It’s January, and for high school seniors across the country, the next few months are going to be filled with assignments. The time of year in which students are preparing to say goodbye to the life they’ve known for the past four year and for their future after graduation.

Stone LaPorte, Arrowhead junior, says, “At the start of the second semester, I often lack motivation. Despite this, the spring term requires the same amount of focus and preparation as the fall semester does in order to do well.”

Particularly at Arrowhead High School students have taken the ignition to better themselves along with their academics. While students prepare for the second semester, many have made goals for themselves taking advantage of key opportunities that can help them prepare for the college transition and college transcripts.

“My personal goal is to study a lot more and focus more on school. In previous years, good grades just seemed to come naturally for me. But this past semester really kicked me in the butt. Now classes that came so naturally I needed a lot more work, which resulted in lower grades. It didn’t really hit me until the last few weeks of the semester that this was the worst GPA I have ever gotten. So for this next semester I am making it a goal to study a lot more and focus more on school. To do that I am going to try and make more time for studying, instead of hanging out with my friends all the time or watching netflix. I need at least 30-60 mins a night to study for ap psych and another hour or 2 for other subjects. I really need to put my school work first and realize all this other stuff will probably still be there later. So I hope to make more quizlets, watch more youtube videos on things I don’t get, actually read my ap psych book and take notes this semester and just overall get organized and hopefully get my grades up as well.” Josie Schroeder, a senior said.

For a lot of students, several have stated that certain study tactics and test-taking strategies that worked well for them in high school, did not work as well when they went off to college.

Dana Marklund, a graduate from Arrowhead says, “Going into my first year in college, I realized a lot of what I had been doing to prepare to study, was not working well in my favor. I needed to study way in advance.”

With that, many students at Arrowhead High School are realizing they need to take an extra step to fend off any schoolwork complications and to find ways to keep themselves challenged during the last semester of high school.

“I didn’t really expect junior year to be as hard as it turned out to be, and it kind of hit me harder than I thought. I really struggled over all with the amount of work I had to get done. I plan to do better and am shooting for at least a 3.5. to do that I really just have to work and study hard, by using different methods that fit my studying.” Lexie Newman, a junior said.

Mia Lanzarotti, a junior at Arrowhead High School says, “ For this semester I hope to improve in my time management skills. The tactics that I had attempted last semester did not turn out well in my favor. Last semester I would often leave my homework for the very last day it was due and then I would end up cramming for a lot of my tests. Thus, it just sort of became a habit of mine. I hope that this semester I will become better with time management and hopefully this will help improve my grades.”