10th GRADE
10th grade—Summer:
With the first year of high school behind you, hopefully you’re feeling a little more settled and confident. Don’t worry if your grades aren’t perfect—just make sure you show real effort that you’re working on improving them.
Take some time and reflect:
What went well this past year?
What do you want to do differently in the fall?
What is one thing you can do to ensure a fulfilling summer?
Make sure you take time to recharge. Spend time with friends and family, relax, and if you’re up for it—pursue something you find interesting. That might mean volunteering with a local organization or summer camp, taking online courses, or diving into a personal project. Think about how you can build on your current passions and expand your skills and experiences. Don’t try and pack everything into the summer, but grow in ways that feel right to you.
10th Grade—Fall
This year your focus should be on being good at school. Hopefully you’ve built some solid foundations in organization and time management—they will be essential going forward to ensure that you’re not overwhelmed by your classes. If you’re still not there yet—now is the best time to start. Courses are getting more serious this year, and good study habits will be essential once you start taking more advanced classes next year.
Reference the goals you made over summer to ground yourself, and try to push yourself to engage more actively in your classes: participate, ask questions, and don’t be afraid to seek out help. Grades will start to matter more from here, so focus on keeping them up. If you have not yet already, join a school organization. If you have, seek out ways to get more involved—understand the inner workings of the organization’s leadership and see how you might be able to learn more. If you haven’t found anything that really excites you—then take matters into your own hands and start your own club.
Advanced students can look into preparing for the SAT and ACT, perhaps through taking the PSAT or seeing how you do on some practice tests. If you’ve started a passion project, keep developing it and explore ways to integrate it more deeply into your community and interests. If you are feeling extra motivated, apply for some competitions and take a look at summer programs for 10th graders. These opportunities can help you better define and explore your interests more deeply.
10th Grade—Spring:
Hopefully you’ve had a chance to rest and reflect over winter break! As you ease into the second half of the year, keep focusing on being good at school: keep your grades up, participate in classes, get to know your teachers, and stay active in clubs and organizations that are important to you. If you’re doing well already, think about giving back to the community by staying after class to help tutor a student or otherwise volunteer your services. But just as importantly—take time to check in with yourself. Do your activities and classes really energize you? Is there something else that you’d rather be doing? These questions can help recallibrate your next steps—and don’t be afraid to quit and try something new. If anything, now is the best time to do this.
Course selection for 11th grade is coming up. Aim for classes that are challenging but also interesting to you. You don’t need to fill your schedule with every advanced class available to you. Rather, use that extra time to explore your interests in more meaningful, self-directed ways. If you haven’t already, look into exploring summer programs or pursuing another meaningful activity this summer—whether that is volunteering, interning, doing research, test prep, or diving deeper into your own hobbies or interests. If you’re not sure how to develop your ideas or launch projects further—reach out to Path Mentors to guide you through how to take your interests to the next level.