Doing terribly in High School.

[Andropov]

Well, the reason is provided in the OP. The education system in the US is terrible and I could get educate myself better myself. It's mind-numbingly boring and the teachers are unhelpful and uncommunicative.

 

[Eclipse]

Well, the reason is provided in the OP. The education system in the US is terrible and I could get educate myself better myself. It's mind-numbingly boring and the teachers are unhelpful and uncommunicative.

Be that as it may, there's not a whole hell of a lot you can do about it, except: do your homework. Go do it right now. Stop making excuses about how the teachers are uncommunicative, or school is boring, or the planets aren't alligned or whatever. I got horrible grades from 6th grade until 10th grade, and now I'm in my junior year struggling to round out my GPA. I have ADD and sometimes get migraines so bad I can't remember them a few days later...or anything that happened while I had them. And yet now, once I actually gave a shit and got the proper help, I'm getting As and Bs and am on my way to at least a 3.0 GPA. If I can do it, you can do it.

I've been told by several different counselors that my SAT scores* aren't enough to get into a good college with my current GPA. Which may pose a problem later on, since I can only recover so much from my horrible grades in 9 and 10th grade. However, with my SAT scores* and extracurricular activities (football, creative writing), I might pull through.

* On my SATs, I scored 89th percentile in Critical Reading, 84th percentile in Mathematics and 96th percentile in Writing. On average, I outscored ~90% of the students in the US. And yet I was told they weren't enough to guarantee a good college. Something to think on.

It's not about how much you know. It's about that piece of paper schools give you, the one that tells colleges how much information the teachers shoved down your throat that you could spit back out in some recognizable form. The whole system is flawed, and it sucks, but you can't just sit around complaining about it, thinking that if enough people agree with you it will change anything. Life is competetive. You need proof of education to be successful, unless you're damn, damn, damn lucky or outrageously handsome.

That's the way it works. Your stuck with it. And the sooner you realize that, the better off you will be.

 

[SpaceYeti]

School isn't about learning knowledge. It's about preparing you for a mediocre, boring job.

 

[Jackooboy]

One of the most difficult things for us INTPs to know and learn is that playing the social game, and yes, your career is a game, is more important than your innate IQ.

I didn't care about school during middle/ high school until my cousin died in a car crash, and then I had the revelation that life is too short to have a shitty attitude. I consciously became mindful and improved attitude and my grades my junior and senior year and ended up pulling my GPA to a 3.6 something. Anyhow, innate intelligence means little to nothing in the "real world" unless you're willing to play the game.

I think attitude is 90% of life, so hopefully changing your mindframe from essentially these people are morons (even if they are) to playing the game so they like you and think you're great, will get you further.

There are millions of perfectly smart people out there with horrible attitudes... those who are successful are smart enough to know how to play the game...

If you don't want to play the game, become a public school teacher... There are plenty of openings in the ghettos and it's a job for life.

 

[Jackooboy]

Be that as it may, there's not a whole hell of a lot you can do about it, except: do your homework. Go do it right now. Stop making excuses about how the teachers are uncommunicative, or school is boring, or the planets aren't alligned or whatever. I got horrible grades from 6th grade until 10th grade, and now I'm in my junior year struggling to round out my GPA. I have ADD and sometimes get migraines so bad I can't remember them a few days later...or anything that happened while I had them. And yet now, once I actually gave a shit and got the proper help, I'm getting As and Bs and am on my way to at least a 3.0 GPA. If I can do it, you can do it.

I've been told by several different counselors that my SAT scores* aren't enough to get into a good college with my current GPA. Which may pose a problem later on, since I can only recover so much from my horrible grades in 9 and 10th grade. However, with my SAT scores* and extracurricular activities (football, creative writing), I might pull through.

* On my SATs, I scored 89th percentile in Critical Reading, 84th percentile in Mathematics and 96th percentile in Writing. On average, I outscored ~90% of the students in the US. And yet I was told they weren't enough to guarantee a good college. Something to think on.

It's not about how much you know. It's about that piece of paper schools give you, the one that tells colleges how much information the teachers shoved down your throat that you could spit back out in some recognizable form. The whole system is flawed, and it sucks, but you can't just sit around complaining about it, thinking that if enough people agree with you it will change anything. Life is competetive. You need proof of education to be successful, unless you're damn, damn, damn lucky or outrageously handsome.

That's the way it works. Your stuck with it. And the sooner you realize that, the better off you will be.

Very good attitude Eclipse... Don't save for tomorrow what you can do today!

FYI, you can always go to a community college, get above a 3.0 gpa, and transfer... Getting bad grades in HS is not an academic death sentence, but it certainly won't help you...

I bet you'd be surprised about which schools you get accepted to with a HS 3.0 gpa and decent SAT scores... How are you defining "good school"... ?

And I acknowledge public education is BS...

 

[Linsejko]

Andropov: I think that's a damn good plan, and there's no reason to submit to the system like all these people are saying. There's more than one way to solve a calculus problem...

...little secret to all of you: after your first year of Community College, they will never look at your high school grades or activities again...

So take those two years and do something meaningful, don't learn how to be a secretary. Make your own path. I always knew I had a backup-plan to just do a year or two of Community college, get the basic courses out of the way cheap, and transfer. That's much smarter than staying in high school and wasting your precious short life, I think.

L

 

[Eclipse]

Very good attitude Eclipse... Don't save for tomorrow what you can do today!

FYI, you can always go to a community college, get above a 3.0 gpa, and transfer... Getting bad grades in HS is not an academic death sentence, but it certainly won't help you...

I bet you'd be surprised about which schools you get accepted to with a HS 3.0 gpa and decent SAT scores... How are you defining "good school"... ?

And I acknowledge public education is BS...

Good enough that I can make something of myself. Be a writer, a psychologist, a computer programmer...anything. I don't exactly live in a "good" neighborhood, and I'm sick of being in it. I'm getting out of this place first chance I get.

@ Andropov - I don't need a piece of paper to tell me how capable I am; my self esteem is zero, and yet still I know I'm a good deal more intelligent than 95% of the people I meet in daily life. You can do the same. Getting good grades isn't "submitting to the system" any more than defending yourself in court makes you a lawyer (one of the corrupt ones); that's crap. But you have to learn to work with the system. Play by their rules until you're successful enough to break away from them, then make your own.

 

[Linsejko]

False analogy that gives no useful information, and no reasonable counter. Why play by their rules when there's no benefit to be gained? You still haven't given a why. If this was a debate, you would be badly losing. Speaking of which, would you like to just bring this to the debate corner, and argue about which path is better in life? A formal debate would be fun, and this topic would really be quite relevant to the public here, no?

L

 

[Eclipse]

There's not much room for debate here. People who get better grades go to better colleges. People who go to better colleges get a better education (or a more attractice resume'). People who get a better education and a Bachelor's degree make, on average, $22,000 more each year than people who just finish high school. And the OP is considering not even doing that, which would make the difference more like $29,000 a year.

More money is a good thing, right?

 

[Awaken]

Dropping out of High School is stupid. The problem with being an adult is that you are one before you even realize it. Your choices now will affect your whole life in ways that you have no means of comprehending at the moment. Get better grades, go to college, get a degree, then be a bum if that is what you then choose to do. But DO NOT drop out now.

A good SAT score is great, bad grades can be explained away with an upward trend in GPA. Nobody wants to hear your sad story about being a bored genius when you get to the stage of competing for a spot in a University. Just go through the motions now so you have more options in the future.

Yes, most public school teachers are shitty and intelligence is measured by how much you can rotely memorize and regurgitate on a test. This doesnt change in a lot of classes in college, and doesnt change in post grad studies. Deal with it. If you are so bored with the subjects, go on youtube and research them. I promise you the concept behind the things you are learning in High School are much more applicable and interesting than your teachers are letting on. Dont let that be an excuse to not learn it.

You say you do well on tests and quizzes but dont do homework. I urge you to change your habits. This was by far the worst habit I had going in to college. High School was a breeze for me. I never did homework at home because I could do it all at school. I never studied because everything was so ridiculously easy. This approach to school was then carried on to college, and I got butt raped. They will shove so much information down your throat in college, so you better have good study habits BEFORE college so that you do not fall into the same trap. Innate intelligence will only take you so far in our educational system(unless you have photographic memory). Most classes are not meant for you to think, they are meant for you to learn what other people have already thought. Go into a field that interests you, then think all you want.

 

[Linsejko]

If you say there isn't much room for debate, then be a man and accept my challenge instead of just saying I'm wrong... Staying in a public high school in America is foolish, and I would advise all to do any other possible form of education available to them, as it almost certainly by default would be time better spent.

I'm not going to waste my timing showing why you are wrong here unless you'd like to accept a formal debate.

I do agree that good study habits are worth developing, and also have to deal with learning to actually do homework that I never had to do in HS. That's not a good enough ROI on two years in public high school, though--there are much better ways to learn this skill.

L

 

[gruesomebrat]

Eclipse, as much as I agree that having a degree earns you, on average, considerably more money, there are a number of occupations where a degree really isn't necessary. Granted, they generally require some more innate skill than your doctors, lawyers, mechanics, etc. that you need schooling for, but there are options out there.

In the arts, for example, it does not matter what degree you have; rather, your portfolio is all that matters. Entrepreneurial business is the same. Starting your own business doesn't require any degree, any real education at all, as long as you have a profitable idea. Some education or experience in business management will go a long way in making your life easier, but it will not increase your income. Invention goes along the same lines as business, in that education will help in making your life easier, but will not increase your income. Further, education in business management, or in the field your invention will benefit does not have to be formal education.

Another career path that requires no formal education is athletics. If you can throw a ball faster than your peers, swing a bat harder, shoot a puck more accurately, no-one is going to give your lack of education any notice.

I think the biggest problem, these days, is that everyone views education as being nothing more than a means to an end. The prevailing thought around education is "If I get good grades, I can get into a good school, get a good degree, and make a lot of money." This was never the reason for education, and yet, ever since the industrial revolution, when publicly funded elementary schools came into being, this idea of 'go to school to earn more money' has become more and more prevalent in our society, to the point that now, even the universities focus more on the lucrative subjects, than the true education. This is why you see universities that are famous for their business schools, med schools, law schools, but never hear about the philosophers that come out of universities. It's enough to drive any student who wants more out of their education completely up the wall.

 

[Andropov]

There's not much room for debate here. People who get better grades go to better colleges. People who go to better colleges get a better education (or a more attractice resume'). People who get a better education and a Bachelor's degree make, on average, $22,000 more each year than people who just finish high school. And the OP is considering not even doing that, which would make the difference more like $29,000 a year.

More money is a good thing, right?

I said in the OP that I'd like to becoming a physicist, which not only means getting a bachelor's degree, but a masters and a PHd.

 

[Andropov]

Dropping out of High School is stupid. The problem with being an adult is that you are one before you even realize it. Your choices now will affect your whole life in ways that you have no means of comprehending at the moment. Get better grades, go to college, get a degree, then be a bum if that is what you then choose to do. But DO NOT drop out now.

A good SAT score is great, bad grades can be explained away with an upward trend in GPA. Nobody wants to hear your sad story about being a bored genius when you get to the stage of competing for a spot in a University. Just go through the motions now so you have more options in the future.

Yes, most public school teachers are shitty and intelligence is measured by how much you can rotely memorize and regurgitate on a test. This doesnt change in a lot of classes in college, and doesnt change in post grad studies. Deal with it. If you are so bored with the subjects, go on youtube and research them. I promise you the concept behind the things you are learning in High School are much more applicable and interesting than your teachers are letting on. Dont let that be an excuse to not learn it.

You say you do well on tests and quizzes but dont do homework. I urge you to change your habits. This was by far the worst habit I had going in to college. High School was a breeze for me. I never did homework at home because I could do it all at school. I never studied because everything was so ridiculously easy. This approach to school was then carried on to college, and I got butt raped. They will shove so much information down your throat in college, so you better have good study habits BEFORE college so that you do not fall into the same trap. Innate intelligence will only take you so far in our educational system(unless you have photographic memory). Most classes are not meant for you to think, they are meant for you to learn what other people have already thought. Go into a field that interests you, then think all you want.

Why do this if I can, like I said before:

Drop out - Spend my time in the library - Take GED at 18 - Go to community college for 2 years - Get good grades - Transfer to better university, get undergraduate degree - Go on to graduate school - Get Phd in physics or whatever I want to do by that point - Live life.

The end result is the same, the only difference is the process.

 

[Andropov]

Or, even better, I can start "homeschooling" myself, which means I'll be able to get into some sort of college right away instead of going to the community college first.

 

[Eclipse]

If you say there isn't much room for debate, then be a man and accept my challenge instead of just saying I'm wrong...

Thanks, but no thanks. I posted a series of facts. Take from them what you will.

And if you're so interested in a debate about the subject, why not make your points here? That is, after all, what the thread concerns; whether or not the OP should drop out.

@ Gruesomebrat - You do make good points, and I agree that education doesn't make much difference in those areas; however, I referenced those things in my last post because the OP said he wanted to become a physicist, which is a path that does require a great deal of education.

@ Andropov - I don't doubt that you could do a better job teaching yourself than those teachers could. That's not my point. My point is that you have to convince the school officials that you are a good student. And, by their standards, you're not; you feel homework is too boring to waste time on and that their whole education system is crap. Whether or not you are right doesn't make a difference.

Disclaimer: the following is not meant to be rude; I'm just trying to make a point.

If you walked up to a college recruiter with an abysmal GPA and told them that you taught yourself calculus, would you expect them to believe you? Honestly. According to their measurement of intelligence (GPA), you're an idiot. Now, to counteract this, you show them your SATs, which are off the charts. Congratulations! You're a genius! A terribly lazy genius who got Cs and Ds all through high school even though your intelligence shows you were more than capable of getting straight As.

You have to remember that what you are (smart) isn't always what they see. All they see are those official little charts and papers that tell them how much information you could absorb and spit back out. But you need them to see your intelligence so you can get into a good college, because you'll need that education if you want to pursue something as ambitious as physics (kudos, by the way).

I guess you could go to a community college for two years...but why? You sound a little too smart to go to a run-of-the-mill community college. Why waste time in a place where you won't advance at the pace you want? Because you're too lazy to do your homework? Really...is it worth it?

 

[Linsejko]

You have posted a collection of opinions, emotional responses, and questionable 'facts'. I've already refuted them. I suppose you can keep whistling the same tune if you like, as that is your right. Your points are too shallow to be interesting to further debate, unless you did it formally--then I could get the joy of ripping your argument to shreds. As it stands, you'll just sidestep me like you've just done and repeat the same crap.

"People will generally believe what they want to believe."

May your method of life succeed for you.

L

 

[nyaneko]

I was hard-working first. When I found out it was easy I started slacking and nearly screwed up my last year.

If you guys are so good at school did you find other interests?

 

[kinetickyle]

I am in no way offering advice, but I will tell my own story. I was an awful student in high school. It was boring and Andropov is 100% correct in saying that there is no intellectual stimulation. In fact, I would skip school and go to educational places, like the art museum or the public library. I ended up skipping so much, that I wasn't allowed to graduate without repeating my senior year, so I dropped out.

Since I was over 18, I was able to enroll at a local community college, but I didn't have any direction and I dropped out of that as well. I got my GED and then spent six years in the navy getting my head screwed on straight. Afterward, I went back to college. A little life experience made all the difference. I graduated with my bachelor's degree in 3 years and then went back for a master's degree.

My point is that doing poorly in high school does not mean that you're doomed to failure for the rest of your life. In fact, I think all the pressure to succeed in high school is quite silly.

 

[Dimensional Transition]

I am in no way offering advice, but I will tell my own story. I was an awful student in high school. It was boring and Andropov is 100% correct in saying that there is no intellectual stimulation. In fact, I would skip school and go to educational places, like the art museum or the public library. I ended up skipping so much, that I wasn't allowed to graduate without repeating my senior year, so I dropped out.

Since I was over 18, I was able to enroll at a local community college, but I didn't have any direction and I dropped out of that as well. I got my GED and then spent six years in the navy getting my head screwed on straight. Afterward, I went back to college. A little life experience made all the difference. I graduated with my bachelor's degree in 3 years and then went back for a master's degree.

My point is that doing poorly in high school does not mean that you're doomed to failure for the rest of your life. In fact, I think all the pressure to succeed in high school is quite silly.

Thank you, that's very reassuring (:

 

[Magnetosphere]

Andropov, you seem to share my sentiment on the public education system. If memory serves me correctly, I failed at least two classes per year, for the majority of my high school career. For the latter half of my junior year, I suffered from a moderate form of depression, failing four out of my five classes in one trimester. The one class I passed, I passed by a margin of about two or three percentage points, scraping a D- in AP Government.

Ironically, I was one out of three people in a forty-person class to pass the AP Government AP exam. I never studied, I never paid attention in class, and I may have turned in a dozen assignments all year. Yet I had still managed to master the material better than the vast majority of my classmates, many of whom spent in excess of one hour per night studying, reading, and taking notes on the Pearson government books we had been given the option to buy.

The same thing happened with my AP English class, which I had failed with a 40-something percent. I passed the official exam with flying colors (I received a 4), even though I had opted out of the required essays and had instead decided to create a comic-book style strip depicting Robo-Jesus fighting Christmas Hitler in New York City. In glossing over a few materials at the beginning of the day and relying on a teenager's knowledge-bank of information, my slacking succeeded where a year-long course had failed for so many others.

The difference between me and them, I feel, is that I didn't live the same life as my academic peers. Instead of partying and hanging out with friends once I got home, I'd spend my time debating on Internet forums and losing myself in Wikipedia articles for hours at a time. While many of my acquaintances still watched cartoons and turned off their television sets when George W. Bush made addresses to the nation, I'd watch several hours of news, each and every day. True, I was acting as a classic no-life, the archetypal nerd who never left his house - the fact remains that my personal regimen of education worked far better for me than the institutionalized. Even in the midst of my junior-year slump, most of my free time was spent walking down country roads, wandering for hours on end, thinking and mulling over a multitude of psychological topics.

After receiving my ACT scores in the mail that same summer (roughly half of my scores grouped me in the 99th percentile or higher), reality began to set in. As summer vacation morphed into the early weeks of senior year and the early weeks of senior year dissipated into the routine of autumn, college applications were sent off with expectations high. My high school counselor had all but assured me that, substandard GPA aside, I was almost guaranteed admission to Michigan State University. My ACT scores were far better than the middle 50% and my personal statement was informative and relatively well-written. I had been in MSU student organizations for a year prior and a volunteer at a regional hospital for a similar length of time. My extracurricular activities were all unique and my standardized test scores were all well above average.

Needless to say, I was almost immediately rejected on the basis of my GPA. A public school with a 72% acceptance rate rejected a potential student with outstanding ACT scores, recommendations from his teachers and his school counselor (who was friends with MSU's representative for our region), and an interesting sob story to boot.

You may end up luckier than I did (your SAT scores are very good - my ACT scores were as well, but my math and science subscores were significantly lower than the ones for reading and English), but if you want to up your chances of getting into a good university and not having to suffer a year at community college (it's not the worst place, but it can feel stifling for kids with big plans for the future), you need to turn things around now. Don't do what I did, which was wait until my last year of high school to get all A's. I could have been doing it the entire time, with minimal effort. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you, like me, aren't going to have to do much more than your homework to get a 4.0.

As utterly obnoxious, redundant, and idiotic as it may seem, there are a lot of people in the real world, with influence over your life, who put more stock into grades than you and I. It's one of those things you can't help. Nice as it would be if colleges could look at every student individually and analyze all aspects of their life to determine who has the most potential, that's not realistic. You get an application, a few recommendations, and approximately 500 words to explain your position. That's it. If you happen to find a place that cares about SAT scores more than anything, maybe you'll be in luck. If you don't, you're pretty screwed.

To reiterate, I know what you're going through and I think that I have a good sense of your state of mind. Schools sucks, but sometimes you've just got to man up and soldier through it, making yourself look like a model college applicant in the process. Painful as it may be for me to admit, I can see why a university would go with an applicant who isn't "naturally" (I use the quotations because what many of us here have isn't natural, it's the result of internal drive and intrinsic motivation) talented and who put a boatload of effort into school to get a 3.95 than somebody who coasted through with nothing to show for their travels but a great SAT score and a GPA of 2.3.

And yeah, the whole scheduling debacle is quite ridiculous.

I'm going to cut myself short here. I see that there's more discussion on page 2 about dropping out and whatnot. Much as I'd like to respond to that right now, it's almost 1AM and I should be getting to bed soon.

Note that this was in response solely to the original post, so I apologize if I didn't hit on any of the more recently discussed topics. Also, sorry if the anecdote was a bit much. Tried to make a point, but sometimes I go overboard with stories in situations where evidence and arguments aren't exactly objective (since this is a matter of opinion, more than anything else).

---> I didn't see how long this was until I went advanced and saw the preview. Whoops! I carried on for several more minutes than I thought. Since this is a drawn-out, first-draft forum post, it probably wasn't the best quality piece of writing I could have turned out. So sorry in advance for any grammatical or stylistic errors.

 

[Chiguy]

You're not alone my friend.

I was exactly the same in High School. Occasionally I'd have GPA's in the 3's, but that was ONLY when my parents really laid into me about not doing work. My Senior year I did JUST enough to graduate. Imagine my surprise when the school called my mom and told them I had like 30 days unexcused absences. Couldn't take it anymore. It just wasn't a good learning environment at all and of course it wasn't very stimulating.

I thought it was gonna get better in College. It didn't for me personally, so I dropped out. To be honest objectively I can't say I improved my situation long term since sooooooooooooo many people care about a piece paper that doesn't actually prove how smart you are but that you have a very high threshold to completing mundane tasks over and over again.

But I'm gonna try and pursue some dreams for now. I may go back one day though. Just being alive is enough to remind me that College has become a necessary evil. I feel like its always looming right overhead.

"Get this BS/BA or you'll never get a job and amount to anything in life!"

 

[Chiguy]

I want to double up by saying I read through some of the responses in this thread and they are very informative.

I have a dream in life, but at the same time I feel all of this external pressure. This is life. And mine is moving 1 second at a time. I'm 20 today, but tomorrow I'll be 30 years old. I'm just so freaking afraid. Life is just so unbalanced. I'm not really depressed, but things would be so much easier if I was never born.

 

[myexplodingcat]

I'm a 10th grader going to a pretty decent High School as far as High Schools go. There's no violence and the area surrounding the school is mostly upper-middle class.

The problem is that High School is really boring and rote. In most classes, the procedure is sit to down and take notes until the class is over. There's no intellectual stimulation whatsoever. And the information in the notes themselves is completely useless. We learn words and their connections with other words, but not what they really, actually mean. For instance, we're learning about the Ultraviolet index. The teacher explains the different UV index levels and their corresponding numbers and colors. But what does the UV index really measure? How are the numbers derived? The information is meaningless. You might as well memorize arbitrary strings of numbers. Richard Feynman talked about this problem in the Brazillian education system in his autobiography and it seems like it's happening here too.

Math is probably the worst offender since all the problems require you to do is to plug in the variables and write down the output. Most students don't even know what they're doing, they just do it since that's what the teacher tells you to do. It's like some sort of factory or something. I have a very strong mathematical intuition and want to either become a mathematician (non-applied) or some sort of scientist but as of now I'm doing extremely poorly in math class (I think I have a D). It doesn't help that I already know most of what we're doing anyway from independent study.

I don't know what my GPA is but I doubt it's higher than a 2.5. I do well on tests and quizzes but I almost never do homework, which is worth 50% of the entire grade in some classes. I don't know what to do. My goal is, as I said before, to be either a professor of math or science (Either physics or chemical engineering) or maybe even a writer or historian. Maybe even a philosopher. My SAT score was around 1900 in 7th grade but that was before I even knew basic algebra so it's probably much higher now. If I continue going to school, what kind of college do I have a chance at going to? Say if I have a 2.5 GPA and a 2200 SAT score. From there, I'll hopefully go to graduate school somewhere better.

There are honors classes available but that's only if you have an A- or better in the regular classes. And even then, from what I've heard, the honors classes are just more memorization and regurgitation, not more critical thinking. I'm in only one honors class (Language arts) and even though it's my favorite class (not my favorite subject) it's filled with incredibly pretentious, pompous fools who constantly spout unfunny 4chan memes and lame pi jokes. Their writing, from paper swap edits, is so bad that it's literally uncomfortable to read. It's filled with completely inappropriately complex words with no regard to "flow" or anything of that sort. The people in normal classes aren't much better. They're either really unintelligent or try way too hard to be badass. I'm pretty confident in social situations and am not at all shy, but there's only about 15 likable people in my entire school.

I could go on and on about all the other things wrong with the system, like how school starts at 7:00 AM so I have to wake up at 5:30 to catch the bus (Which comes at 6:20). Teenagers should get about 10 hours a sleep a day from what my doctors tell me, but that's not really feasible at all since that would mean I'd have to go to sleep at 7:30 PM. I hate going to school. I hate it more than any other thing in my life. I don't know what to do at this point. I'm thinking of maybe dropping out and becoming an autodidact but I doubt I'd get into college.

Anyway, this was pretty sloppily written and probably has some grammar and spelling mistakes but I'm pretty tired so there it is. I know other INTPs may have had similar experiences. Help!

You should become a doctor. Usually, if you look on the Internet, science is explained pretty clearly by other INTPs who have blogs. Science can be amazing sometimes, even though parts of most assumptions in science are obviously incorrect and make me want to slap most scientists silly.

Ahem. Sorry. Geek INTP side taking over.

And no, Honors English classes are always stupid. They're filled with people who don't know what they're talking about or, worse, are arrogant enough to think they do. I'm thirteen and in high school; my school is just as bad. Just plod on through it. You only have to be there four years.

Oh, also: You can buy RPGXP, a computer game maker, on the Internet for thirty bucks. It's INTP heaven, because you can understand how the kit works and manipulate it to your heart's content. Here:
http://www.amaranthia.com/modules/oledrion/product.php?product_id=25
There's a free demo for a month or so.

 

[pacman24740]

I've always thought of school as a game. You have to jump through a series of hoops to get the grades, learn specific material for tests, be able to work specific problems...good grades has very little to do with actual learning. Luckily for me, I let my intuition take tests for me, I literally guess on every multiple choice question, unless they're ones that need to be worked out, then I only have to work out half the problem, or work the problem backwards to get the right answer. I'm lucky since 90% of our tests are multiple choice, and multiple choice tests can be beaten. all you need is a hefty amount of reasoning, and before long it seems almost comical, and the wrong answers are something to be laughed at. You should definitely get into the honors/AP classes as quickly as possible. They make school much more enjoyable ; I kind of think as these classes as a way to segregate myself from bigots. You're given much more academic freedom this way, since they don't teach you like you're in middle school. They know you're intelligent, or at least you work hard, and they let you do what you want. Don't believe what people tell you, ever. They just say stuff without checking its accuracy, it's horrible to try to get good information from anyone. There are so many factors that will determine their response to your question, such as asking about honors classes, it's not worth it. For example, if they're in the honors class they might be trying to keep you out, so they'll be special. If they're not they don't want you leaving them behind because it will make them sad. These are oversimplified explanation on purpose, but they do carry truth with them. To summarize, people lie, high school sucks but honors classes suck less, you need highschool for college, and at least get your GPA to a 3.0. P.S. I've had to take classes with normal kids for requirements like health or civics, and it's like hell on earth. They're two different worlds my friend, and if I hadn't went to honors/AP classes I might be in the same situation that you are currently in.

 

[Listen]

HI, I'm mostly a lurker but I guess I had the same problems you did with school so I'll just tell you how it worked for me [since I saw the GED thing get mentioned]

So in high school I couldn't pay attention to save my life. If it's something that I have absolutely no interest in then I just don't care. "I don't want to know any of that stuff anyway! When will I ever use this information in real life?!" So then I just skipped most of my high school classes instead. Since I walked everyday I would just take my time and get to school really late which they would then give me detention but I skipped those too. You'd get a yellow pass showing you got detention and then flash it to the teacher to prove you got it, right? So I got one the first time and flashed the same one for the rest of the year.

Skipped school, ignored classwork, flunked and never looked back. I always felt detached from my high school anyway [going as far as skipping every picture day so that I wouldn't be in any year books because I didn't want anyone to remember me] so it's not like I really cared.

This all sounds pretty bad right? Maybe! But I realized there was another way. After I flunked high school I went to Adult School. In this A.S you just get packets one at a time and a book. The teacher doesn't teach or lecture, you just do all the work yourself and leave! AT LAST! A straight to the point way of finishing school without being forced to socialize with classmates who are usually high!

And so, I finished about 2 years worth of high school credits in just a few months. It was really that simple. They even let me work in the teachers lounge by myself since I only like to work alone quietly. In the end, I got a High School Diploma just like anyone else-NOT a GED.
If you really can't stand school, I suggest looking into local Adult Schools.

 

[Andropov]

You should become a doctor. Usually, if you look on the Internet, science is explained pretty clearly by other INTPs who have blogs. Science can be amazing sometimes, even though parts of most assumptions in science are obviously incorrect and make me want to slap most scientists silly.

Ahem. Sorry. Geek INTP side taking over.

And no, Honors English classes are always stupid. They're filled with people who don't know what they're talking about or, worse, are arrogant enough to think they do. I'm thirteen and in high school; my school is just as bad. Just plod on through it. You only have to be there four years.

Oh, also: You can buy RPGXP, a computer game maker, on the Internet for thirty bucks. It's INTP heaven, because you can understand how the kit works and manipulate it to your heart's content. Here:
http://www.amaranthia.com/modules/oledrion/product.php?product_id=25
There's a free demo for a month or so.

How do you know that most assumptions in science are incorrect? You're just some guy. You really think you know more than PHds who've devoted their entire lives to science? This reminds me of a time in Social Studies when the topic of the big bang came up and a girl said something along the lines of, "The big bang? What a dumb idea. I can't believe scientists are so stupid to think that something just banged. What a bunch of idiots."

 

[Andropov]

I hope I don't sound too mean.

 

[tashi]

No, you're not being mean.

I really do not have the focus to read every single response that has been posted, so forgive me if I repeat something.

Also a sophomore, I can certainly relate to your experience. Discipline is not something that comes easily to me. To be quite honest, I'm usually undisciplined in many aspects of my life. Particularly those that I don't have a strong interest in. Like you, if the information is not presented to me in a way that I find interesting, I often "check out" and find something a bit more intellectually stimulating to focus my mind on, which is usually faaaarrr away from anything that has anything at all to do with school and the silly people that occupy it. For many years my attitude towards school was essentially "fuck it". Like you, though, I am very interested in science and mathematics and wish to pursue some sort of related career. There is a large amount of schooling that goes along with that, and although I realize that there are certainly alternative methods of achieving that schooling, it's probably best for me to keep as many options open as possible. I do not want to feel a terrible sense of regret later on in my life when I suffer the consequences that would be the result of closing many doors for myself at such a young age. The way that I have found most effective at doing well in school has been to try and let the teacher know how interested I am, and that their teaching methods are not working. It reeaaally depends on the teacher, though. I have actually been rather lucky in that almost all of my teachers have been pretty decent and very receptive to my requests. Sometimes the teachers are just so used to getting students who really don't give a shit, and they just need a nudge to let them know that you do. Once again, though, it depends. I really don't know the details of your situation, so I am not sure how helpful any of this will be to you. I would try that first, though.
Yeah. School really does suck. I hope that College will be better.

 

[Jade Adagis]

The story of my life is hard. I was lucky to be gifted. After high school I took a year off to get my head straight, then started community college. After one year I earned a full ride to finish earning a Bachelor's degree.

Some of my friends took the GED at 16 and started community college immediately. Their problem was not having the work ethic to get through their 4-year programs. I majored in Accounting - arguably the toughest degree with the highest drop out rate. It was almost 100% memorization, late nights with the books, going on 2 or less hours of sleep for days.

Getting a job in my field and moving up was initially difficult. However, once I started defining my own jobs I leapfrogged my colleagues that went to more prestigious colleges. It is mostly because I chose a career where INTPs are rare, if not entirely absent. It's easier to WOW them. It is entirely possible to be very successful without a degree from an Ivy League school.

If you are really focused on mathematics, the competition is going to be more fierce and you will have less ability to WOW them with your unique skill (everyone has similar skill). You may really want to check the job sites, the information about job satisfaction, salary, expected education level, etc. If that is your chosen path, you will need to make a plan and stick with it - no matter what. I recommend sticking it out through high school just to learn how to deal with the boredom. It won't get any better until you get to grad school.

On the plus side - you can get a head start by taking a few community college classes while you are still in high school. Get the boredom out of the way faster... Talk to your counseler - the high school can usually make arrangements with the community college. But you WILL need to bring your grades up to prove you can do the work.

 

[Lillian]

Hey, I am new here and I will go introduce myself presently, but I just wanted to reply from a homeschoolers perspective.
It is totally possible to drop out of school and homeschool yourself. Not totally understanding your circumstances I can't say whether it is a good idea or not, but it is an option. I homeschooled myself from seventh grade (meaning I would submit my curriculum for the past year to my mother, she would look over it and ask how well I think I understand the material. I would say what grade I believed I earned and she took my word on the honor system) until graduation and am now in college working toward a political theory degree. Many colleges really like to admit homeschoolers because they have learned self-motivation and usually have a good work ethic (statistaically, mind you, some homeschoolers are huge slackers). You do, however, need to have a good plan for completing the credits required by the state. Homeschooling doesn't mean the normal standerds required are at all relaxed. They are, in fact, much stricter. Anyway, homeschooling is a good option if you have somebody with a bacholers degree that will be your administrator and issue your highschool diploma.
However, the greatest people in history are those who learn in the worst of circumstances. The cliched example would of course be Abraham Lincoln, who had almost no access to teachers or any educated persons and very little access to books, yet took advantage of what he had to get what education he could. In your situation, I would be hesitent to quit highschool. I would suggest that you explore what you can learn in this situation. It seems as if it woujld be more challenging to stay in the horrible system and still manage to obtain a good education. I bet some of your teachers would by really, really happy to give you some pointers to gaining greater mastery of a subject if you talk to them outside of class. Anyway, since I never was in highschool, I am not in the position to answer whether or not this is feasable, but if you have any questions about homeschooling I would be glad to answer them.

 

[Bluey]

Hi Andropov, I'm a 10th grader like you and I have two excellent resources to recommend.
College without Highschool
The Teenage Liberation Handbook
An internet stranger once recommended The Teenage Liberation Handbook to me. I checked it out and it completely restructured my mind towards what the school system really is. You're not wrong for disliking school. I hope they give you the same insight I was provided with.

 

[digital angel]

Andropov,

I think your goals are great. It will get better. I have professional degrees.

Don't give up. You'll be rewarded.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

^ He's banned by the way.

 

[digital angel]

Thanks. Details.