Eda's ultimate guide to high school

This applies to my nerdy career at Tesla STEM (since that’s the only high school I’ve attended), but I tried to keep it general enough to apply to others.

Tip: I'd especially look at the orange links throughout

Contents

Basics

Timeline

Basics:

• Take notes. Especially, I can’t stress this enough, for math.
  • Make step by step instructions to solve 2-3 different problems from the same unit
  • Mark your mistakes, and UNDERSTAND exactly why it is wrong (or right!)
  • Use a 4 colored pen to color code (Blue: Lessons learned, Red: Mark error, Green: Questions and things you don’t understand/need to ask)
• Do the practice, even if it isn't required. Also, if you don't know what you did and you still got the math answer right, UNDERSTAND how you did it right. Make sure it isn't a coincidence, because you might not be so lucky during the test.
• Try to solve hard questions even without an explanation or guidance. When you actually get the guidance, then you will be able to comprehend the process better
• Lectures:
• Ask questions if you are confused, even if you think it has already been addressed or is a stupid question
• If you are VERY lost (and don't know what to ask), copy notes and problems anyway. Spend more time later by yourself or with a teacher/friend to understand and write out steps to solve the problem
• Reduce total screen time. Limit to 2 hours per day including EVERYTHING for phone, tablet, and computer usage.
  • If you notice your brain is too sluggish when you are trying to do homework, it means you’ve been too dopamine-exposed.
  • During any day, including weekends - especially Sundays, don’t start the day with your phone
• Go to bed 8 hours before you have to wake up. Don’t neglect sleep, and assign it to yourself as if it’s homework. Every time you fail or get 6 hours of sleep, it’s bad, just as if you failed to turn in your homework in time.
• Find a hobby to have something to do with all your free time that is entertaining enough, but not brain rotting. Something calming, but something fun. (I suggest diamond art kits, or a simple game like Cake Sort)
• Make a habit to start homework 5 hours before bed time. May need to start earlier if your project is big.
• Start big projects early. And know what starting early means
• Keep one drive folder organized by class, and if you use the computer enough for your class, make a new folder for each project or unit
• Recognize teacher types, and act accordingly
  • Stubborn? Easily offended? Flexible? Very strict on deadlines (some don’t let you turn in a second late)? Late policies?
  • Read the syllabus and if needed, bring them up later on if they don’t apply their late policy
• Use your school laptop for school things only – you want to create that association with work and your school computer
• Every day, when something interesting happens, and/or every night, just 30 minutes before sleep lay down with eyes open or closed, with a notepad or phone nearby, write about things that stood out to you. This will be useful for colleges too. (look at my tips for journaling)
• Force yourself to finish a task if it is easy enough. Set an end-time if you need to.
• Take reminder notes to keep track of your responsibilities. This includes homework assigned, things you have to do, and really anything extracurricular. And do it on PAPER – a small notebook you carry around with you everywhere will do great (just don’t lose it!). If you still decide to keep the social media apps on your phone, this advice doubles for you- when you are just about to take a note, you don’t want to get distracted by your muscle memory directing you to TikTok (and apps functioning like TikTok).

Timeline

9^th Grade [learning practical skills]:

This is the transition period, and might be a rough start.

• Focus on soft skills and using tools properly:
  • Communicating with teachers – office hours, negotiating grades kindly
  • Using tools like Canva, Adobe Illustrator, Figma, ChatGPT, Demos!!!, CalcChat, PhotoMath?, Wayback Machine, Citation machine (with adjustments)
    

    Use ChatGPT for nearly all classes EXCEPT for English. Don’t even touch it for English. Make sure you can cite your information correctly, and know how to research, come up with your own ideas, use correct grammar and spelling. Of course there are exceptions for when you shouldn't use it, but I'll let you figure that out.

    Why not use ChatGPT for English? How and when do I use ChatGPT properly?

• Time management + learning how to motivate yourself to do work (this is ESSENTIAL, even if you don’t have much work right now)
• Asking for help on assignments from friends + compare answers or check understanding for ambiguous assignments
• Learn how to study (look at my study tips)

• Join clubs! Different unique ones that interest you
  • Clubs that organize volunteer events, share your interests, teach interesting things or have fun discussions, have hikes or play instruments…
• Learn about tracking grades on skyward
  • Check once a week for missing assignments, updated grades
  • Teachers make mistakes when entering things. Almost too often. Keep track of them and things you asked them to fix before the quarter ends

Get rid of TikTok. Trust me, you wont fall behind. You will notice the trends through Instagram reels or YT shorts, and it’s easy to play along with using the current day slang

Actually, get rid of all social media, especially ones that have a "shorts" feature (instagram, youtube, etc.). If you REALLY need to use it to check club updates or see your friends or something, use the web version. Since it's so annoying, you will do it less often and when you truly need it.

 

10^th grade [emotion management]:

• Eliminate unnecessary extracurriculars
• Start studying SAT (especially English- learning question types often aren't helpful enough for reading comprehension. That happens with practice)
• Learn emotion management + how to recover from breakdowns
  • Learn optimistic and rational, solution based thinking even when stressed
  • Start recognizing when you breathe too fast
  • Let yourself cry. Trust me, it's an underrated strategy for stress relief
  • Make a list of to-do’s to organize overwhelming responsibilities
• Apply to summer schools or internships

 

11^th grade [critical thinking and understanding yourself]:

• Learn how to properly do research
  • Use google scholar, sci-hub, ncbi, and check out the citations Wikipedia cites used. Google translate can also help you get through paywall of articles
• Start learning that corporate language (important for internships)
  • AdviceWithErin on YT
  • Practice as you write your college application essays.
  • If you are in a club with much outreach, try doing that there
  • Sound more confident in your decision making
• Join internships
• Start taking the SAT, and take the PSAT seriously (you need a good PSAT grade for the national merit scholarship)
• Survive your heavy workload. That said, if you are always comfortable, you aren’t being active enough.

 

12^th grade [college transition]:

• Make a LinkedIn account
• Make a college list and start writing essays
• Make connections! Add people on linkedin (including me!). Do this by meeting people at internships, or events (such as outreach events, preferably those you host). Learn from these people, and show off your skills a bit ;). Friends always help when you need to find a job, so start today
• (I might update more once I graduate-I'm still in the trenches)