I think the phrase "Time flies went you’re having fun" should be changed to "Time flies when you’re extremely busy and homework becomes your Friday night." Waiting in anticipation and anxiousness for next year, I reflect on being a sophomore and realize that it was harder than I had expected.

The jump from freshman to sophomore year was something I had never heard about. I predicted my sophomore year would be similar to my first year at Paly, except without a map and rolling backpack. No one ever told me about how hard chemistry is and the increase of difficulty in my classes. But after learning from my mistakes I have complied a list of how to approach your sophomore year.

1. Regardless of who your teacher is, chemistry is no walk in the park. Unlike biology, chemistry is much more quantitative and mathematical. Unless electron configurations and stoichiometry appeal to you, the material in chemistry is like another language. The way to do well in this class is to make sure you understand everything, take good notes, and really study. Also the material learned in the beginning of the year is built upon in future units, so I recommend understanding the basics.

2. Pick an extracurricular activity and stay with it. Don’t try to do it all – believe me, you can’t. I tried to do both crew and debate, which required me to wake up at 4 a.m. and stay up till 11:30 p.m. Although deciding between the two was difficult (I eventually chose debate), trying to manage both took a harder toll on my academics. Rather than feeling like butter spread on toast, trying to do school and cheerleading, track, drama, choir and maintain an ounce of sanity, pick one extracurricular activity and commit to it.

3. As the grade below us always looks so easy once we’re onto the next, freshmen classes are much less difficult than sophomore classes. While the workload exponentially increases throughout the year, so does the difficulty of concepts. Understanding trigonometric identities was much harder than finding ‘x’ in my Algebra 1A class. Although advisors and teachers overly stress this, take their advice; ask for help from your teacher or get a tutor. Take advantage of the Academic Resource Center, it’s there for a reason. The resources in the ARC are friendly and you don’t have to go out of your way to get help. If additional assistance is needed, get your parents to hire a tutor, before they breathe down your neck. Tutors independent from Paly are very effective and helpful, and can provide a pace and teaching style that accommodates how you learn best. The only thing I would have done differently this year with my tutor was hired him earlier. Don’t wait for someone to get you a tutor. Take the initiative and talk with your parent.

4. Having perspective on grades is necessary to maintain mental health. A skill that is important to have throughout your life, having perspective allows to you "keep it real." As many In Focus segments have repeatedly told us; everybody needs to chill. Put the C+ you got on your vocab test in perspective, and realize that there’s a world outside of Critical Thinking II and Spanish 3H. But most importantly, having academic perspective is a reality check, and let’s you see things for what they are.

As I anticipate next year’s academic challenges, I can’t wait to rant about junior year.