What is too much or not enough? This is one of life’s great mysteries, one which we must answer ourselves, as we plan our schedules for next year. 

As sophomores head into junior year, they’re here to offer some advice from our two years of stress, schedules, and surviving through sophomore year. When asked the do’s and don’ts of finalizing that infamous programming paper, there was much to be said. 

Sophomore Anabelle Gantman said, “Pace yourself. Taking as many APs as possible may not be the best thing to do.” 

To know your personal strengths and weaknesses is the key to strategizing how much you can handle. A heavy course load can be just as detrimental to your GPA and transcript as a course load that is too easy. Piling on APs and honors courses just for the heck of it will, more often than not, lead to an overwhelming year, and this contradicts the very objective of high school. 

Sophomore Tova Petty advised, “Join some extracurriculars that interest you. Join marching band!”

“I’m planning my schedule to accommodate my interests and subjects I plan to pursue in the future,” said sophomore Chazmin Tho. “I suggest that underclassmen have a good understanding of their future schedules of their high school career and make changes on those schedules along the way as time progresses. Also, honors and AP classes are not subjects to be loaded on, especially if students do not believe they could handle it. They will not benefit you, if you do not excel and progressively improve in those subjects.” 

Terry Doran of The Berkeley School Board captured the very essence of our four years of schooling when he wrote, “The purpose of high school, I believe, is to prepare students for a meaningful life in the 21st century; to be a good citizen, economically self-sufficient and respectful of themselves and others. There are many paths to self-fulfillment and a productive, meaningful life.”

As for me, I leave you with my own advice: plan your coming year according to your dreams. High school is a time for us to try new things–things we never thought we could do before but have always sparked our interest. These are the years to show colleges that we learned something and reached our potential in every aspect of our lives. High school is the time to discover our interests and pursue them.