I noticed in high school that, for many students, yearbooks are either something to get every single year, or not at all. Some students buy a yearbook no matter what, but others completely refuse every year. Students always are told, “you’ll want a yearbook to look back on!”, but being young it’s hard to actually decide if that’s true or worthwhile.

Why buy a yearbook?

Having a yearbook is a cool way to be able to look back on the year. Looking back at pictures of yourself and your friends at different points in your lives can be pretty fun, and a great way to reminisce.

Plus, having friends sign your yearbooks is always fun. It’s cool to see what people have to say about you.

Why not buy a yearbook?

The main reason that I can see is the cost. For many high schools, yearbooks can cost over $50, and some cost $100. Granted, you’re (usually) buying a quality album, but this is still a hefty price tag for many high school students.

Usually, there are ways to help cut the cost. Many schools will fluctuate the price of yearbooks — you may be able to buy it for less if you reserve it far in advance, or perhaps at the beginning of the next year, when there are leftover yearbooks the school is trying to get rid of.

For other students, yearbooks just generally aren’t appealing at the time, for whatever reason. I asked friends who didn’t buy yearbooks why they decided not to, and they said, “I hate high school and don’t want to remember it”, “It doesn’t seem worth it to me”, or even “I just don’t care”.

How about buying the yearbook my senior year?

Buying a yearbook for all four years of high school may be a bit unnecessary, but I would strongly recommend buying your yearbook in your senior year.

After your senior year, you’ll never most of your classmates again. Their autographs and pictures in your yearbook are as good of a way as any to remember the people you used to see every day. Plus, yearbooks usually focus primarily on the seniors, with large sections devoted to sports, clubs, senior sendoffs, and just general pictures of the leaving class. It’s the one year that the yearbook is most about you.

Whether or not you buy one is up to you (and if you can afford it), but I strongly recommend buying at least one yearbook while you’re in high school — and of course I recommend it being during your senior year. I would say the other three yearbooks are much more optional.

How much am I going to use my yearbook?

A yearbook isn’t something you’re going to casually look through several times a week, but rather something you stumble upon once every several years and take a glance through. You might open it to reminisce about high school, to try to remember that one kid’s name, or even to show your children what you were like when you were a pesky teenager.

I’ve been out of high school several years and I’ve glanced at my old yearbooks a few times — sometimes to see if I recognize a name, to see how old friends used to look, or to read some old autographs. I’ve seen roommates who brought their yearbooks to college, where the yearbooks were a great way to break the ice and to get to know each other better from the beginning. For me, my old yearbooks are a good way to occasionally revisit the better times of high school.

How do you feel about yearbooks?

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Your GPA is a fundamental part of your high school resume. As a number, it attempts to quickly show how solid of a student you are. Many scholarships will ask for your GPA, as well as some college applications.

“GPA” stands for “Grade Point Average”, which means that it averages out all of your grades.

How to calculate it:

First, take a look at your current or most recent grades. Each letter corresponds to a number:

• A: 4 points
• B: 3 points
• C: 2 points
• D: 1 point
• F: 0 points

The pluses and minuses typically do not matter in high school GPAs, but they do for college ones. So if you have a B-, just round it off to a B and give yourself 3 points.

For each class, figure out how many points each one is worth and add them all up.

Then, you divide by the number of classes you’re taking.

A sample GPA calculation:

Suppose I had an A in PE, a B+ in English, a C- in math, a B- in science, an A- in history, and a B in photo. Here’s how I would calculate my GPA:

• PE: an A is worth 4 points. I’m at 4 so far.
• English: a B+ rounds to a B, which is 3 points. I have 7.
• Math: a C- rounds to a C, which is 2 points. I have 9.
• Science: A B- rounds to a B, which is 3 points. I have 12 now.
• History: An A- rounds to an A, which is 4 points. I’m at 16.
• Photo: A B is worth 3 points. I now have 19 points total.

Since I’m taking six classes, I would divide those 19 total points by 6 to get my GPA: 3.17.

What about honors and AP classes?

Although high schools differ about how they handle this, typically most honors and AP classes give you an extra point for that class when calculating your GPA, provided you’re at least passing the class (C or better).

So, if you’re taking an honors/AP class and get a B in it, you get to add one point to the three that the B already gives you, giving you 4.

From my earlier example, let’s suppose that my English class, math, and history classes were all honors classes. Here is how I would calculate my GPA now:

• PE: My A is still worth 4.
• English: My B+ is worth 3, but it’s an honors class so it counts for 4
• Math: My C is worth 2, but it’s honors and becomes 3.
• Science: My B- is worth 3.
• History: My A- is worth 4, but I add one for honors and it’s now worth 5.
• Photo: My B is still worth 3.

Added up, they all add to 22. I still divide  by six, and now my GPA is a 3.66! As you can see, honors classes and AP classes greatly help your GPA if you pass them.

In this way, it’s possible to get above a 4.0 if you’re doing well enough and taking honors/AP classes, and it’s even possible to have a 5.0 if you pull off straight A’s in all top-level classes.

Not all schools use the same GPA system. Some schools use entirely different methods of summarizing grades, but for most schools, this method will work just fine.

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Graduation gifts can be tricky to decide on

If the student is going to college next year, anything that could be useful in college is a great choice, ranging from dorm accessories to entertainment. If the student is not attending college after graduating high school, anything that he or she could use otherwise would make a great gift.

I would also make sure that the student doesn’t have any of these beforehand… there’s nothing more awkward than giving a gift and finding out the person already has it!

Here are a few general areas to think of when deciding what to get:

• Money/Gift Certificates. Money is always useful, and so are gift certificates. Many graduates are saving up for something in particular or could use a little bit of money off the bat, making money very essential. However, if you feel that money is too impersonal, gift certificates are a great substitute. If the graduate is attending college, I recommend making sure that the store you’re buying a gift certificate to has a location near the school. Large retail stores are usually a good choice, as well as clothing stores and restaurants (make sure the graduate likes the store/restaurant first!).
• Electronic gizmos/gadgets. A new cell phone, an MP3 player, a new camera, and so forth. Nowadays, most graduates will have these in one form or another, but a newer (and nicer) one is always welcome.
• Items for moving out. If the student plans to move out and begin a life in the work force, anything that may help out would be great — furniture, dishware, and so forth. I recommend being sure the student plans to move out though, otherwise these items might be a bit odd. Students living in the dorms next year can use many items, and getting some for graduation will save a lot of hassle later on.
• Something related to his or her interests. If the graduate plays guitar regularly, perhaps a new guitar (or something connected to guitar). If the student is good with cars, something related to cars.
• Food. Everybody loves food! As a graduation gift, food should probably be more classy and fine foods — a box of Cheez-Its might be a bit odd.

If you’re in doubt, you could also ask his/her friends and family what they would recommend. Asking both, if possible, is always best — friends will usually have a good idea what the graduate will want, but family will know what he/she needs.

I also recommend walking around a large retail store like Wal-Mart or Target when looking for graduation presents. As you wander down the aisles, you’d be surprised what you might see that will click as a great gift idea.

In the end, graduation gifts don’t need to be drastically different than any other occasion (such as a birthday or Christmas). However, graduation gifts can have the added theme of “moving on in life”, giving you more choices than you normally would have.

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If you’re unsure whether or not to go to prom, you definitely should avoid feeling like you have to go. In the end the decision should be up to you, not to somebody else.

Is prom a huge life moment?

No. It’s not. Although with all the hype you might feel like prom is a big deal, the first week after prom will probably be the last that prom is a major conversation topic. By the time the next year starts, prom will be a distant memory for most people. Even in college, prom never really comes up — I believe in my first year at college, prom has come up maybe once or twice.

However, in the high school sense, it definitely is. Prom is the defining dance for your high school life, and so it’s definitely hyped up while you’re in high school. If you decide not to go, be prepared to explain yourself when your friends wonder why you’re not going. You also might feel a bit left out when people talk about prom.

But in the end, prom isn’t any different than any other high school outing — football games, homecoming, and so forth all fall into this same category. Think about any similar event you missed — how much do you regret it? That’s probably what you’d feel if you missed out on prom.

There’s a lot more pressure on girls about going to prom — who your date is, what you do, how your dress looks, and so forth. In deciding whether or not to go, just be ready to explain to everybody why you aren’t going. For guys, it’s typically about having fun, and making the decision as a guy is easier: will you have a good time?

I don’t have a date, otherwise I’d love to go.

Don’t let not having a date discourage you!

Guys, if you’re just too nervous to ask, try to find the confidence to ask a girl to prom. Girls, if you haven’t been asked and are feeling a bit down, it’s okay to ask a guy to prom — just make sure that he’s not going with anyone already! You can also go in a group with your friends.

No matter what gender you are, you can always go with a friend of the other gender — just make it clear when you ask him/her what your intentions are! Going as friends removes a lot of the other pressures of prom, and you two can still have a great time.

So should I go?

Do you think you’d be happy if you went? If you know yourself well enough to say with confidence that you wouldn’t enjoy it, then don’t go — save your money.

But don’t entirely rule it out — a lot of times your dread and anxiety about something (like prom) ends up being much worse than the real thing could ever be, and you miss out on a fun night.

Technorati Tags: prom, high school

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The other day I received a question about SAT practice books — which I used and how I prepared for the test.

It may be an expensive way to prepare, but I’ve always believed the best way to prepare for the SAT is to take it. Once you’ve taken it, you’ll have a good idea what to expect — what types of questions are on it, the typical time limits, and so forth. When you come back and take the test a second time, you’ll know much better what to expect and be far more prepared.

Personally, I didn’t use any SAT books — my original plan was to use the test as a practice, then buy a book, study that, and take the test again. However, I got lucky with my test and I was happy enough with the score not to bother retaking the SAT. In the end, I didn’t buy any book, I just “winged” the test and that managed to work out.

When it comes to which book is best, I haven’t experimented with too many. Nate at Debt-Free Scholar wrote a review of the 411 Sat Prep Series, which contains three books with help for the three areas: Math, Writing, and Reading. Based on this review, this series definitely looks like a solid contender.

I believe that using just about any book at all will help. Generally more reputable sources, like Princeton Review, will likely be more beneficial.

The key to preparing is to study your weak areas. If you’re solid at math, then you need to focus on reading and writing to make sure that you’re ready. Take as many practice tests as you can, and look closely at your results to try to find specific areas that need improvement. Study all questions — including the ones you got right — to learn what strategies have and have not worked for you.

One advantage to standardized testing is the multitude of practice tests. I found that practice tests are the best way to prepare for me, and since there are so many SAT practice tests online, it becomes very easy to quickly test yourself.

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Don't be afraid to ask a girl to prom

Having confidence is always the best way to handle any romantic affair — including asking a girl to prom. Being confident not only increases the likelihood of receiving a yes, it also will make it easier if she says no. However, confidence doesn’t come to everybody easily, and sometimes a push in the right direction can make a huge difference.

How are you going to ask?

If you’re trying to come up with a creative and cute idea to ask her to prom, that’s always a good choice, though I would only recommend it if you’re confident she’ll say yes (or don’t care if you get turned down). If you’re looking for cute ideas, I suggest you read my post that has some suggestions. I’m going to be assuming that you’re just going to walk up and ask her, however.

How to ask her

If you know the girl well, you can make small talk with her beforehand. If you’ve barely (or never) spoken to her, just launch into it. You don’t need a fancy lead-in — just be forward and ask, “Will you go to prom with me?” and go from there. I wouldn’t even recommend asking if she has a date already — if you ask her, “do you have a date yet?”, it’s pretty clear what you’re going to ask next. You might as well get it over with.

Don’t make asking any more complex then you have to. The more you think about it, the more nervous you will be. That said, there are some good tips to bear in mind:

Don’t put her on a pedestal.

No matter how attractive, smart, fun, or cute the girl is, don’t put her on a pedestal. She’s just a human being — like you, your family, and your friends. Do your best to avoid giving her too much status in your mind — this will make you far more nervous than you would be.

Imagine how a confident person would ask her

You don’t always have to be confident — sometimes faking it works just as well. Think to yourself how a confident person would ask her and keep that in the back of your mind while you’re talking to her.

Do not rehearse it in your mind.

This is a huge deal. If you’re trying to script out what you’re going to say, don’t. When you talk, it will sound very scripted and rehearsed. There’s also no way you can predict what she’s going to say, so you may become flustered if she says something you don’t expect. If you start to feel your mind wandering down the road of rehearsing the situation, stop it. You’ll do much better if you handle the situation in the moment.

Give yourself a challenge

This sounds a bit contradictory — why would you want to make it harder?

When giving presentations in class, I learned that I can feel less nervous if I try to do something above and beyond — maybe focusing on looking around a lot, or on my tone of voice. By making it harder for myself, I gained confidence because I knew it takes confidence to do what I was doing.

How can you apply this to asking a girl to prom? Maybe ask her while she’s with her friends instead of trying to approach her when she’s alone. Approaching her in front of her friends takes far more guts,  but it takes confidence to do it. That knowledge may help you feel more assured about asking her. It will also earn you brownie points because you’re asking in front of her friends.

If you’re not a confident person, then asking a girl is very nerve-racking, but it’s far from impossible. Do you have any tips that worked for you?

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Sure, school fights rarely involve karate, they draw a lot of attention from everybody.

On the administration’s end, fights are a nightmare. Having to break them up, deal with the students involved, and prevent further fights is definitely a nuisance, and so schools do their best to prevent fights.

A really common method to prevent fights is the “no tolerance” policy: if you are in a fight, you are going to be suspended, no matter what. Over the last ten years, this policy has caught on strongly. But is it fair, and does it really solve problems? I’ve never been convinced.

The flaws the schools don’t realize

No matter what the circumstances leading up to the fight are, all involved members are going to receive the same punishment. This works out well if both parties are the leading cause, but what if you are jumped by a group of people? What if you did nothing to instigate the fight, but suddenly find yourself in a situation? In theory, the only way to avoid punishment is to let the others beat the crap out of you until help comes. Never mind that you did nothing to bring this on yourself — you’re going to be suspended. Some schools allow you to defend yourself, but typically their idea of “self defense” kicks in after you’ve been punched around a few times, by which time the fight could already be over.

Backing out of fights, like schools wants you to do, is a great way to lose face and ruin your reputation. If someone challenges you to a fight to resolve an issue and you back down out of fear of punishment, then you will have to deal with mock and ridicule over it for a while. Sure, reputations aren’t everything, but I know most people would rather choose a week of suspension over being ridiculed for the rest of high school. Backing down could also encourage people to antagonize you further because they know you won’t fight back. Stories with morals always encourage kids to stand up for themselves, but schools expect you to back down and tell a teacher. Many parents — my own included — are accepting if you get in a fight to defend yourself rather than back down and let people walk over you.

Fights can also solve problems. Once, I was in a long feud with a friend of mine — we were always at each other’s throats with insults and stupid bickering, until one day we were about to fight. The fight got broken up, but for some reason we were just able to drop the drama and get over it. We became friends again. Some times (for guys especially), fighting is the best and final solution to tension, and after the fight, life goes back to normal. Delaying or avoiding a fight can prolong the tension.

Lastly, discouraging fights on campus only encourages them to happen off campus. Fights off-campus will go on a lot longer before being stopped, and weapons are more likely to be drawn off campus as well. At least on campus, administrators can come break it up before things get severely out of hand. Just because schools prevent a fight from occurring on campus doesn’t mean the fight won’t occur at all.

How should fights be punished?

I do believe that there are many times when both parties should be punished equally, but that’s definitely not true in all cases. The no-tolerance policy makes fights a black-and-white issue when in reality there’s always a lot of gray. Punishments need to be based on the context of the situation, and both sides need to be heard. A student who is jumped or is defending his or herself should not be punished nearly as severely as a student who antagonizes others.

What’s your opinion on school fights and punishments?

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A lot can depend on the classes you take — the choices you make for next year could affect what you can take in the years after that, they could affect how appealing you look to colleges, and they could help determine what field you’d like to (or not like to) have a career in.

So where do you begin in deciding? I recommend starting with a course catalog, if you can find one from your school.

Once you have a course catalog, hunt through it and make a list of classes you think would be interesting and classes you think you should take (for whatever reason — to look good for college, to fulfill graduation requirements, etc). Only add classes you can get into — don’t bother with classes that you don’t meet the requirements for.

After you’ve made a list, try to narrow it down. Cross out the classes that you know aren’t a good choice. Start by asking yourself these questions:

1. Will this class look good for college? Is the class an academic class? Typically, math, science, English, foreign language, and social studies classes are the ones that will appear best, with an emphasis on the first three. Take honors/AP classes where you can.
2. Does it fulfill any requirement? Each high school has its own unique graduation requirements, and many colleges have admission requirements as well (the UCs/CSUs rely on the A-G requirements). Obviously, if you already met the requirement, this won’t be important.
3. Is this something I’m considering a career in? If you’re considering a career in a certain field or an interest, I strongly recommend taking a class in high school if possible to get an idea what you think of it. It’s better to find out early on in high school that you don’t like a subject than the middle of your senior year in college.

As fun as electives can be, I strongly recommend avoiding taking too many if you’re planning on going to college. It’s fine to take one elective (or maybe two if you have the space in your schedule) in a year, but taking three or four is going to reflect poorly on you, unless you’re taking the classes to fulfill a requirement. Instead of taking a bunch of electives, aim instead to choose the electives that sound the most interesting to you.

If you can’t decide whether you should take a difficult honors/AP class or not, I recommend signing up for it now. It’s much easier to switch out of a higher-level class into an easier one than to switch the other way. You’ll have an easier time fitting a different class into your schedule, and less willpower is required to drop out of a hard class than to switch into one.

If you’re unsure about your schedule, talk to your parents or see a school counsellor about it to get a few second opinions. You’ll be glad you did.

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Finding a cute way to ask a girl to prom is always fun

So you’ve decided who you would like to go to prom with, and now you’re unsure of how to ask that girl. It’s fun to ask people in cute ways, rather than just “hey wanna go to prom with me?”, but that’s not always the best choice.

When deciding how you should ask a girl, you should first know the answers to these questions:

1. How well do I know this girl? How well does she know me?
2. Would she expect me to ask her to prom?
3. Is she likely to say yes?

Sometimes the answers are obvious — if you’re wondering how to ask your girlfriend, all three will be pretty obvious. Others you may have to take a guess on.

Should I ask in a cute way?

If you think the girl is likely to say yes, then I definitely recommend this. Sure, you could just walk up and ask, but asking a girl in a cute way will make it memorable for the both of you, and you’re going to love her reaction. There’s no need to go overboard in how much time or money you spend on this, but putting at least a little effort into it is definitely worth it.

Some guys may give you a bit of flak for doing more than just asking, but in the end, their dates will be jealous that they didn’t receive the same treatment.

However, if the girl is likely to say no (for whatever reason), I would recommend against it. If you go to great lengths just to ask, and then she says no, you’re going to feel worse than you otherwise would because of the lengths you went to. If your hopes aren’t high, then your best choice is just to simply approach her and ask.

What are some tips for asking her in a cute way?

1. Do something original. A lot of people ask in pretty similar ways — flowers and a letter asking were pretty common in high school.
2. Make sure she first finds out in front of her friends. This is a biggie — if you surprise her in front of her friends or she finds the question while around her friends, this is huge and earns you a lot of brownie points.
3. Give her something to do. Make her do something in order to find (or answer) the question — whether it’s as simple as turning around or as extravagant as a treasure hunt, do something to incite her curiosity and make her work to find the question. Nothing too difficult or too involved, but a small task could definitely be fun.
4. Personalize it. If you know she’s really into some hobby, style of music, or TV show, try to find a way to incorporate that in somehow. Just make sure that she’s either pretty clear about her interest in something or that she’s mentioned it to you before — otherwise this could come across as a bit creepy.

Do you have any examples?

Of course. Here are a few ideas I’ve heard of. Not all of these fulfill the above requirements, but they’re still good ideas:

1. Write “will you go to prom with me?” on a small piece of cloth in sharpie, and then color the rest in with washable marker. Give it to a girl and tell her to run it through the laundry.
2. Tape the note on a remote control car, and at lunch drive the car up to where she’s standing.
3. Write it out on her lawn with forks
4. Put a string leading from her locker with  notes gradually asking each word: “will”, “you”, “go”, “to”, “prom”, “with”, “me”, and approach her as she reads “me”.
5. Make a shirt asking “will you go to prom with me?” and below it write both “yes” and “no”. Give her the shirt and a sharpie so that she can circle her answer
6. Use PostIt notes to cover her car/locker/something with stickies, each saying “Will you go to prom with me?”
7. Get some friends to sing a song with you asking her to prom. Props if it’s one of her favorite songs or you write it yourself.

What if she’s my girlfriend?

If she’s your girlfriend, it’s pretty understood that you guys will go to prom together, but you could still make her day by asking her in some cute way. And plus, you don’t have to worry about rejection!

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You can’t do a whole lot to prevent the first two, but you can definitely avoid the first one by making sure you ask early enough.

A tough choice comes in trying to figure out when to actually pop the question. If you ask too early, it may seem a bit weird or even be too early for the other person to even consider it. Asking too late runs the risk that he or she may already have a date.

So when is the best time to ask?

Typically, people started asking for prom around February and March. Since our prom was the first weekend of May, that meant people were asking about two to three months in advance.

I wouldn’t recommend asking anytime before January, under any circumstances. Before winter break, prom definitely seems very far off and many haven’t even given it much thought by then. If you ask then, chances are the person you’re asking will be caught off-guard and not be able to give you a full decision. If it takes you a lot of courage to ask, then you’re going to put yourself on the line and not get a definite answer either way, which won’t help you out much.

As for asking late, it’s not unusual for people to be asking others within a week of the prom, but it’s best not to do that. Give your date some heads up so that the both of you can have a pretty smooth plan by the time prom rolls around. You also really run the risk that the other person will already have a date, which is never fun to find out.

Honestly, Valentine’s Day isn’t a bad day to ask if you’re confident that the other person will say yes, especially if you’re asking a girl. Valentine’s Day presents you with a clear opportunity to do something sweet/cute that will make the other person feel good, helping you get that yes you want to hear.

I ended up asking in late February, which was earlier than probably about 75% of people, which is probably about where you’d like to be.

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