Sat Test

As summer winds down to a close, your thoughts may be turning ever so slowly towards your senior year. What will it be like? Who is going to be in your classes? What about joining that club you’ve always thought about? There are a lot of decisions to be made, more important than what you’re going to wear for your first day of school and who you’re going to the prom with.

Your future is looming. If you haven’t taken the SAT as a junior, sign up for it as soon as possible by going to www.collegeboard.com. The sooner you sign up, the sooner you can get started with your studying. When you go to The College Board, make certain that you sign up for their SAT question of the day. Roam around the website and see what other free study aids The College Board has to offer you in preparation for taking the SAT. You can take mock SAT exams and find out how you’ll do if you took the SAT right this minute. If the score you get on a mock SAT exam frightens you, then you know that you have a great deal of studying to do.

There are books you can buy at regular brick and mortar bookstores that are all designed to help you prepare for the SAT. If you feel more comfortable purchasing online, then check out Amazon, or Barnes and Noble or other stores that sell SAT prep materials. If studying alone is difficult for you and you do better with a more structured approach, then you can sign up for online courses with Kaplan or The College Board other various other SAT prep companies that you can find online.

If paying money for SAT materials makes no sense to you, then you have other options. Form a study group of your friends to prepare for the SAT. Set up a schedule and a time to meet and stick to it. Have each person be in charge of learning about a portion of the SAT, then find free materials to study in preparation that they can in turn share with the rest of your group. If you study together, you should be able to learn a great deal. Two heads are better than one, so goes the saying. Add a few more heads and see what happens!

Are you ready for summer to be over? Long hot days spent at the beach or at parks playing with your friends and riding around with the windows of the car down and the music blasting away makes for some wonderful summertime memories. There’s nothing much like the summer before you start your senior year in high school. It feels different somehow, as if the world was opening up to you in ways that you’d never noticed before. The air smells sweeter, the fresh corn on the cob tastes more delicious and your skin just tingles at times for no reason at all. Enjoy this time, it passes so quickly and soon it will be just a memory. Make the most of it because the books and the classes and the senior projects are waiting for you at the end of August.

Soon it will be time to go back to school shopping for notebook paper, pens and pencils and big pink erasers. You’ll be searching for just the right outfit to wear on your first day as a senior. The smell and feel of an empty notebook, just waiting to be filled with class notes and doodles and the phone numbers of your friends. You’ll pack your backpack full of brand new school supplies and check it again and again to make sure you have everything you need.

Most schools host a back to school barbecue or get to know your teacher day. It’s a good idea to go and get the feel of being back, for the very last time, at the start of a new school year. You’ll see all your old friends and acquaintances that you haven’t seen all summer; marvel at their tans and how much they’ve grown in the few months you’ve been apart. You’re all still changing and growing, physically as well as mentally.

High school is an emotionally charged environment, an experience rife with fun and laughter and tears and pain. That’s what part of being a teenager is all about. The highs are high and the lows are sometimes fairly low. Make sure you’re there for your friends when they’re going through tough times. Sometimes you might feel like you’re the only one on the planet that is going through something, when right next to you in class might be sitting another person going through the exact same thing. Talk to your friends, your parents and if you’re really struggling with something, find an adult you trust to talk to and share your feelings with.

It’s not always easy being a teenager. Your face breaks out when you least need it to, your brand new jeans rip and your best friend blows you off for no reason. You may feel a great deal of pressure to perform scholastically, while being involved in clubs or volunteering or working part time.

Depression can strike anyone and if you’re feeling down, it’s a good idea to talk to someone about it and get some help. There are teenage help lines if you’re going through a difficult time and don’t want to talk to anyone you personally know. Suicide among teens is a real concern. It’s the third cause of death among those between the ages of 15 to 24. If you, or someone you know is suffering and you need someone to talk to, you can call 1-800-suicide for help.

Sometimes circumstances seem huge, when in fact they aren’t. With time and distance you will see that what was a bad experience was part of a growing process for you and that you can use it as a learning experience. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t spiral downward. Talk to someone. Reach out. Your life is really just beginning and there are so many incredible experiences awaiting you beyond high school.