Hey Times readers!

I know I haven't been in the Times in months, with school, and things to do, but this time I am here to stay. I know most of you may not be getting those straight A's in class, but more like C's, D's or even F's! With my straight B's, I have no room to lecture anyone about bringing those C's to A's, but one thing I can do is help those who are struggling to sit back, relax, and take the school year from a different, more beneficial approach.

Math -- ahh -- the joys of decimals, the metric system, exponets, algebra, scientific notation . . . I could go on for hours. I'm in the 7th grade, and am in math/pre-algebra, but most of my friends are taking a pre-algebra class. We got our progress reports just a few days ago and I was amazed at the grades. In the pre-algebra class with 25 students, two of them got a passing grade. I was completely shocked. One of the things I learned that helped me was to get a friend, no matter where they were in the math area, and we'd do our work together, even if we both didn't understand. We both shared our ideas of working it out, and eventually in the subject I thought I was going to struggle with the most, was the one I did best in. So, advice for whatever mathematics course you're taking: Get a friend!

English is my favorite subject. I love it. Complete subjects, complete predicates, nouns, adjectives, complements -- I love it all. What helps me pass is I write it out. Weird, yes, but if you write something out, it sticks in your brain. I come home daily with pages of notes, and I skim through them. I'll also be crazy and randomly paste instant messenger conversations, e-mails I sent, anything into some sort of word document program, and do grammar checks/spelling checks on it to see what I'm not doing good in. Weird ideas, I know, but if you know what your weakness is, you know what to study and what you need to work on! English advice: Find your weakness!

Last but not least, science. The scientific method, cells, chemicals, disecting stuff, pretty much anything that would make the girly girls scream -- it's there. I always remember that when doing labs, participation is usually about half of your grade, and that no matter how gross it is, I'd rather do it and be able to pass, graduate, go to college and get my life started than squeal and screech at a dead frog, or whatever. And when having science tests, what always had helped me is get a mental image of something in my head, think about it, and find my answer, no matter how long it takes me. Science advice: Participate, think ahead and take your time :)

So maybe this article will be meaningless to you. Maybe not. But I just thought it was a good idea to share my hints to maybe help you a little :-)

That's it!
Mychemfan