Freaking out!

[Rhony]

So, I just finished my first year of High School and the grade part went horrible. I did not take it as serious and my second semester grades are pretty much D's, 1 or 2 C's and MAYBE an F. The thing is, my grade were better the 1st semester! How do I fix this? Does this mean that I have to start getting straight A's on test and All classes? Or does this mean I just need to find a really good hobby or something that would hook colleges and distract them from my horrible grades?


This year just hasn't been a good year and since summer has started I'd like to know if I need to do some extra studying over the summer.

[Bmble_B]

If your grades were better the 1st marking period, as you said you probably just didn't take it as serious during the second. So it sounds like to me you don't need any studying, you should just apply yourself more because you have potential. As for colleges, I can't give a legitimate answer for that, you should talk to your Guidance Counselor about it. You still have three more years of high-school, plenty of time to improve :D

[Jaffe]

Summer school? Don't you have to do summer school if you get Fs in Florida? Even if you dont have to, maybe its a good idea.

[stism]

I"d say that you are in BIG trouble, potentially life-wrecking trouble and you'd better danged well do everything you can to get A's and B's the rest of your years in high school. Things are getting tougher all the time in our economy. Dont kid yourself about that. The types of colleges worth attending, you'd BETTER have good grades, and if you have a 3.25 average, you can borrow an extra 4k per year in college. That CAN be very important.

[Airrd]

Having bad grades at first isnt the end of the world because if you focus and get better grades colleges will see that you realized your mistake and learned from it so improving is very important. I think that joining a club would also help you because it is important to be well rounded but try to get As and Bs maybe a couple of Cs if you are overwhelmed but since its the first year its a transistion.

[Microcosm]

Rhony,

The best thing you can do right now is just calm down, assess the situation forthright, and apply the knowledge that you know at least has potential to fix it. Here are what I believe your options are:
1) Realize the problem and dedicate yourself to your education in future school years. this is something that is pretty much necessary if you want to solve this issue. Try associating education and school with being one of the main goals or purposes in your life right now.
2) Look into grade weighting. I know my high school provides a system in which you can get extra grade weighting to your GPA. For instance, If I take an AP class, then I can get +1 whole point to my GPA weighting for that class, which can help tremendously.
3) Look into Summer school programs. Sometimes high schools will have some sort of summer program to help you bring up your grades. Mine does. It's called "Credit Recovery" where I live. Look on your school's website and see if they have any information on that sort of thing.

Best of luck.