As the 2014-2015 school year comes to a close, a new beginning also starts. Scheduling forms have been handed out in advisory and current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors have begun to look forward at the new school year ahead of them. Though some upperclassmen may seize the opportunity to have late start or early release, a majority of students will be signing up for 6 classes a day.

While this doesn’t seem like a big deal to some people, it can stress out others because of the constant multi-tasking. “Deciding which classes to prioritize is a little difficult because every teacher makes it seem like their class is the most important,” said Curtis Willett ‘15. This is especially a common theme for people taking multiple rigorous academic courses, but it also affects people who struggle with the regular classes.

Many students struggle with regular classes at AHS and if that applies to you, there are National Honor Society students readily available to tutor students in the mornings, at lunch, and after school. Stress effects all students, whether they take regular classes or more advanced ones. In order to compensate with the stress, “I prioritize the classes I struggle with first because they usually come with the most work. Then I turn to the classes that don’t assign as much homework so I can finish it faster,” said Emily Beaton ‘15.

Getting large projects or assignments out of the way first is helpful because then you can turn to the smaller assignments that are easier to do. Big projects are also worth more points and will affect your grade significantly, so it’s better to complete them and do them well rather than do small assignments, if you have to choose.

While scheduling classes for the next year, it is best that students don’t overwork themselves and sign up for classes they won’t be able to handle. If you are wanting to continue your education into college, you may want to start taking AP or advanced classes. Many kids who sign up for four or five advanced or AP classes end up having to drop some of them because the stress gets to be too much. Even though AP classes look good on a transcript, so do decent grades and activities. Loading up your schedule and not having time for anything else will hinder your community involvement and if you begin failing all the AP classes, you probably won’t be able to maintain a decent GPA.

Even if you’re thinking college isn’t really for you, you might think taking lots of easy electives and no college prep courses may be the easiest thing to do. However if you take those classes and then decide your senior year you want to go onto college, it probably won’t appeal to the admissions staff who is looking through your transcript. “I didn’t plan on going to a four year university so I didn’t take a math class my senior year. Then I ended up wanting to go to Western and luckily I had taken physics so I could count that as my math-quantitative. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t even have met the minimum requirements for admission,” said Faye Zeigler ‘15. Keeping all the options open in high school is a good thing to do just in case you change your mind.

While scheduling classes for the next year, remember to not overwork yourself and to not cut yourself short either. If you’re looking for keeping up with a rigorous schedule, one to three AP classes will keep you busy but you will also have time for other activities around the school. You can also earn college credits for taking those more advanced classes. On the contrary, if you’re looking for a more relaxed schedule, more CTE and art electives may be the classes for you.