In September, new classes begin, with new students and new teachers. In January, a new year begins for the rest of the world. People reflect on the year that just passed and they look ahead to the coming months with hope.
This incongruity can be a powerful tool for high school students. The new year is an excellent time to reflect on your accomplishments and your disappointments at about the halfway point in the academic year, as well as to plan how you will improve in the future.
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1. Reflect on your first semester: Honestly review your school year thus far. List your classes and your grades in each. What did not go as well as expected? Be specific: exams you scored poorly on, projects you rushed through and long-term goals you did not meet.
Revisit any plans you may have made related to selecting extracurriculars or maximizing your senior year.
2. Be positive: As you are working on your list, remember to highlight the positives. Honesty is more than just telling the hard truths — it is also offering praise where appropriate. Include your high grades and impressive test results on your list as well. Remember that excellence is not a result, but a process.
As you are recording your accomplishments, list the times you demonstrated significant progress. Note the projects you started on time, the papers you outlined before you wrote and the study plans you followed.
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3. Set new goals: Television shows sometimes reflect a worldview that suggests success comes from a few weeks of competition rather than a lifetime of hard work and dedication. In truth, success in life is largely a result of continual small improvements that ultimately lead to profound change.
With this in mind, compose a short list of areas or tasks you wish to improve upon in the coming year. Keeping your list short is important, as creating too many objectives can become overwhelming.
It is far better to accomplish a handful of important projects than to leave dozens half done. Ensuring your goals are concrete may be even more important as it allows you to measure your success.
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An example of a bad goal would be a resolution to improve in math. One issue with this goal is how difficult it is to define “better.” If you earned a C in algebra last year, aiming for a B this year is a concrete goal.
Better still would be a goal to finish your math homework with enough time left over to ask the teacher for help with difficult questions. Focusing on the result without considering how to achieve it makes real, lasting change difficult.
4. Build on success: Include your strengths when you set goals. If you did well in algebra last year, resolve to do just as well in geometry or precalculus this year.
If you submitted all your assignments on time, resolve to finish your work a day early in order to allow for editing. Successful people build on their strengths to reach true excellence.
As with the other points, specific, measurable goals will be the most effective. Try planning some mid-year check-ins. Catching up is much harder than keeping current, so figure out where you want to be one month and three months in, as well as at the end of the academic year.
If your goal is to get more assignments finished early, set a percentage goal. If you’re exceeding that goal at your one month check-in, increase your goal a little bit. If you’re well below the goal, this is a good time to reassess and make some adjustments, rather than waiting until the end of the year.
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Reflect on Your Academic Strengths, Weaknesses to Improve in 2015 originally appeared on usnews.com
