Ronald E. McNair and High Tech are two great schools you may be attending as a freshman this year. At first, it may seem overwhelming, especially the schedule and having much more homework to manage than in middle school. However, we asked 10 kids from McNair that told us about the difficulties they experienced and have created a list of suggestions they have for anyone going into a challenging high school in or around Jersey City.
- Do your homework first. Having a schedule helps. If you have a sports practice, do your homework as soon as you come home. Two rising sophmores at McNair claim that the work load gets very heavy, and they wish they could go back in time as tell their freshman-self not to wait until the last minute to start homework. One claims she used to come home, play video games after sports practice, eat dinner, and only after dinner start homework. She wouldn’t finish her homework until 2am, so she decided to make a schedule for herself to ensure that she did what she had to do before what she wanted to do.
- Make connections. If you have a friend group, managing everything at school becomes easier. Talk to people. In fact, eight out of the ten McNair students surveyed claimed they were part of an app where they were connected with friends and could see their schedule more easily.
- Join a sport or club. For many McNair sports and clubs, you attend meetings or practices every day after school. According to the students (all were part of at least one club/sport), you become extremely close with the peers around you. Your coaches and advisors become a support group for you. They also feel it helps improve their mental health and gives them a social group.
- Study without a phone. Research shows that cellphone use, overall, has a negative effect on students’ ability to focus and results in lower grades. According to a study cited in an article in The Echo from SNU, “Depending on their responses, the subjects were placed into either a high social media use group or a low social media use group based on their in-class cell phone habits. Those in the high use group consistently scored lower on tests, in class, than the low use group.” The tendency to multitask while doing homework seems to be the culprit, so keep your phone out of reach to get the most benefit from your homework and study time.
