Did/Does High School Challenge You?

• se-alum

  

  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??
• darbypitcher22

  

  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
• LJ

  

  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.
• ZWICK 4 PREZ

  

  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.
• thedynasty1998

  

  Yes, I though HS was more challenging than college.
• captvern

  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.
• fan_from_texas

  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.
• LJ

  

  Hmm, I was quite the opposite my first year of college, as I carried a 3.8 GPA that first year.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  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?
• Heretic

  

  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.
• McFly1955

  

  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.
• slide22

  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.
• Fab4Runner

  

  No, not at all.
• Mr. 300

  

  How am I supposed to remember back that far????
• sleeper

  

  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.
• gerb131

  

  No. I did what I had to do and enjoyed the rest of the time.
• mattinctown

  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.
• krambman

  

  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.
• Quint

  

  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.
• swamisez

  

  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.
• j_crazy

  

  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.
• rookie_j70

  

  high school no teach me very good.
• Cleveland Buck

  

  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.
• hasbeen

  

  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.
• bcubed

  

  I went to high school as a freshman and the next thing I knew they woke me up and handed me a diploma!