Studying Independently in High School - How Much Time?

[IDValour]

Hi, I'm currently in high-school and looking to study independently, but am unsure how long I should spend doing this a week. Currently I spend about 35 hours in school per week (9 till 4, Mon to Fri) with about an hour of travel time. Of this time in school about 23 hours is spent in lessons. I further get about an hour of homework each night for a total of 28 hours of school allocated study. Thus I have all of the weekend and evenings from about 5 onward to play with. I know in University they suggest spending about 40 hours a week studying so would 12 hours of independent study per week be reasonable? A little more? a little less? My upper bound would be 18 hours and I don't really wish to spend less than 10. I like to relax from about 11 on so past that time is probably off-limits. Also, taking into account other commitments, I have decided to spend about 8 hours over the course of the weekend studying. Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I also wish to study for about 2 hours on each, bringing me to the 12 hours I suggested. My question hence boils down to should I allocate some extra time on Monday/Thursday/Friday to be more productive, if so how much, or does the schedule I have drawn up sound reasonable? If you feel I would be well-advised to do so I can even make the weekend up to 10 hours, but it would be a tight squeeze. May I further ask any of you who studied independently whilst in high-school about how much time you spent doing so?
Many thanks :)

 

[CalcNerd]

You currently have a very good and ambitious schedule.

Not sure if you need to tweak anything. There is more to life than textbooks. Are you looking to study a new subject entirely? Then pick something interesting. Or perhaps you should look at a hobby that can help you ie perhaps building RC cars or some other interest that will hone other skills.

How are you doing in school? Are you just maintaining B's or are you a solid straight A student (I don't expect you to answer us)? If you are just maintaining B's, then yes, you should consider how you study (you may not be studying efficiently) and possibly consider extra study.

If you are a solid A student (which I suspect to be the case), perhaps you should really consider backing off a bit and picking up a hobby or do something more than just acquiring book knowledge.

 

[IDValour]

Currently I do get all top grades. I was intending to do extra study not to further school work but rather to extend myself outside of the curriculum by practising for Olympiads and the like. I intend to apply to Cambridge for maths in the not so distant future and as such I feel doing things such as STEP papers and their ilk would help me.