Dear Heidi,
I heard that first quarter grades are coming out next week, and I’m really nervous. Do you have any suggestions for how to deal with it?
Sincerely,
RIP my GPA
Dear RIP my GPA,
I know exactly where you’re coming from. Even as someone who has officially gone through 13 quarters at the Hockaday Upper School, I still find myself shaking as I open up the MyBackpack page in search of my death sentence (aka my report card).
Something about grades seems to paralyze us, making us cringe in fear at the thought of having our overall GPA plummet. But, I’m going to be completely frank with you. And in doing so, I am not going to tell you to not worry or not care about how you’re doing in school because you definitely should. Grades are important for the future. And thus, it’s normal to want to do well in school.
That being said, there is a fine line between being concerned and being overstressed. I’m not sure if this will increase or alleviate your stress, but try to take comfort in the fact that it is only the first quarter of school. This means that are still three quarters left in the year.
While this means there is still 75 percent of the year left to complete, that also means there is just as much time to make mistakes and improvements. If you get your marks back and you are content with them, celebrate and keep up the hard work for next quarter. But, if you get them back and they aren’t as high as you hoped they’d be, don’t fret. You still have time.
High school is the time for mistakes. Your teachers do not expect you to be perfect by any means. So, don’t overstress. Just try to be happy that first quarter is over that we are one step closer to the end of the year!
