I’m sure you’ve heard, as a student, that your junior year is the most important year of high school. You may have heard that it decides whether you get into your dream college or it’s when you should take your hardest classes and prepare for the SAT. It is when you should do everything possible to get ready for the future, but isn’t that too much for students to handle? Well, it can be.
Grade 11, also known as junior year, is a year of high school every student must go through in order to graduate. It is the first year in which students are considered “upperclassmen” and, in a sense, gain a bit of freedom.
Specifically, here at Canyon, junior year is the first year you can customize most of your classes. You can select your preferred science class (Physics, Human Anatomy, or Environmental Science) or simply no science at all. You can take a multitude of regular and advanced math classes (Algebra II, Statistics, Calculus, or Personal Finance and the Honors/AP version of any of those) and English courses (English 11 or AP Language and Composition).
In all years of high school, you can pick out your electives, but in junior year, you have the freedom to take upwards of three elective courses at once, depending on the student’s schedule. It is also the first year students are not required to take physical education.
A Canyon senior, Adiba Huq, expressed her thoughts on last year: “It was nice to not have PE, but my junior year overall was pretty stressful because I was anticipating senior year to be really bad. I had a lot of pressure on me to prepare for my future.”
Junior year is also considered important because it is the year most colleges look at when going over applications. Applications are usually sent in during the senior year, meaning a student’s junior year is the most recent full year of grades and extracurriculars. This gives colleges the most insight into a student’s performance, so doing well in your junior year is crucial to showing college admission officers your academic potential.
Junior year is also the year most standardized tests become available for students to take. Exams such as the SAT, ACT, and ASVAB are available for students to take multiple times, so taking them at the beginning of your junior year is a smart decision if you are looking to get a good final score.
All of this newfound freedom and abundance of opportunities can feel amazing for many students, but it can also be stressful. Choosing the wrong classes or overloading yourself during junior year can be detrimental to your grades and mental health if you select courses that are not a good fit for you.
If you are unsure of which classes to take or feel like you are falling behind, know that we have resources on campus to help you. Our counselors and the Wellness Center are here to aid students in any way possible.
Ultimately, yes, your junior year is most likely going to be your hardest year of high school. However, taking advantage of the freedoms and resources available here at Canyon, while also being mindful of your abilities and mental capacity, will ensure you lay a successful foundation for life beyond graduation.
