Ahhhh, the year where you’re about to enter an age where learning really matters. At this point, you have to do really well in school or else you won't make it to high school. But I'm going to let you in a little secret; it’s really not that difficult. You have been improving and learning up to this point in your life so really it’s just like any other grade. Some people freak out about 8th grade but you should really just do what you have done every year to get by. You have done so much and everything you have done has brought you to this point, so do your best. Focus on your goals, and you'll definitely pass 8th grade. You can't relax too much. This is still your big year where you graduate middle school and enter high school, so I'm going to give you some tips. I’m an 8th grade student who will enlighten you on how to survive the year.

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The thing I would tell people to survive not only 8th grade but actually any grade is to be confident in yourself, I have seen some people create really great work when they were motivated a little and that actually jump started their creativity. So you need to be confident that you can actually do this work or else you will doubt yourself and you will just fail because you didn't believe in yourself,  that you can actually do this work. So practice this skill. This will not only just help you do your work but will also enhance some of your other skills like public speaking, when you are going to present some projects and you need to explain to the whole class confidence is a big part to presenting. When you’re confident you speak better and you are better at explaining the topic you are presenting. You also don't stutter a lot and you have good body language. So please be confident in yourself, your talents, skills, and overall abilities.

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You probably have heard this multiple times already but you really need to practice every weekend, if not everyday or as much as possible. You probably have heard this phrase, "Practice makes perfect." I can't express how true this statement is because I always practice my subjects every other day. This was most likely because of my parents but it really was worth it and it paid off in the end. Keep reviewing at your old notes and trust me you will do so much better with your test and homework. You will feel like a prodigy and feel good about yourself because you have practiced and you knew what you were doing and so everything should be simple. Practicing will help you complete your assignment a lot faster, I learned that when I started practicing. I do so much better at my test and my grades stayed being A's and everything was better.

 

These are just a couple of tips to really get you through these years but the most IMPORTANT skill you must learn is to have fun. Now when I mean have fun, I don’t mean play games while the teachers not looking because that's is wrong and you know you’re not supposed to. What I mean by fun is for you have have fun learning and engaging with that subject because that will only make your year better. The thing that I enjoyed the most during my stay at adventure was all the collaborating I did with my classmates and that really helped me enhance my skills at working with other people. This also leads you to making some great friends who you know you can depend on, overall having to work with you classmates to reach a goal together is really fun because you really get to know each other as well as learn each other's skill sets and make the best product.

 

Now something about Adventure that I would like to discuss are some things that I would like to do differently if I could go back to the beginning of the year is that I would like to do a lot better at asking my peers or my classmates for help or teachers for help on assignments. I would always keep doing things and find things on my own because I am frequently have questions but I am sometimes too shy, so I that's what I want to change. The most difficult part of this year for me was trying to keep my straight A and keep my 4.0 average because I am trying to become a valedictorian since this is the grade level where you can become one so trying to keep this grade point average for two years straight gets harder and harder every term. Some things that I think teachers could have done are doing more projects where we can go outside because I think students would like to work with the outside world. So these are just the few things that you can do to survive the 8th grade. Remember to keep these tips and tricks to survive and take my word for it, coming from an 8th grader like me.