 hours/week) and volunteering (1 hour/week). I would waste my time by studying too much for a test. I honestly had extra 5-10 hours to do extracurriculars. I would have taken Science Olympiad more seriously and try to win a medal in an event. At that time, Science Olympiad was an activity I didn't take seriously. I regret this because I will only have 3 years to try various events in Science Olympiad compared with people that were in Science Olympiad for 7 years.
Although I did summer school geometry before entering 9th grade, I didn't skip biology. Because I am going to major in a science, I think skipping biology would have allowed me to take AP biology or AP chemistry in 10th grade instead of taking AP chemistry in 11th grade. Taking an AP science class in 10th grade would have helped me be more prepared for science competitions, especially the USNCO. Studying for the USNCO while learning AP chemistry is harder. Also, taking an AP science class would have demonstrated more preparedness for summer camp applications because I would have taken the AP exam and SAT subject test. Although I would have suffered 8 hours of summer school per day for 6 weeks, it would have been worth it in the long run.
Summary: If you want to major in a science and want to take honors/AP science earlier, skipping biology/chemistry/physics would be a good idea.
2. Take every assignment seriously
This is more of a junior year regret. Because junior year is more busy, I occasionally didn't do my homework properly and allowed mistakes to happen without making corrections or spending time to understand what I got wrong on problem sets. Not putting your best effort to do your homework will make it harder for you to study for the test because you didn't immediately resolve some problems. Also, not putting your best effort on some assignments will lower your grade so that puts a lot of stress on you, especially if the grade is on the border like for me.
In short, put in your best effort for everything because when you take the easy way out, it will bite you.
3. Don't take standardized tests until you are actually ready
This is one of the worst choices I made in sophomore year. I thought it would be smart to take the SAT early but my practice test scores weren't good. As a result, my first SAT score was pretty bad (1450). Another mistake I made was taking the SAT biology subject test before 10th grade. I had to self study around 30% of the content because it wasn't covered in class. I kind of wasted my time studying for the subject test during the summer and got a mediocre score (750).
It wasn't until junior year that I was ready for the SAT and did fine (1540).
I learned from my testing experience that there is no need to take standardized tests so early unless your practice test scores make you feel satisfied. If your practice test scores are bad, they are a good indicator your actual test score won't be good.
4. Spend more time on extracurriculars
In 9th grade, I was awfully inefficient with my time. My only extracurriculars were piano (10 hours/week) and volunteering (1 hour/week). I would waste my time by studying too much for a test. I honestly had extra 5-10 hours to do extracurriculars. I would have taken Science Olympiad more seriously and try to win a medal in an event. At that time, Science Olympiad was an activity I didn't take seriously. I regret this because I will only have 3 years to try various events in Science Olympiad compared with people that were in Science Olympiad for 7 years.
1. Don't cram
This is more of a junior year problem. Because I took harder classes and spent more time on extracurricular activities, it was hard to space out my studying over a course of a few days. In sophomore year, I somehow managed to have the time to space out my learning. I think part of the reason is that I didn't have a lot of tests each week during sophomore year. In junior year, however, there were some weeks that would have a test each day or every other day. As a result, I had to adapt to my external changes. Unfortunately, this resulted in a higher frequency in cramming for tests.
Although I did better than what I expected on tests that I crammed for, cramming gave me a lot of stress and pressure. For instance, I crammed my AP Calculus BC final within a night.
Even if I eventually figured out how to solve the problems on the final, it took me a lot longer to do the problems. This was because I was sleep deprived, so I was unable to think at my normal pace. Also, cramming makes you feel less confident about whether you memorized the formulas, facts, or theories correctly. On the math exam, I had a few doubts about if I was doing the problem correctly.
Yes, there will be some days where cramming is kind of inevitable. This occurrence is not unusual if you coincidentally have 4-5 tests in 1 week. However, cramming for finals is kind of avoidable because you can use Thanksgiving break to study.
I think if you don't want to cram, seriously print out a monthly calendar and write out what you will do on each day of the month with the number of hours allocated for each activity.
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