With a new year and a new semester starting, it’s common for people to create new goals to achieve this year, such as reading a certain amount of books, losing weight, getting better grades and attending office hours, or getting on a sports team.

Goals for the year set a base of what you want to complete and are an excellent way to track personal achievements.

Angelina Gannon, a freshman, has an organized set of goals for this semester. 

“I would spend more time studying Biology  and Math,” Gannon said. “Also, getting my assignments turned in on time.” 

Besides those two main goals, she also plans on prioritizing more and lessening the amount of procrastination compared to last semester. Things that affected her and her performance the previous semester made her less and less motivated by the end of the year. This hurt her academics, and she saw a drop in her grades and test scores which piled on and affected her mental health. With everything seeming very negative, it’s hard to climb out of an unmotivating and seemingly gray hole. 

Everyone usually hears happy endings on how people have achieved and surpassed their goals. Still, sometimes things take more time, and recognizing and becoming a better side of yourself is more important. Unfortunately, she couldn’t complete the goals she had set for 2022. However, towards the end of the year, she was able to work more on herself and school by creating a schedule and study methods in ways that helped her.  

“For this semester, I want all A’s. I don’t care about the class because I’m capable of that in any class,” Gannon said. “As well as not procrastinating and prioritizing, which goes with all my goals and asking for extra help and staying for office hours.”  

By prioritizing, she means getting all her work done before relaxing or doing anything besides schoolwork. For example, she is getting into the habit of completing schoolwork before putting in a show or reading. Breaks are needed and perfectly okay, but getting all your work done before is essential.

Ella Lynn, a seventh grader, has similar goals this upcoming year, such as getting all A’s and B’s. 

“I did all the retakes I could that could help my grade and study,” Lynn said. “I’ll definitely continue studying with friends, like working together and having fun.” 

Last semester she achieved her goal of having a successful first semester with all A’s and B’s, staying out of drama, and not doing anything reckless. Academically, she thinks her goals are realistic to her past grades and in-school performance because she is already an A-B honor roll student. Even if she weren’t and still wanted to achieve a passing grade, it would still be possible if you were willing to do the work. 

Brock Millette, a freshman, was able to explain his main struggles last year instead of just saying the highlights of the year. This allows us to realize improvements in our actions and performance, pushing ourselves to do better. 

“Last year went okay; the last half of the first semester wasn’t the best. I struggled a bit,” he said. “I would like not to miss multiple days of school because that really set me behind.”

Many people talk more about how not participating in class discussions or procrastinating assignments sets them behind; however, missing school is a significant factor in it as well. When you miss school, you’re missing out on meaningful discussions related to the subject, extra help, and overall understanding of the topic well.

A common goal for most students at the Prep is to study more this semester. Some students have realized that once they stopped trying in school and studying less and less, they noticed a decline in their grades and an understatement of the unit. It is a good idea to make goals close to your current achievements to push yourself enough to surpass them but not too extreme to be overwhelming.