How to Succeed in High School (Transcript)

This is the transcript of a video that I worked on with someone I know.

As an alright student, I’ve picked up some methods over the years of staying on task and maximizing results.

Number one: THIS. USE IT. That’s right, it’s your planner. You probably get one from school, or if you don’t, I don’t know what’s up with that, but even some lined paper stapled together would suffice as a substitute. Now, most planners come with print on the inside to make it easier for you to record stuff, but if you’re just using a notebook, you’ll have to make it up yourself.

So how should you use your planner? It’s fairly straight-forward, right? Well, not always. Yes, you use it to write down your test dates and homework, but you should also use it to record what you are planning to study, your DPA so you don’t have to make it up at the end of the term, AND the steps you are planning to take in order to achieve your goals. Which brings me to number two.

Set goals. Specifically, set SMART goals. If you don’t remember that acronym from elementary school, it stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Now, I’m not really a fan of acronym-based catchphrases. It all just sounds like buzzwords to me. But this is one that has really helped me in the past. For example, I like writing. And I’ve always tried to tackle large writing projects in the past to no avail. Until I set a SMART goal. Before, it was “I want to write a novel”. Then, I changed it to “I will write two-thousand words a day for about thirty-five days”.

First, that’s fairly specific. It’s not vague like simply saying “I want to write a novel”. ‘Cause how are you going to write that novel exactly?

Second, it’s measurable. Two-thousand words a day. I can easily check to see if I have achieved my goal for the day or not.

Third, it’s achievable. I can do it. And it’s realistic.

And lastly, it’s timely, meaning it spans a duration of thirty-five days, at the end of which I can reflect on how I achieved my goal, or if I haven’t, why.

And what do you know? I finished my novel.

Number three: initiative. There is no point in doing things just because someone expects you to do them. If your only motivation to do homework is because your teacher wants you to, I don’t know what to say. I know it’s hard, especially in the world we live in, but please try to learn for the sake of learning.

I know that a lot of students only work hard in high school because they want to go to university. But once you get to university and you don’t have initiative, it’s going to be hard for you. ‘Cause it’s really not the same. You’ll be an adult. You can do anything you want. If you don’t learn to take initiative now, you won’t do so hot in the future.

So when your teacher suggests further reading or supplementary worksheets and you feel you don’t have a solid grasp on the material, do them. Even if they’re not worth marks. Because education isn’t about doing what you need to do, and absolutely nothing else. It’s an ongoing process. And if you really are feeling like every task is a chore and you’re only doing these things because you need to, maybe reflect on why you’ve even chosen these classes in the first place.

Number four: Take advantage of your free time. Finished your lunch? Read for your English novel study! Bored during break? Do your math! These gaps in your schedule are perfect for grind-y things like worksheets, reading, or vocab study. You might feel like you can’t possibly accomplish anything in ten, twenty minutes, but you’d be surprised. These small chunks of time add up, and suddenly you’ve freed up space after school for the harder things like writing and projects.

Number five: Priotize. Sometimes you’re just not going to be able to finish everything. That’s fine. But now you’re going to have to pick and choose what to do. This might be hard, but factors you should consider include how proficient you already are at each subject, how many marks each piece is worth, how much each class matters to you, and et cetera. But when it comes to this, remember that your health matters most. It sounds sappy, I know, but it’s best for your education, too.

It doesn’t matter if you spend all night studying for three tests if you’re just going to fail all of them due sleep deprivation. Better to just study for one and sleep. Then you’ll only fail two. See, in high school, this actually might not happen. Your subjects may be easy enough for you to complete under strenuous conditions. But in university, this will matter a lot. So it’s best to practice good health now.

Number six: Declutter. Your Mileage May Vary on this one, but I find that having a clean, organized, and simple workspace seriously helps me on focusing because I don’t have all these objects around me to distract. Digitally, too. For writing, I’ve found that I really like this program called PyRoom which is a very simple full-screen text editor. Unfortunately it only does .txt and .rtf, but you can use another program for actual processing. It’s for Linux, but there’s DarkRoom for Windows. The one for OSX requires payment so I won’t talk about it.

Now, this last tip is different. It’s specifically for language learning, which can be radically different from learning other subjects. Bold and I love linguistics, we love languages, we study them a lot. Learning a language requires immersing yourself and using it as much as possible. For some people, that can be really difficult. It is for me; I don’t watch TV, so how can I watch French TV? So here are some ways you can use your language as much as possible.

I like to use interfaces in the language I’m learning. For example, I use Facebook, I use Reddit, I use a lot of things in French. You can learn a lot of online-based lexicon that you don’t find in textbooks this way. When I shop online, I use French too. This is easy, we’re Canadian, everything’s available in French. You can’t exactly do this if you’re in Japan and learning Uzbek, but it’s an idea.

Another thing I like to do is keep a journal in the language I’m learning. It doesn’t matter what I’m writing in this, as long as i’m writing something. Writing in a new language can be very very difficult at the beginning but it does get easier. And it’s a little easier if you’re good at writing in your native language too. I don’t mean good at writing compositions or essays, I just mean writing in general. Putting your thoughts out there. I write stories a lot in English, which makes me a lot faster at writing stories in French than my peers, simply because I write stories a lot. So practice writing in your native language as well.

Something Bold and I like to do a lot is translate phrases into French. He likes to do memes, but you can do this with anything. When you’re idle and doing nothing, just think about what’s going on and translate. I’m walking, je marche, I’m hungry, j’ai faim, et cetera.

Lastly, for actual studying a language in school, try to work on your language for twenty or thirty minutes a day. Review your grammatical structures, your verbs, vocab… The high school curriculum for languages is pretty easy. As long as you do this, you will be successful. I guarantee it.

Now, for some general tips, don’t overestimate yourself. Don’t take too many classes that you can’t handle. Be social. This comes really easy for some people, but it’s hard for some, like me. But experience with people will really be helpful when you get a job and do adult things. There are a bunch of productivity apps on the internet that may help you. They don’t really help me, but everyone’s different. Backup all your stuff, you don’t want to lose your homework. Prepare your backpack at night so you don’t forget stuff when you leave in the morning. This happens to me a lot, people hate it ‘cause I’m always taking their paper. Lastly, don’t lose yourself in all of this. School is a part of your life, it is not your life. This is Medusa Moxie from Glottal Stops and Vector Files signing out.