High school years are the best years of your life

[PWiz]

@zoki85 I don't really remember, I think it was some Achievers test, some 30-40 thousand students participated. I didn't quite believe them when they rang me up to tell me I got the 3rd position.
With some of the common sense mistakes I make, people often think I'm a dumb kid at first. That's how it was when high school started and it was bothering that I was treated like someone really unintelligent. After I got an A+ in nearly every test for the first semester, they started calling me a nerd. Had to play my electric guitar at the school concert to make them quiet.
Everyone's always judging you, no matter how good or bad you are. In fact, I feel it's worse at the top - you ask one silly question and all of them are onto you. "Mate how could you ask that?" or "Is the genius starting to get out of touch?"

 

[zoki85]

@zoki85 I don't really remember, I think it was some Achievers test, some 30-40 thousand students participated. I didn't quite believe them when they rang me up to tell me I got the 3rd position.

Was it in form of SAT (but adjusted for younger age) or something different?

 

[PWiz]

@zoki85 Nope, they were full throttle structured questions asking about mid-level calculus(basic anti derivatives and integrals), some logarithms, trigonometry, thermodynamics, wave diffraction theories, quantum electronic configurations, and some organic Chem with alcohols and carbonyl groups. The portion looks kind of outrageous for a 10th grader, but when I compare it with questions of the same topics that you encounter in higher grades, the difficulty level was a little toned down.

 

[zoki85]

@zoki85 Nope, they were full throttle structured questions asking about mid-level calculus(basic anti derivatives and integrals), some logarithms, trigonometry, thermodynamics, wave diffraction theories, quantum electronic configurations, and some organic Chem with alcohols and carbonyl groups. The portion looks kind of outrageous for a 10th grader, but when I compare it with questions of the same topics that you encounter in higher grades, the difficulty level was a little toned down.

Well, test with calculus questions for 10th graders sounds really weird to me. For example, I've started to learn fundamentals of calculus in 12th grade. I know school systems differ from country to country but still...

 

[PWiz]

Wait, so will my Freshman year be a breeze for me?

 

[zoki85]

Wait, so will my Freshman year be a breeze for me?

Well, if 10th grade in your school is calculus then 12th grade is must be differential geometry

 

[PWiz]

Well, if 10th grade in your school is calculus then 12th grade is must be differential geometry

Well I never really said that calculus was 10th grade stuff. I mean it was a competitive test, so the syllabus had to be a notch higher than what is normally taught. My class started learning basic calculus in 11th, and if I flip to the last few topics in my 12th grade book, I find topics like complex numbers in polar form, differential equations with separate variables and parametric equations. (I honestly don't have a clue to what they could mean right now but hopefully things will clear up when we reach there :P )

 

[Astronuc]

The high school years for me were more or less fine. I had a few close friends.

The best years were the undergraduate years of college. I was studying advanced courses (compared to HS), working to pay for college with enough left over for doing interesting things, and living on my own or with friends. I was more or less free of debt, which is a nice feeling.

I just wish I knew then what I know now. I would have done some things differently, like visit the Karakorum, and do a double major in physics and nuclear engineering.

 

[WineRedPsy]

I hope it's not true.

 

[phinds]

I hope it's not true.

It will only true if you allow it to be true and vegetate the rest of your life. Your choice.

 

[BobG]

High school wasn't that great for me. I almost attended my high school class's 30 year reunion. The reason I didn't? One member set up a website a few months before the reunion and I realized I really didn't have very many friends in my high school.

Of the entire class, there were maybe five or six I'd really like to see again. I was friends with the guys on my cross country team - we ran an average of 100 miles a week together in the summer, so we were pretty close. There were exactly three friends outside the cross country team I wish I could see again.

On the other hand, I really wish I could see the kids I worked together with at the ice cream parlor. We came from several different high schools, so it was separate from the normal high school environment. We actually accomplished things together (even if just surviving incredibly busy summer Sunday nights) and we had lots of after work parties (especially in the summer). That gang was my real social circle and the best friends I ever had when I was in high school.

While my closest friends were people I actually accomplished difficult things with (running cross country and working a job), I also learned something else: it's pretty darn hard to find time for school work if you're both running a 100 miles a week and working a "part time" job that just barely met the definition of part time. I did a lot better in college courses when the only outside distractor I had was a job.

 

[RonL]

I hope it's not true.

As phinds said, it's your choice.
My high school years were good, but at 72 and counting, the years have continued to get better (each and every one):D

 

[nuuskur]

ehm, can't agree with that. Of course, we then have to agree on what is considered "best time of your life". How can one even know if that's the best time, if life goes on? :P Do people go to work every day thinking: nothing as good will ever happen again?
It was just high school, getting hammered might have been a good time by my standards back then.

Perspective differs, of course. I am 24 :D

 

[edward]

As phinds said, it's your choice.
My high school years were good, but at 72 and counting, the years have continued to get better (each and every one):D

I notice the same thing, as I age I am enjoying life more, then again I may be in my second childhood. :D I attended a small town school with fantastic teachers. My high school years were great for me. I even spent six years in the high school band.

I remember during my Junior year and the band was rehearsing the Nutcracker. After about the sixth time of repeating the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, and when the music was very quiet; like at about ten of fifteen seconds in:



I couldn't hold it back any longer and I turned loose my best version of "Tarzan King of the Apes."



There was total silence...and then everyone laughed including the band leader. I never have figured out why I did that.

 

[Bandersnatch]

Everyone's always judging you

This perception, combined with the propensity for making stupid decisions, is the core of what I now think of as the secondary school experience.

I sometimes think fondly of all the drama and randomness, but only in the sense I might think fondly of the idea of swinging on lianas when I visit the zoo. I'd rather not go back to that time.

 

[WWGD]

ehm, can't agree with that. Of course, we then have to agree on what is considered "best time of your life". How can one even know if that's the best time, if life goes on? :P Do people go to work every day thinking: nothing as good will ever happen again?
It was just high school, getting hammered might have been a good time by my standards back then.

Perspective differs, of course. I am 24 :D

That reminds me of this comedian saying that he was in his best shape ever when he was 1, and everyone would tell him, "hey, you look like you're zero".