luminoustudies-blog

[luminoustudies-blog]

study thoughts on:

[ disclaimer: this post is not intended to force you guys to take honor classes—these are just my personal insights for those who are hesitant about taking them in the future when given the opportunity. i still believe that students should have the complete freedom to choose whatever suits their own studying pace and style! also, honor classes might be different in some school systems—but this should hopefully still apply for those who are taking them :) ]

Just a brief overview of what honor classes are: In my school, an honor class for a certain subject is often called an “Enrichment” class. These special classes are granted for those students whose average grade for a particular subject passes the quota grade for that subject’s honor class. These classes give students a higher-level of challenging school work and more learning opportunities.

There’s this stereotype I heard from some of my classmates that honor classes are “scary” or a “complete waste of time” because when you come to think of it, why take honor classes if you’re just going to study the exact same curriculum as the regular classes but even “harder”? In my experience, things slowly become different when you start to overcome this notion and begin to enjoy the challenge with the harder process of learning.

Here are the some of the few things I learned from taking honor classes in my high school:

1. At the start, it will be difficult.

Well maybe if you were born rocket genius this would be completely irrelevant, but in my first try with taking honors class for Math way back in 8th grade, things weren’t so good in my first few quarters. Here’s why:

Adjusting from a regular curriculum to an advance one can become quite overwhelming since the pace is going to be a lot faster when it comes to all of the topics, lessons, worksheets / homework being distributed, exams, etc.

If you’re someone who is used to getting really good grades in your regular classes, lowkey expect that taking honor classes might scale down those grades a bit [ maybe not for some, though! ], but all throughout the process, you’ll eventually find yourself getting better grades as you get used to the challenge.

2. Not everyone who are part of honor classes are stellar students!

Often times, students get reluctant when it comes to taking honor classes since they are taken aback from the stereotype that “only the smart-kids” will excel in these classes since that’s where they naturally belong (dUuH). Let me reassure you with the fact that not all the “smart-kids” get the highest grades! Everyone’s there to learn the same thing! We all work very differently, some students are good in a particular subject but some are not — but that’s why some things aren’t that easy to understand by everyone! 

Students in honor classes are just like you. Besides the fact that they’re also human, they’re also struggling with the workload at some point too! 

Based on my experience, not all of the stellar students in my honor classes get the best grades. Some of them actually fail, but they still manage to keep up with their habit of practicing and most importantly consulting with those students who are good at the subject! 

3. The lessons will become useful in the long-run.

The advantage when it comes to taking honor classes in high school is how much it could help you for the next school year. Another backstory, I took my first honors class for Grammar back in 8th grade (again), and the struggle with this one was how it was an after-school class and the fact that you still had to take the regular class along with it. It did take a lot of my time in the afternoon — there were a lot of sleepless nights just trying to finish up write-ups and projects and there were, of course, a lot of moments where I told myself that I’d quit honor classes since it was already too much to handle. At the end of it all, I asked myself if whatever I learned for this honors class was even worth it — true enough, it was!

Honor classes are meant for advance-learning. Whatever you will be learning for the current year is already a head start for that subject’s curriculum for the next school year!

Just to add for those who are in junior high school (Grades 7 - 10), some of my seniors who are graduating next year told me that taking honor classes actually helps a lot for senior high school (Grades 11 - 12) since it advances you in a lot of topics that covers for senior high. 

4. When you fail fast, know that you fail forward.

Sometimes we become very hesitant when it comes to taking honor classes because of the risk we’re putting ourselves into. Indeed, it is a complete challenge, but know that the risk will always be worth it as long as you put your heart and mind into it! Whenever you doubt or question your potential in special classes like these (or with any kind of course), just know that you’re there for one thing which is to learn. 

Mistakes will really really be inevitable when it comes to taking honor classes. You might commit the same ones over and over again, but never forget that these things are lessons in disguise which are supposed to help you when the next challenge comes by. Always move forward and accept any opportunity that would help you reach your goals at the very end! You got this. :)

Here’s to my super first post in my #studyblr! 

Got any more questions? Feel free to leave down any questions! 

[luminoustudies-blog]

"because you have to put your heart and soul into it and made it happen - one way or another." anything is possible—so get things done! you got this 💛