By: Antonio Vazquez

 As far as this year goes, there were a lot of struggles that I had this year, I can’t really explain why, they just occurred.  There was a major difference in classroom styles that occurred with most classes.  The amount of dedication and effort needed was very overwhelming and I did not expect that to be so much for me.

 What really surprised me, and really did surprise me, was how much of a change Freshman year was to Sophomore year.  To me, the transition to sophomore year was more difficult than the transition to freshmen year coming from 8 th grade.  There is a misleading view that transitioning to high school is very difficult, when transitioning to having to work in an AP class is way more difficult to cope with.

 At first, I thought I was very prepared for the school year. From taking my good grades from Freshmen year, I thought Sophomore year would not be so difficult, I was wrong.  What would have helped me prepare more is to actually know how hard the AP course was going to be and that it would have to alter the time management I had set plus the amount of effort needed to pass. By the time I got somewhat of a good idea on how to handle the class, it was too late, my grade had suffered too much to recover.  For the upcoming sophomore magnet, they should be warned on how much the AP course will alter their after school style.

 Honestly, I feel a lot more prepared for next year than I was for this year. Mainly because since I know how much work I have to put into my classes plus now I wont have to take AP History or English which eases my priority levels so I can focus on AP computer science and pre calc more now to help me with my career goals.

 As I said in preparations, I wish I knew about the intensity the classes would be and how much time management would be required to be successful.

 Besides stress level and time management, students need help with their motivational levels which are prone to either increase or decrease their efforts into a certain class. A student with no motivation will lack the effort of a student with a motivation to do well.  Students need to be given at least a taste of what the intensity sophomore year will be like during freshmen year so it wont be so new when the year comes.

 Some serious advice I want to give to these future magnet students that I hope will read this:  Do not take this year lightly, you might think you will do excellent and pass with straight A’s and B’s like you did last year (hopefully).  Your first few weeks are going to be packed of getting used to new things and changing your work ethic, especially with AP Modern European History.  You need to put in your full effort to do well.  Do not let your self-esteem go down because of your grades: If you put you all into this year and it may not reflect into your report card, don’t feel bad, you just need to know that you tried your hardest and no grade can make your confidence go down.  PROCRASTINATING WILL KILL YOUR GRADES. It’s true, you blow off things till the last second, and you will have messed up results, take this from a procrastinator.

 Ancient/Medieval history was probably easy for some of you students last year because it was mostly memory and few homework assignments. AP European History is NOTHING like Ancient Medieval History.  You need to do your homework everyday, if you miss one day of notes, you’re more than likely to start missing more and more until you dig yourself into a hole you cannot get out of. Believe me, it happened to me and to a lot of others. You must start the year strong or else it will be impossible to succeed.  Be ready to put this class as priority number 1, with daily homework and intense discussions with very difficult tests (you’ll get there about 30% into the year) that will require you to actually study.  Take advantage of what Mr. Caylor offers after class, he offers a study session which is HUGE in the long run, for me, every time I went to a study session, I got at least a B or higher. The one time I didn’t attend his study session, I’ll be honest, I got a 58%. That’s how crucial these study sessions are if you are someone who doesn’t study well at home.

 For this class, you need to prepare to have to come for extra help outside of normal class time. In Geometry, it was easy to go through lessons and tests were easy. Now in Algebra II, it might be difficult to get through a lesson thoroughly in the class time, be prepared to either stay after class for help, or struggle.  Do your review packets! They are not that difficult to do! They are worth an easy quiz grade, so if you struggled on a quiz, the review packet can counter that with a good quiz grade!  Do your projects on time, don’t procrastinate these things, because since most of your projects will be electronic, you never know when something might happen and you go the next day, “Oh no! My internet was shut down because of the storm!” Well too bad, why did you wait the last minute to do your work? Do it early and you even get bonus points for turning it early, so don’t procrastinate.

 Two simple things you need to do to have an A in these classes.  1) Pay attention in class: This applies more to chemistry because if you don’t pay attention in class, you will suffer greatly.  2) Do your homework: If you do your homework on a regular basis, which is not very hard to do, you can easily have an A.