this is long and i sound like a baby, but im stressed, man. im scared. how on earth do you people cope with the sheer amount of stuff there is in a calm and effective manner, and actually do something with yourselves?? take now for example. im a sophomore. ap exams, i've got a ton of work to do for chem prep, I'm planning my summer, i want to read books, exercise, and learn more about college apps. i thought i had it figured out until this year i got two trimesters of Cs in ap chem whereas before i was a straight A student. i was super stretched thin, and this is the first time i've been able to think about extracurriculars. i've given this same rant to myself thousands of times, but with no answers. i reworked all of my extracurricular plans, and i have this giant whiteboard in my room filled with extracurriculars like ISEF and UCSD research internships that i've found interesting, yet i've found no time to look into. it stares at me every day like a sad reflection of my overwhelmedness, my being scatter brained, finding a hundred different things to pursue but not getting anywhere with any of them because, oh, i found them too late, or it's a huge multi step process to even get anywhere, which takes too much goddamn time and that's something i don't have. i feel like i should've gotten this figured out by 5th grade. it's really frustrating. MIT looks for quirky students who build stuff for fun. i wish i could build stuff for fun. you'd be surprised by the amount of stuff i haven't done than the stuff i have. i watch other kids intimidating maker portfolios in my free time, and i really don't think this is meant for me. there's no way, that that kid can build this spaceship with a remote controlled app, while balancing school, clubs, and eating and sleeping healthy and working out. i don't think it's meant for me if the competition does this stuff for fun. you don't have to just do this stuff, you've to do it and do well. at some point, do i just drop out, code an app, and sell it for millions? there's no way you expect me to do this stuff for fun and be quirky while balancing all of this stuff. it feels like every step of the way, i find a cool extracurricular, scroll through a bunch of youtube videos on it for an hours, realize it's way out of my league(because it needs a ridiculous amount of time:an application that's super competitive that needs awards I DONT HAVE because I'm a sophomore, bout to be a junior) and go back to my chem homework like a loser. what's even going on? i don't think this is meant for me. is this what "hard" really feels like? because i'm getting nothing done and i've got ap exams. do i focus on new stuff like isef? do i stick to some passion project ideas that could make me stand out in a maker portfolio? his can i stick to my own path when i don't have a path and the cliche routes to making one are way out of my league?

Hey everyone, I'm really struggling with AP Chemistry conventions and grading requirements at my competitive high school, and could use some advice. For context: I'm typically a straight-A student taking multiple APs. I understand the chemistry concepts well (was leading the class in atomic structure), but I'm getting destroyed by extremely specific formatting and documentation requirements. For example, I recently got a 9/30 on an FRQ where I would've scored 18/30 if I had just cited electron positions - something I didn't know was required. The main issues: - Teacher briefly mentions conventions during practice problems but doesn't provide a written guide - Practice problems are shown on her tablet and must be copied down in real-time - Requirements seem to be a mix of College Board and teacher-specific conventions - It's all-or-nothing grading - one missed convention can zero out an otherwise perfect answer - There's no clear way to know all the requirements since they're mentioned once or twice and we're expected to remember What's really frustrating is that other students seem to be handling this fine. I know people who barely study who are getting 120% on acid-base units, while I'm sitting at a 70% despite understanding the material. I ended up with a C last trimester. I've tried paying close attention in class and taking detailed notes, but there always seem to be new conventions I didn't know about. Currently struggling to find a way to systematically track and apply all these requirements. Has anyone else dealt with this? How did you handle learning and tracking all the specific formatting requirements for AP Chem? Any advice would be really appreciated.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I don't do much club stuff other than USACO, i tried robotics for some hands on experience but didn't like the people of the club nor the way it was managed, but I love building impactful passion projects on my own that have real world uses, like incontinence trackers that I built that I got a patent on. Does anybody know some prestigious submission based competitions or prestigious programs for someone like me? USACO totally gives me awards, but not with the same hands-on work and it's extremely hard to take part in because of the time requirement. I'm into both hardware and software, so passion projects give me an opportunity to do both without being forced into a team I dislike, like in Robotics.

Hey guys, I wanted to take calc BC through a community college. My problem is, that since taking it at CC already gives you college credit, my counselor said that there was no need at all to take the AP exam since it would be a waste of money(bc i would've already gotten college credit). However, I'm worried that if i do that, it'll look incomplete on a college app, or that some colleges will assume i did poorly or that i wasn't confident enough to take it even if i explicitly say i took it through community college. Is my counselor right or wrong? If he's wrong, why is he telling me to not take the AP exam if it wouldn't look good?

Hey guys i'm struggling in AP chem with a 69% and i only have one kinetics test plus 1-2 labs to be graded to pull my grade up to an 88(cuz then if i get a 4 on the AP exam ill get 2% boost so i can get an A) and right now I'm doing everything i can to fix all my bad habits that got me to this point. One of these is college board conventions, I hate them and they cost me every test and they're pretty ridiculous. Not only this but the only way i can find out about all of them is through my teacher, because i couldn't find anything online where it had a type of problem, and the conventions you must follow. Can anybody give me some good resources for college board conventions please?