productivity during summer Answered
Summer is coming soon and I want to be productive during the break. I am also going to be a Freshman in high school this fall so I am pretty early in terms of thinking about college but I really want to avoid being stressed and rushed in the future during junior and senior years. I just wanted to know if there was anything important that I should be doing at this time such as volunteering or joining teams/clubs or should I just work on some basic SAT prep and some hobbies such as playing the piano or drawing.
tl;dr - I am going to be a freshman in high school in the fall and what should I be doing this summer break?
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4 answers
You are very early, I think that SAT/ACT scores are technically ~valid~ for 5 years but I also heard somewhere that the absolute earliest that they wouldn't raise eyebrows is late sophomore year/ early junior year. You can do prep and maybe go for the PSAT and PreACT and get the bulk of prep done now if you want. Some prep resources that I recommend: SAT/ACT Black Book by Mike Barrett is a really good widespread introduction with a lot of walkthroughs with real practice tests, SAT/ACT Reading by Erica Meltzer is the best resource there if you still aren't pulling what you want after those books, and College Panda is the best book resource for math if your score isn't where you want it to be.
Consider trying summer courses at a local community college if your school offers it or try to start figuring out a skeletal map for what you want activity-wise in high school. You can look into volunteer hours, what classes are offered, what extracurriculars you want to excel in, etc...
But for right now, try to not stress too hard- I know that it's easier said than done. Seriously though, enjoy your time while you don't know exactly what to do and not being able to stress, the rest will come soon enough.
Kudos to you for thinking ahead! Like @crazyblob said, there isn't a whole lot to be doing your freshman year, so try to develop your interests! What do you like to do? How do you like spending your free time? What do you like studying in school? Thinking about these early can save some headaches later, but don't stress to much, lots of people don't know what they want to do until their sophomore year of college!
Maybe join a team or club if you're interested, but don't get too involved unless you KNOW you're ready to commit to them. I was on a robotics team my freshman and sophomore years in highschool and got super into it, it literally ate up all my free time. Only to decide later in my junior year that I wanted to pursue medicine as a career. Now I have this EC that doesn't really align with my path and I had to basically start over with EC's. So, unless you're ready to commit, don't start anything major until maybe the end of your sophomore year.
If you really want a head start on it, use the Khan Academy SAT practice for the topics you've already learned.
Lastly, try to enjoy the highschool experience!
Good luck this year!
imo I would do your best to find your interest, so later on in HS you can develop them further and obtain notable achievements. If that means playing the piano or drawing, then I would pursue that.
Same thing applies with volunteering and joining clubs/teams. I'm not sure what clubs/teams you could be doing right now as a rising Freshman, but just keep in mind that you'll want to do the same thing as you would with your hobbies and interest, snowballing your development in these in order to get notable achievements. I imagine you could try to do some volunteering over the summer to get a head start on that.
Unless you're trying to get some PSAT merit scholarships, I don't think it would be worth practicing for the PSAT/SAT, unless you think you're capable of doing so. Also, keep in mind that some colleges want to see SAT scores that are more relevant, so about 2 years from when you're applying.
Anyways, it's good that you're thinking ahead, and continuously doing so will get you far! Good luck.
Edit: some grammatical stuff.
you should try to find your interest when you’ve found it e.g law you can do many internships and out of school activities to link to it such as internships, summer programs, fundraising, setting up a non profit, founding a club
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