Did/Does High School Challenge You?

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se-alum's avatar

se-alum

The Biggest Boss

13,948 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:01 PM
I had a conversation last night w/ a buddy of mine who is a teacher, and we both had the same thought. We think that those who it was tougher for to get good grades in HS, typically fared better in college? I know personally for me, high school offered no resistence. I took college prep classes, was in the National Honor Society, and not once in 4 years did I take a book home w/ me. I think I finished 3rd in my class. I didn't fare so well in college the first time around, because I just wasn't used to having to put forth effort. I had no study habits. I had never faced adversity in the class room. During this time, alot of my other HS classmates were doing much better than me in college. I eventually got it together, and got my degree, but it was more difficult for me, than it was for some of my HS classmates that didn't have the grades that I had. As a teacher, my buddy said he tends to see some of those same trends.

Thoughts?? Did your HS experience translate well into college??
Dec 15, 2009 2:01pm
darbypitcher22's avatar

darbypitcher22

Senior Member

8,000 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:02 PM
I had a class from time to time that would make things difficult every now and then, but no, I guess I didn't really struggle to get through it, in fact I'm not sure how that's even possible with how thigns are set up in some schools
Dec 15, 2009 2:02pm
LJ's avatar

LJ

Senior Member

16,351 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:03 PM
I breezed through both HS and College with 3.3 GPA's in each.

Breezing means about 1 hour of work outside of school each week, studying would usually consist of reading material for 1-2 hours before test.
Dec 15, 2009 2:03pm
ZWICK 4 PREZ's avatar

ZWICK 4 PREZ

Senior Member

7,733 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:04 PM
I didn't try in high school but I was only a B average. I did much better in college, but I also tried a lot harder.
Dec 15, 2009 2:04pm
thedynasty1998's avatar

thedynasty1998

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6,844 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:05 PM
Yes, I though HS was more challenging than college.
Dec 15, 2009 2:05pm
C

captvern

Senior Member

833 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:05 PM
I agree with you. I had a similar situation as yours and struggled my first year or so of college.
I now teach math and i try to challenge the kids so they are prepared for college. I feel that it is my job. Now not all of my students like all the work and some do not put in the effort and those students will be the ones not doing so well when they go to college next year.
Dec 15, 2009 2:05pm
F

fan_from_texas

Senior Member

2,693 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:06 PM
HS was a joke, not because I'm so incredibly smart, but because our school system wasn't very good and didn't prepare me for college. I carried a 4.0 through HS and was our valedictorian, despite not taking a book home.

When I hit college, things were very, very different, and I had to work hard and bust it to do well. I was entirely unprepared and strugged my frosh year.

When I hit law school, I found myself wishing I could be back in college. Law school was much more work than college ever was, and it was much tougher, too, and on a forced curve.

Then once I actually started working, I realized how easy I had it all along. Work is a million times tougher and more stressful than school ever was, and unlike school, now I don't get breaks to recover.
Dec 15, 2009 2:06pm
LJ's avatar

LJ

Senior Member

16,351 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:08 PM
Hmm, I was quite the opposite my first year of college, as I carried a 3.8 GPA that first year.
Dec 15, 2009 2:08pm
ernest_t_bass's avatar

ernest_t_bass

12th Son of the Lama

24,984 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:10 PM
se-alum wrote:We think that those who it was tougher for to get good grades in HS, typically fared better in college?
Huh?

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
Dec 15, 2009 2:10pm
Heretic's avatar

Heretic

Son of the Sun

18,820 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:11 PM
I'd agree with the OP.

In high school, I didn't study or anything and finished with a 3.5. It was a rural small-town public school. Most of the curriculem I found to be non-challenging and I could find (underhanded) ways to get through the stuff that was actually work for me (advanced math and science).

When I got to college, I was inherently intelligent, but had no study skills and was at least as lazy as intelligent. First quarter, it was a major accomplishment for me to get a 2.2 (after mid-terms I was around a 0.9 by my calculations). My parents didn't look at things with that same "glass half full" manner and threatened that if things didn't improve immediately, I'd be coming home and going to a branch college. I liked my "away from home" freedom and wasn't going to give that up. I learned how to study and was able to find a nice "do what I have to do to scrape by with good enough grades to please them" zone.
Dec 15, 2009 2:11pm
McFly1955's avatar

McFly1955

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1,441 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:11 PM
HS was so frickin easy...I graduated in 2004 --- 3.5 GPA, played baseball and worked 20 hours per week. I also skipped out on my senior year pretty much (only had 2 classes), to get almost 2 semesters of college work done. I then graduated from college at age 21 with a 3.5 GPA (Bachelor of Business). College was a breeze as well, with maybe 3-5 challenging classes that required a lot of work.
Dec 15, 2009 2:11pm
S

slide22

Senior Member

330 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:15 PM
High school was a waste of time. Breezed through pretty much, never really had to study. Through my first few quarters of college its pretty much the same.. other than studying some definitions and some math stuff I haven't really had to study alot and have a 3.5 GPA. Granted I'm a freshman, but I don't find it a whole helluva lot more challenging that high school.
Dec 15, 2009 2:15pm
Fab4Runner's avatar

Fab4Runner

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6,196 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:15 PM
No, not at all.
Dec 15, 2009 2:15pm
Mr. 300's avatar

Mr. 300

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3,090 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:50 PM
How am I supposed to remember back that far????
Dec 15, 2009 2:50pm
sleeper's avatar

sleeper

Legend

27,879 posts
Dec 15, 2009 2:55 PM
I didn't try in high school and did very well. I attend The Ohio State University and if you don't spend every minute studying you'll probably end up with a C at best, and you can take that to the bank.
Dec 15, 2009 2:55pm
gerb131's avatar

gerb131

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9,932 posts
Dec 15, 2009 3:33 PM
No. I did what I had to do and enjoyed the rest of the time.
Dec 15, 2009 3:33pm
M

mattinctown

Dec 15, 2009 3:35 PM
Hardly ever studied in HS and got a 3.6, however when I got to college it bit me in the ass the first semester. After the first semester/starting to study, everything went very well. HS for me was just about sports.
Dec 15, 2009 3:35pm
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krambman

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3,606 posts
Dec 15, 2009 3:39 PM
I graduated from New Albany High School, and if you know anything about that school you will know that yes, I was challenged. I did graduate with about a 3.5 taking AP and honors classes, and I did have to work hard for it. College was about what I expected, and not much hard than high school for the first two-and-a-half years or so. It wasn't until midway through my third year that I had to start trying harder than I ever had. I could no longer start a paper a day or two before and knock out 10 pages and get a B. I actually had to start doing research and begin crafting the paper two weeks beforehand to get a B. It was a very difficult adjustment to make at that point, because I now had to work harder than i ever had before. Now, that's not to say I had just breezed through, I had just figured out how to maximize my work before that and now things were tougher and that didn't work anymore.
Dec 15, 2009 3:39pm
Quint's avatar

Quint

Captain

737 posts
Dec 15, 2009 3:47 PM
I'm a perfectionist. . . I studied like crazy in HS and was valedictorian. I graduated undergrad with a 3.6 in civil engineering. . . and now I'm in law school. My study habits for exams have never really changed. . . but I've found that the preparation for class on an every day basis in law school is much more demanding than undergrad.
Dec 15, 2009 3:47pm
swamisez's avatar

swamisez

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1,990 posts
Dec 15, 2009 3:53 PM
I liked high school for the social aspect, but I didn't excel academically. I was a B student with little to no desire to do better or worse. Looking back I have no idea why I was so apathetic. Thankfully in college I had some professors that lit a fire in me academically and I developed a love of learning that I never thought would be possible. The minute my athletic ability was maxed out my brain began to work it seems.

Wish I had a teacher in high school that could have showed me how great it was to be considered smart and to excel academically.
Dec 15, 2009 3:53pm
j_crazy's avatar

j_crazy

7 gram rocks. how i roll.

8,372 posts
Dec 15, 2009 4:28 PM
fan_from_texas wrote: HS was a joke, not because I'm so incredibly smart, but because our school system wasn't very good and didn't prepare me for college. I carried a 4.0 through HS and was our valedictorian, despite not taking a book home.

When I hit college, things were very, very different, and I had to work hard and bust it to do well. I was entirely unprepared and strugged my frosh year.

When I hit law school, I found myself wishing I could be back in college. Law school was much more work than college ever was, and it was much tougher, too, and on a forced curve.

Then once I actually started working, I realized how easy I had it all along. Work is a million times tougher and more stressful than school ever was, and unlike school, now I don't get breaks to recover.

I was in a similar boat, though I was too lazy to do homework in HS and got a 3.4 GPA. I took that approach into college and my first semester I got a 2.6. From then on I busted my ass and it wasn't until my JR year that I got to a 3.2. Then I used a summer to make room for me to retake 2 classes from my crappy 1st semester and got my GPA to a 3.5 which is where I graduated. Seems funny now because GPA doesn't mean a thing, but at the time 3.5 was a cut off for some of the elite companies that I wanted to hire on with. That GPA got me the interviews for some jobs that I really wanted (and subsequently refused when I got the offer from my current company).

Long story short, I wish HS had challenged me more so I would have worked harder and been better prepared to go to college.
Dec 15, 2009 4:28pm
rookie_j70's avatar

rookie_j70

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677 posts
Dec 15, 2009 5:36 PM
high school no teach me very good.
Dec 15, 2009 5:36pm
Cleveland Buck's avatar

Cleveland Buck

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5,126 posts
Dec 15, 2009 6:48 PM
High school in the Cleveland Public School System was a waste of time. Then I made matters worse by not trying very hard in college either. Of course, during high school and college I was an idiot and borderline alcoholic.
Dec 15, 2009 6:48pm
hasbeen's avatar

hasbeen

Excuse me, Flo?

6,504 posts
Dec 15, 2009 7:29 PM
I thought HS was easy and carried a 3.5 GPA all throughout. I have gone to 3 small colleges and have been Deans List on all of them with a 3.6ish GPA. I can get work done when I need to.
Dec 15, 2009 7:29pm
bcubed's avatar

bcubed

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410 posts
Dec 15, 2009 7:42 PM
I went to high school as a freshman and the next thing I knew they woke me up and handed me a diploma!
Dec 15, 2009 7:42pm