When asked, almost all high schoolers will say that the hardest year of their high school career is junior year. More times than not, junior year has more advanced classes and AP tests than any other year in high school. This, along with the stresses of starting to look at colleges and the anticipation of senior year, can make junior year quite hard to handle. There are a few essential things that one must know in order to survive the dreadful junior year.

First things first, you must be aware of your work load. Although junior year can prove difficult no matter what classes you take, a student who has five regular classes will simply have less work than a student who has several advanced or AP classes and a full seven period schedule. It is important to know and be aware of the amount of work you are signing up for before junior year even starts. Doing things like talking to teachers and counselors about classes, asking current teachers what they recommend for you to sign up for in your junior year, and finally just thinking about the workload and classes that you can handle and succeed in. Challenging yourself is important and can be beneficial in your school career, but it is equally important to know how much you can handle. With and increasing flow of students into classes, it becomes harder and harder to switch out into a different class. So, if you’re not careful, you can end up in way over your head and struggle to get the schedule that is best for you. When choosing your schedule for junior year, take your time and think about what will work best for you.

During junior year, there are more things than just classes that can cause stress and bring up problems. One of the biggest factors being driving. By junior year most if not all students have their licenses and cars of their own. While driving may seem like a fun privilege, it also comes with responsibilities. Driving fast and reckless shows to be fun and is a common trend in junior drivers, but has the potential to cause huge problems. A car accident can not only cost you thousands of dollars for repairs on your car, but can cause major injury to you which will cost even more money. So save your money and your life and drive in a fashion that puts you out of the way of harm. Although these problems occur outside of school, they affect your life in school by jeopardizing your health, losing your transportation, and causing immense amounts of stress.

Many factors and things in high school become very familiar by junior year. You will have have most of the everyday things mastered. But something new that is introduced is the ACT. It may just seem like another test, but is vital in your college future due to it being a large factor in being selected into a university or not. Because of its importance, it is necessary to study for the ACT throughout the year. Even if it seems pointless with the test being months away, it can be beneficial and improve your score to start working on ACT exercises early in the year.

Juggling the different things in school is a difficult enough task, but becomes exponentially harder with the additions of sports, jobs, and other after school activities. Taking up several hours on afternoons, these activities can push students to the limit of their time to complete everything that they need for school whether it be studying or homework. The most important thing to remember is that school comes first. While it is nice to work and earn money to spend on leisurely activities, school should always come first and jobs or sports should come only after your school life is in control. Having good methods for balancing your schoolwork and job or sports is essential.

Junior year is difficult, but definitely survivable. Stay organized, plan accordingly with what you think you can handle, study and work hard, earn good grades, and you can defeat the dreaded junior year.