Junior year- where do I even begin? People refer to 11th grade as the most taxing, difficult, and stressful year of one’s high school experience; some even think of it as the hardest year of their entire life. While I have yet to finish junior year, I can surely say that it has been one of the most hectic and humbling years of my 17-year-long-life. As I was skimming The Abingtonian website, I read a lot of great articles on people’s experiences with junior year and what they learned from AP Exam testing, so I decided to write one myself. 

Now, I won’t straight up say it will be the worst year because there are many great things that come with being a junior in high school. For most students, it’s the first year you can start driving yourself to school and with that comes a new sense of independence and many fun experiences. Here are the key takeaways I got from junior year:

#1: Find the balance between school and your social life.

People say this a lot and it’s too true. In the middle of my junior year, I experienced a one-month-long period of complete social isolation; I made no plans, stayed in my bed all weekend, and had no motivation to reach out to anyone because school drained me so much. Eventually, I overcame this depressing time by prioritizing my mental health over school. As hard as it sounds, cutting back on the amount of time you spend on school really does help your mental health. When you look back on your junior year, you want to have fun experiences with friends to look back on and not regret caring about school so much that you didn’t have a social life. Thus, finding the balance between school and socializing is vital to getting through junior year!

#2: Don’t be discouraged if you get your first bad grade this year.

Entering junior year, I was so used to starting off the school year with good grades and was incredibly shocked when I got a 70% on my first APUSH test that I studied rigorously for. While AP Physics was everyone else’s kryptonite, APUSH put me through major emotional turmoil throughout my junior year. For the first two months of school, I had a streak of C’s on my APUSH assessments/projects and had never felt so burnt out. Although I was trying my best, I just could not get the grades I wanted. I eventually figured out how to approach the AP-style questions by just talking to my teacher and doing practice questions online, and my grades improved so much after that. To succeed in junior year and in any class, you have to keep up with what you’re learning, learn what you’re doing wrong, and adapt to perform better. Junior year is significantly harder than sophomore year if you take on a bunch of new APs, so don’t feel unmotivated or undergo an identity crisis if you suddenly underperform on a test.

#3: Get more involved in school activities.

Junior year was extremely draining, and most times I found myself getting home from school with a fried brain and no motivation to do homework or talk to friends. However, on the days that I went to after-school activities, I felt like I really flourished. As a social person, doing more extracurriculars expanded my social life and just gave me a distraction away from schoolwork. For instance, through Asian Club and the Asian Arts Festival, I was surrounded by many amazing people whom I got to befriend and have great experiences with, which I never would’ve done without participating in the clubs. If you have the time to join a few clubs, definitely go for it! You should never have so many hours of schoolwork that you are unable to do any clubs after school.

#4: Study early for AP exams and take the SATs as soon as possible. 

The SATs are a pain, which is why I suggest getting them out of the way as soon as possible. In my opinion, the best times to take the SATs are August, October, December, and March. The May SAT is in between AP exams, which is already stressful enough, and the June SAT is when your motivation to study is at its lowest as school is almost over. I began rigorously studying for the SAT in the summer going into my junior year and don’t regret a thing. Doing 30 minutes of prep each day of summer (as fun as it sounds) helped me build the skills I needed to do well on the SAT throughout this school year. 

As for AP exams, if you’re taking 3+, I recommend seriously studying anywhere from 4-6 weeks before the exam date. I underestimated the amount of time I had to study for content-heavy APs such as AP Physics and APUSH and ended up hardcore cramming 1.5 weeks before the exam. While I managed to get through it, my AP Exam experience would’ve been much less stressful had I started prepping earlier.