High School Ready: Executive Functioning & Study Skills for 9th Graders

Strong middle school students can often mistake bad habits — cramming the night before, relying on teachers to remind them of deadlines, coasting on natural ability — for skills that lead them to success. But these habits stop working when high school hits, partiularly for students pursuing the kind of rigorous college prep program and extracurricular involvement that college admissions offices require. High School Ready is a course led by college admissions expert Joanna Graham, designed specifically for high school freshmen to build the executive function and study skills that ambitious high school trajectories actually require: genuine time management, strategic planning across multiple demanding commitments, self-directed work habits, and the mental frameworks to stay on top of an honors and AP schedule while building the kind of extracurricular depth that matters in college admissions. These aren't skills most 13- and 14-year-olds develop on their own — and the students who have them when high school starts don't just survive the pace, they thrive in it.

Retiring Middle School Habits Students examine habits that can pass for skills in middle school, like cramming the night before, relying on teachers for deadline reminders, and coasting on natural ability, and why they stop working.

Real Time Management Students build genuine time management for freshman year, learning to plan strategically across multiple demanding commitments instead of reacting to each one as it comes.

Working Independently The focus turns to self-directed work habits, so students can take charge of their own learning and keep pace with a rigorous college prep program.

Juggling Honors, AP, and Activities Students learn mental frameworks for staying on top of an honors and AP schedule while building the extracurricular depth that matters in college admissions.