Help me do good in school :P

I just thought I would post this. Since I am terrible in school (not behavior wise, but like failing wise) my mom agrees to pay me $100 each time I get an 85 or above (honor roll) as an average each quarter. Out of two years of school, i have only been able to get $300. I am need of some serious help or advice. I usually get the good grades in the first quarter (the easiest) and then I start to slip. I am dying need of some advice here . I could really use a new mobo and processor! I'm pretty sure its because of my stupid latin which is amazingly hard! if anyone who has ever taken it before knows. I have failed latin multiple times before. advice on how to stay good in school and do my hw would be awesome. or just some words about this. BTW, school for us starts in the first week of september

 

first off, its "help me do well in school"

 

that would be my advice... instead of sitting on a message board, where while amusing offers no educational benefits other than proving that the velocity of water makes on sore monkey, you should be in a quiet study area doing your actual homework.

Doing homework makes the lesson easier and reading through the chapters makes some things stick in your brain and you can use them later.

if your mom wanted to really help you she should take you modem until you get over a 90 2 terms straight and i guarntee that would be motivation enough to either try harder or go outside.

 

i know but im not in school yet. and second of all, i do study. im not stupid, i just don't do the work.

 

yeah i do get the computer taken away

 

then the only person that can help you is yourself.

 

After you master Latin you could tackle another dead language like Sanscrit.
Illegitimus non carborundum.

 

Check your PM on friday. I think I should have something to help you by then. Sounds like mid season boredom. A lot of kids suffer from that.

 

Uh, you're not in school now but it will be hard to break habits just like that when school starts.

So you should start limiting your time on the computer in all areas. Actually keep a chart if you need to. Bet you have no idea how much time you are actually online.

What are you READING over the summer? Reading helps in all areas.

I took Latin too...it helps in science and VOCABULARY!!!

I can't believe your mom is paying you. Yikes, if you're not motivated by that alone then....hmmmm.

You have to want to do better with no money involved. The way you use your time now, the way you study now, the way you process information now will help (or hinder) you in the future (and not just in a job, but in all different aspects).

One question I have is:
Is the problem homework or grades on tests?

 

Problem identified!

 

hey there.
i dont know if it will work, but my son was the same way.
i searched newsgroups for homework help.
it was a good place for him.
they will not give you the answers, bu,t they will you find a way for you to find them your self
it does not work for everybody but it worked for him.
next in line is do your homework first.
no friends no nothing.
satisfaction is a job well done.
i wish you luck.

 

You don't get something for nothing.

I know in my College and University days I just basically lived and breathed study 24/7. Except for when we had to work weekends and holidays to pay for studies and to try and survive, somehow. There were no grants back then.

Star and others would have gone through the same kind of thing. There is no substitute for self-discipline and hard work.

That is probably the most important lesson school teaches us.

 

NeoNemesis
Okay...
Now you are going to get what you asked for. How do you get better grades?
How do you learn the latin?

Flash Cards!
That's right! Flash cards. You put the latin word on one side, the english word on the other side, the "he, she, it,.... stuff..." the works.

Then, when you are on the bus, when you are waiting in line at the grocery store, when you have ANY downtime... (it happens, downtime).

Then, you pull out your flash cards and have a look. If you persist, you will find that they are helpful.

The Robster's favorite:
The PLAIN (not ruled!) 3 + 1/2 by 5 inch size, cut in half...
A sharpie marker used on one side (black ink)... a blue ink pen to write on the other side...
(this way you can keep the "question" sides and the "answer" sides sorted easily)

Good luck.

Oh, and you may want to google for a product called "Where there's a Will
There's an A". I had a buddy one time that swore by that thing. Its a video tape, I think...

 

Its pretty stupid not to do the work.

 

LOL


OK I am done

 

One thing that seems to make a difference is to make sure that you understand each and every word as you study. If you miss the meaning of one word early on, it can get very tiring and boring.

Thus the saying a brick short. If you build your learning foundation on shakey understanding, you'll never comprehend fully and thus a lack of interest and bad grades.

 

I was headed for bed, decided to peek back in, and this thread caught my eye.

NeoNemesis, overall we remember around 15% of what we hear, 20% of what we see, 30% of what we read, and a whopping 70% or what we use and are involved in. Give or take 5%. That's something I remember from many years ago. We remember a higher percentage of things that are interesting to us, but the things that we NEED to learn are usually not the things that are fun.

That work you're not doing is your downfall. Knowledge doesn't stick just by rubbing it against your skin. In order to retain things, you have got to actually use them, get your fingers around them, work with them, use them. If you don't you'll never succeed at anything more complicated that "Do you want to supersize that?"

Sleeping through the year and cramming for exams may just put enough into short-term memory to squeek through the test, but you'll have forgotten it by summer's end, and when you NEED that knowledge for the next classes which use it or build on it, you've got nothing to use or build on.

You keep shrugging off your poor writing skills, but writing skills will be needed all your life. And in the business world, they WILL care. Summer project number 1 is to find some home study stuff for basic reading/writing skills. The move from books to computers doesn't change that. Reading is the key to almost all learning. If you don't do that well, you can't learn anything else easily. Most magazines and newspapers are written at about the 6th grade level. Those won't teach you anything about language. Vocabulary. If you don't know the words, you can't learn the subject. If you don't know how the words are pronounced, you can't talk to people intelligently. If you can't do all of the above you're back to "Do you want to supersize that?"

If you intend to be anything more than a burger flipper, or a construction worker, make up a picture of "Do you want to supersize that?" and put it prominently on your wall somewhere that you'll see it regularly. THAT is your motivation for buckling down and studying, not the few bucks your mom is bribing you with.

Studying is not reading the book once and playing the rest of the time. Studying is the repetitive excercises that nails the knowledge into your brain for keeps. Doing the research. Writing the papers. Doing the excercises in the books and checking your results and going back and focusing on the things that didn't stick the first time.

I'd forget about Latin for now. Being lousy in two languages is not better than being good at one. Spend the rest of this summer writing. Get a real paper dictionary and put it on your desk. Get a book on grammar with all the rules about how sentences, paragraphs, articles, papers, are organized properly. If you've got access to MS Word or anything else with both spelling and grammar checkers, write articles in that, run the spell/grammar checkers and STOP at each error and look up what was wrong with it. Write down words that you spell wrong and STUDY those. Write them out, over and over. If you run across a common word that your not sure of, look it up in the dictionary, to get both the definition, proper spelling, and proper pronumciation all at once. The physical act of searching for and finding your own answers is a help in "using" the data and will help you retain it. Do this with forum posts here at MG too. Write out your posts in Word, correct them as necessary, then cut & paste your post into the Reply box... learn something while you're goofing off. As Robster noted, flash cards are excellent for some things. Write out your own cards (more hands-on involvement), and the act of calling each card and getting a pass/fail prompt immediately reinforces right answers.

The same principles work for whatever you're studying. DO the work, check your results, and do it again until you KNOW it and can do it right (not write, or rite, or whatever... RIGHT!) Learn threw from through, and how to spell properly. You'll feel one HELL of a lot better about yourself once you learn to read/write/talk properly, and learn how to learn. Once you learn HOW to learn, you can learn anything your heart desires.

The more you do all this, the easier it will become, the more comfortable you'll be finding your own solutions, and the easier you'll remember things. It takes disclipline to do things right, and to force yourself to do them.

But there is no substitute for discipline and hard work. And you're already behind the curve; you need to be working summers and overtime to catch up. The world won't stop and wait for you.

Now. Do you REALLY want to supersize that?

 

LOL. Just did a double-take and remembered that Lugz was the one with the atrocious spelling. Forget English, unless you've been having troubles with that as well. But the mechanics and strategy for learning are valid for any subject.

No pain, no gain.

 

I can't believe I have to pay thousands of dollars (yes, me. Not my parents. Me!) to hope and pray for good grades while this kid gets 100 bucks a pop for a B average.

I know you haven't been on here for very long, NeoNemesis, but if you ask anyone else on the boards, they're likely to tell you that I take education very seriously. Not only my own, but everyone I have contact with. Last semester things started to look pretty bleak for my future career as a Physicist, but I'm currently trying and hoping to get out of this terrible rut that I have dug for myself. Projects, tests, exams, homework, and my job all piled into one big shit parade and cost me a drastic cut in my GPA. I BARELY squeeked by with a 2.0. At first I was incredibly disheartened, but I realized that I just need to take some time off from the school atmosphere and just do some research on my own. If you're still in high school (and I assume you are), thank your lucky stars that you have yet to deal with the REAL trauma and stress associated with college. My sole piece of advice for you would be to quit ****ing around, start taking it seriously, and save every last penny your make for college. Screw your computer. It's not as important as reality.



On a side note:

My crowning acheivement in high school was actually being able to distinguish the difference between too and to.

 

I just re-read the first post carefully, and English should still come before Latin. I, September and Latin should all be capitalized, its should be it's, and there are several blatant grammatical errors. We don't normally nit-pick these things, but since you wanted to discuss education, keep English high on the list as well.

My college days were back in the dark ages, but I had college term papers downgraded for spelling, grammar, and format errors in classes that were NOT language related.

 

Ditto. My "History of Europe to 1713" professor was a comma nazi. He's the reason why you'll see me put, excess, commas, in my sentences. Just to be, safe.

He was pretty cool though; He had the attitude of Bill Cosby (the fun one...Not the recent one we hear and read about in the news), and he wore a bow-tie.

 

Get your headquarters out of your hindquarters. Get it?

 

Well he's never going to learn if you just tell him how to spell it.

 

when i was young and my father would say a word i didnt understand he would hand me the dictionary and tell me to look it up, at the time i thought he was being a (explicitive) but it helped me learn alot more then him telling me and me forgetting 2 minutes later

 

Speaking from a slightly different viewpoint here (closter to NN's situation, at least, since I'm 16 and just finished my GCSEs), I can sympathise with getting annoyed with schoolwork. My problem with it was that I just couldn't be bothered to do to me what seemed like pointless work!

But, as G.T. says, most of what you learn isnt from reading and being taught, its from doing it yourself. Generally speaking, in the classroom most of what you do is learning and reading, since this is the most effective use of time in most circumstances. Homework assignements and projects as the "practice". Once I realised that, homework seemed a lot less pointless!

And you can research your homeworks too. On the net. Fantastic! That searching the net in itself helps you understand what you're being asked to do. Typing in "Latin practice sheet 5.12a" won't give you anything useful, but "Latin tenses he she it" might. Already you've made a step in the right direction ... you understand what they're asking of you. I find that writing down what exactly I need to do actually helps my thought processes in the problem. Adrynalyne probably knows this more than most, since if I have a problem with my machine, I usually just type out my problem, and before he has the chance to answer it, I've answered it myself! LOL.

For me, English was quite easy. Ever since Year 5 in Primary School, I've LOVED to write. Writing stories, writing articles, explaining things, describing things... etc. My only problem has been spelling... only small errors, but lots of them. It's usually because the thoughts come out of my head so fast the spelling of the words doesn't even get a look in. I also love to read, too. At the moment, its mostly magazines, like NewScientist, on and off, because I rarley find myself in the mood to read a full book.

German, on the other hand, was an absolute nightmare. I never really found it all that easy, but while I was doing French and German at the same time, it was easier than French (seemed too flowery, couldnt get my tongue around it!). I made the mistake (or the misfortune) of not being able to sleep the night before the German writing exam... I think I failed it But after trying as hard as I could for the second year, I think I might get away with a pass if I did okay in listening and reading. I really did find German genuinly difficult, it wasnt because I just couldnt be bothered. I would be happy with a pass.

If your rewards from your mum motivates you to study, then thats great! If they just movitate you to cram... there's no point.

 

The requirements for Success are non-negotiable

Hard work, perseverence, dedication, motivation, discipline,
everything else is optional.


Hard work---give it all you got (no half assed effort ever accomplished anything)

Perseverence-in case you gave it all and still failed, get up and do it again (failure is not acceptable)


dedication-pick your goal and maintain your focus on that goal do not look back

most important
discipline-none of the above is possible without having discipline

nobody knows you better than you do ...... which means that you will know when you have given all you got.

Live knowing that everything that you have tried to accomplish was with the understanding that you gave 110%

 

Ah, but he's only just READ it. He won't remember 20% of that tomorrow.

 

thanx everyone... i'm still reading over some of the big posts now since you put a lot of information into them. oh and the reason that i don't like to capitilize when i'm in the forum and sometimes i use shortcuts for the words are because its a forum, so i treat it like instant messaging.

 

My dad did the same thing, he would be reading the newspaper and suddenly say "spell this". We would have to do it until it was right.
Education doesn't finish when you graduate from high school or college.
Many of us here continue our education because of wanting to achieve career advancement or wanting to begin a new career. It doesn't get any easier, studying is hard, it requires discipline and an eye on your ultimate goal.
As GT said, if you don't want to be burger flipper forever you will have to study.
Case closed.

@Boccemn: "Get your headquarters out of your hindquarters. Get it?" LMAO

 

I reckon you do most of your typing in places like this, so if you have bad habits here, they will carry into other places.

So, my advice is type correctly, use correct grammar and punctuation, and do it right the first time.

 

Word! Repetition reinforces both good and bad habits. The current trend toward intentional sloppiness in forums and IM are ruining kids.

I recall not too long ago a stupid young girl that did an entire essay for an English class is lamer L33T-speak, then griped because she got an F on it.

 

things that might help.
concentrate on the subjects relevant to your ambitions. for example my eldest two were told that as long as they got A's or B's in maths, English and science i would not look or question the grades in the rest of the subjects. this enabled them to plow their energies into the subjects that truly interested them. i decided that my responsibility as a parent was to make sure they could read, write, add up, and work things out. not whether they could speak French or knew the order of the Queens and Kings. those three subjects are the basis for all else, and enable you to study any other subject at any time in your life that you develop an interest . they are also the three subjects that the colleges and universities look at first. you do not need to be a straight 'A' student. you do need to be focused on your ambitions and have a 'plan A' for your life.
include rest and recreation into your timetable. (all work and no play etc.) if you take say one weekend a month off from all forms of work, and make that weekend eventful and fun (sitting in front of a telly or puter don't count!) it will enable you to focus better on your goals when you do study.
reward YOURSELF for achieving certain goals, as opposed to relying on others to do it. work out the reward in advance. (can be real simple....eg. if i study for two hours i can play on the puter for one hour. if i get a B or above on this test i will buy a new...) this frees you from the guilt of taking time out.
the key is balance. aloha laurie

 

Good advice there, laurieB. I was thinking about this thread and wanted to add Neo (and others have said it too) but in the workworld and adult world it's not how "smart" you are it's how flexible and willing to "learn" and work hard on a project that counts.

If you have a job and need to figure something out with a co-worker (or your wife or best friend) -- it doesn't matter what grade you got in school, it matters if you're willing to put time and effort into it and give it all you got to succeed. THAT's one big thing an employer is going to look for.

That used to be called the WORK ETHIC -- but you don't hear that term much anymore. What a shame.

So you've said "I'm not stupid...I just don't do the work".........well, that really can be a big PROBLEM (as Adrynalyne pointed out)

 

I hope NeoNemesis reads this...
You can all flame me... I'm above it.
Neo... I just passed the Linux+ test. To some people, that is a laughable,
childish concern that is only worthy of ridicule.

That's right... The big fancy companies have my $200+ for the testing fee now. That's right.... everybody makes fun of IT certifications.
That's right....... I'm STILL a know-nothing lackey when it comes to computerin'

But, It was a personal goal that I had, and it beats throwing rocks at cars.

For ME, it is like I passed the Bar Examination or something... you understand? So, I credit what success I have had with this pursuit with my use of..............


You guessed it.
Flash Cards.

Now "Go Get-'Em, Neo!"
Its all about getting that fire in the belly, of not staying down when you get knocked down. Its about pursuit. Believe me. Once you make these cards (heck, do it now... I KNOW you can find some Latin stuff on google)
get a head start on the school.

Hit the ground running.

I am against cheating. But, short of academic dishonesty, use everything at your disposal....



Make us fellow MajorGeekers proud!
Post a GOOD grade when you "stick" it. You can do this, If you are willing to make the effort.


Its about Effort!


Okay, I'm done. I get manic. I know.

No more rants from me in this thread. Any advice from me can be had from PM's

Drive on, soldier!