Hey guys! Today we’re going to dive into everything you need to know about sophomore year! Sophomore year and junior year are the MOST important years of high school. Senior year, mainly just the first semester matters because if you’re applying for early action, then you can’t exactly count on your senior year to bring up grades and start a passion project/other extracurriculars. I believe that the summer between your freshman and sophomore year is when you should start a passion project, such as a non-profit THAT ACTUALLY HAS AN IMPACT that you would be able to continue for several years-ish. Also, you should start volunteering, specifically related to your major. For example, if you want to go the pre-med route, then volunteering at a local hospital shows your commitment to this field. If you want to go above and beyond, you could start internships in your desired field or do a low-acceptance rate summer program, but it’s pretty difficult to find internships/summer programs in some fields due to age requirements. For me, the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, I turned 15 in the middle of July and most hospitals require you to be 15 or 16 by June 1st (not all hospitals), and several internships that have lower acceptance rates have specific age requirements. However, since I would like to take the pre-med route, it was a bit harder to find volunteering and summer programs at 14 and 15, but if you would like to major in business or computer science or idk, some programs and internships have lower age requirements so definitely check out your options! Moving on, I 10/10 recommend studying some of your courses and getting into a consistent study pattern that you will be able to continue once the school year starts. This is SUPER important, not just for sophomore year but for any of the coming school years as it lets you have a bit of a grasp on a certain course, and so once the year starts you don’t have to be confused on how to study for the course, or particular topic in the course. Also, if you decided to start a non-profit or passion project over the summer, I suggest that you plan everything out over the summer and get a head start because once the school year begins, you’re not going to have a ton of time to spend so its best you plan out when you can work on it and finish as much as you can over the summer. Moving on, if your school doesn’t allow 10th graders to take APs, no worries, take as many advanced classes as you can and ensure that they’re classes that you can invest your time in. Also, join any clubs that you really like, especially competitive ones, such as DECA, HOSA, National Science Bowl, FBLA, and more! Model United Nations (MUN) is also an awesome way to improve public speaking skills and win awards. Start a club if there’s something you want to join but your school doesn’t have it! This showcases leadership skills, and it can turn into something really big! Around the middle of June before sophomore year, if you know you’re going to be applying for extremely selective scholarships, summer programs, and internships during the school year for the next summer, I recommend starting to study for the PSAT10, which occurs around the end of October your sophomore year. If you get between 1210-1520, this shows academic achievement and makes you a competitive applicant, increasing your chances. Don’t worry if you get a bad score on the PSAT10 or you didn’t study for it; it’s not the end of the world! You can still apply for SEVERAL competitive programs, especially those that don’t require a PSAT score! (I studied the night before for my PSAT, didn’t get a good score ofc, but still secured a spot for a competitive research program the summer before my junior year, so no worries 🙂 I took 1 AP my freshman year (AP Human Geography), and 3 APs my sophomore year (AP Seminar, AP Physics 1, and AP World History). The rest of my classes for both years were all advanced, and I took those classes so I could bring up my GPA. (I was so careless my freshman year, so don’t make that mistake SCHOOL IS IMPORTANT!) Freshman year matters the most when it comes to GPA because it sets a base GPA, and the years after are cumulative. This means that if freshman year you didn’t do so hot but sweated sophomore year, they will add both years’ GPAs up and divide by 2, giving you a cumulative GPA and a rank (if your school does ranks), and continue with this process. FOCUS ON YOUR GRADES PLS sophomore year and junior year are the years to bring up that GPA, and if you did excellent freshman year, continue doing what you did and you’re set! Coming back to sophomore year, if you join any competitive clubs, make sure you set some time aside for them so you can work on wtv it is for that club! For example, I did HOSA and MUN my sophomore year, and HOSA took up so much of my time and it got really difficult to balance everything, but once I found a balance between school and extracurriculars, things got a little easier (don’t depend on other people either, if you have a goal do everything you can to achieve it, especially if it’s a team event). December and the second semester is when things really start to take off; everything, EVERYTHING, gets harder. The teachers will get more strict, coursework will be heavier, and tests will get harder, SO UTILIZE YOUR WEEKENDS PLS. Wake up early and start studying, or finish any homework you can for the following week to stay ahead, catch up on extracurricular and passion project activities, schedule and organize your week(s) ahead of time, ykwim. Also, around November ish December is when applications for the following summer open up, so in your free time, check out summer programs, scholarships, and internships that you could do the following summer and start applying!! If applications open up later, make a Google doc or a Note and insert all the links that you want to apply for later in the year. (make a note of when the application opens btw 🙂 Anyways, over winter break, STUDY STUDY STUDY, if you’re taking a difficult AP exam, start organizing and getting materials ready so you can start studying as soon as possible. Time IS going to fly and before you know it, it’s going to be April and you’re going to realize that you haven’t started studying for AP Exams, so PLAN AHEAD. Over winter break, I planned out what I was going to study and also did as much as possible for my HOSA event then so that I wouldn’t fall behind during the second semester. In the first week of February, I had HOSA Area (regionals) and had to prepare for that, but things got really hard after since I had to prepare for HOSA States at the beginning of April. I also had to balance my extremely crazy AP world teacher’s random assignments, pop quizzes, school work + studying, along with competitive swimming, a podcast, non-profits, HOSA, Model UN position papers, research paper, the book I’m writing, volunteering, studying for AP exams, a dual enrollment course, and applying for scholarships, summer programs, and internships, SO IT’S A LOT. (I’m not trying to brag I promise, but I am trying to emphasize how important it is to PLAN ahead and please please start early cause it’s easy to burn tf out) If you spend a lot of time on your phone, scrolling away on TikTok or liking Instagram posts, YOU NEED TO THROW PHONE ASIDE AND LOCK IN, this time of sophomore year is extremely crucial and I cannot express this enough. Get into a habit of studying and getting your stuff done first before you go out with friends and do all the fun stuff, cause it’s easy to fall behind. I was so burnt out by May of my sophomore year, like I’d always be sleeping, especially on the weekends, BIGGEST MISTAKE, and I wouldn’t have the energy during the day to get stuff done and instead would stay up until 4 am stressing & studying tests for the following day. You can get through this year, I promise! Regardless if you’re a night owl or a morning person, you can get everything done as long as you plan and organize as well as utilize your time wisely (rmbr the weekends are critical!). If you know a test is coming up a week or 2 ahead, START STUDYING THEN SRSLY, for AP exams, study as early as possible, around February or the beginning of March. This way you have plenty of time and even if you miss a day of studying, you won’t be too far behind. YOU CAN DO IT and you will be so proud of yourself once the year ends, so don’t give up!!