From Quora: "How many clubs/advanced classes is too much for freshman year of high school? - I signed up for Accelerated Math l and Honors English for classes & 4 clubs. I’ve only taken normal classes before. I have high expectations & procrastination

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Here’s the rest of your question, reposted here, so I could see it while writing my response.


“My middle school doesn’t offer any advanced classes or clubs so I only did seven normal classes and I can manage straight A’s and have A LOT of free time. So I signed up for Accelerated Math l and Honors English while the other four classes (Biology, PE, GFSF (a college readiness class every freshman has to take), and a not yet assigned elective class) are normal. For clubs, I’m thinking of doing Band, Karebears, Academic Decathlon, and Future Business Leaders of America. Lets say I have procrastination issues and don’t have the best time management skills (although I can get things done on time right now). I am aiming for straight A’s but at the same time, I don’t want to kill my mental health. I don’t want to bite more than I can chew… would you say that I’m doing too much? If so, which ones would you recommend that I drop?”


It’s impossible for me to give you a completely accurate assessment of what you can or cannot do. Judging from what you told me, it sounds like you attend a middle school that isn’t too challenging (i.e., not a special school for high achievers or a school in a district where parents, teachers, etc., are extremely demanding), and your high school will probably also be the same.


So two honors classes shouldn’t be too much for you. It may be very hard -depending on how “accelerated” your math course is, and how demanding your English teacher is. It’s not likely, but English courses can be VERY difficult if the instructor chooses to make them so.


Math, well, it’s generally challenging for most people, since there’s only one right answer to a problem, and your instructor may not teach the math in the way that teaches you best. If you find you don’t understand something, don’t just sit there and think “Oh well;” ask the teacher to explain it again. If that doesn’t work, look for online math resources (literally Googling whatever you’re studying should bring up tons of free math help pages that will explain that topic in detail, using different methods). You’re lucky things like this are available to you - when I was in school, if a teacher couldn’t or wouldn’t teach in way you could understand, you either had to find someone else who could, or go look things up in library, which wasn’t open the best hours (As opposed to the Internet, which is 24/7).


Clubs can be hard, but many people join more than one club and get through them. You also can quit a club without consequences, generally speaking. But since I don’t know your particular school, etc., you should ask what happens if you quit a club before you join it. For example, band might be a graded school subject, so dropping out might affect your grades, class rank, etc. It can’t hurt to ask the club advisor, teacher associated with the club, guidance counselors, etc. before signing up.


In fact, that’s a good bet for this whole question you’ve asked - go ask the guidance counselors, the teachers, etc., if they think your workload will be too difficult. Find out what the deadline is for dropping courses you find too difficult or just don’t like. I don’t think it will be, but they actually work at, and probably attended, your future high school. Most of them will be happy to help you decide what courses/clubs in which to participate, and you probably shouldn’t take courses taken by teachers who aren’t happy to help you.


Good luck!