As students, we cannot overlook the importance of engaging in extracurricular activities (ECAs), along with academic studies. Participating in various extracurricular activities plays a crucial role in a student’s overall development, personal growth, mental well-being and essentially often helps to bag invaluable opportunities. Participating in extracurricular activities opens a door of endless opportunities, it allows us to acquire essential skills and knowledge out of academics–that usual classroom settings fail to provide.

Additionally, if you’re someone who is planning to apply to the USA-based colleges, juggling academics and ECAs might seem like a must-do; as they use a holistic evaluation approach while making admission decisions. Finding the right balance between academics and extracurricular activities can feel like juggling flaming torches while riding a unicycle. But don’t panic, as someone who belongs to the same club and was in the same shoes a while ago—I got you covered.

Throughout this piece, I am going to share some words about how I encountered this issue, especially for those planning to apply to USA colleges. With the right strategies, you can excel in both your academics and the places you’re passionate about.

Prioritize and Plan: We all know that it does not really matter whether it is about juggling academics and ECAs or other hustles, the key to balancing is effective planning and prioritization. Hence it is always better to start by getting to know your priorities, ask yourself, what you want.

Then start listing out all of your hustles to encounter (e.g. schoolwork, board test prep, if you’re planning to take APs, olympiad prep, internships, learn to code, clubs you’re affiliated with, founding a startup and summer camp, etc). After that, as I did, rank them in order of importance and rigor, it is okay if you do not care about rigor. But remember, your time is invaluable, hence please consider not falling for everything just because it is fun, know your priority. It is important to identify where you need to dedicate the most time and energy.

Create a Schedule: When you’re done with identifying your priorities now do consider creating a schedule, outlining specific time blocks for each activity. But don’t be unrealistic, we all have done this, creating a schedule that starts from praying for Fazr, doing meditations, walking for miles, taking cold showers and studying for 2400 hours a day…..anyway!

Be realistic about how much time you need for each task to get done, and don’t forget to include short downtime. You can consider utilizing schedule management or to-do planner tools like Sunsama, Notion, Todoist, etc. However, ensure that you have enough time for everything.

Learn to Say No: Yes, I know that exploring and trying out new things is cool and you should take advantage of the opportunities that come your way, however, as I said before “your time is invaluable, hence please consider not falling for everything just because it is fun, know your priority”. I mean it is equally important to know your limits.

So, If you feel overwhelmed with too many commitments, please don’t be afraid to say ‘no’. Remember, quality is more important than quantity. It is always a better trait to focus on a few quality ECA commitments that you are truly passionate about and excel in those, rather than just rushing like a Falcon.

Time Management: Throughout the journey, I can name one thing that must disappoint you a lot, Time Management. Time management is something that ensures whether you make the best use of your time. Hence it is important to consider keeping this in mind while juggling ECAs and academics. I used to struggle, and I do struggle the most with this, however, as I started following some time management techniques and methods, getting to witness a bit of improvement.

As I see it, there is not really any right time management technique—for some, the RPM method works, for some 8+8+8 rules and the list goes on. But I find the “Pomodoro” technique the most useful, you can consider applying this technique unless you are not already doing. There are a lot of Pomodoro timer tools and applications (e.g. Pomodor, Forest, Pomofocs) out there. Hope this method might work for you.

Do not forget to look after your Mental health: Throughout the journey, while maintaining a balance in academics and extracurriculars, you’re going to go through a lot. Amid this must-facing chaos, please do not forget to look after your mental health. It is equally (to some extent, more) important to prioritize mental well-being and self-care. Ensure that you’re getting enough sleep, eating healthy, having fun and exercising regularly.

When you feel overwhelmed you can go on a trip with loved ones, read books, watch your favorite TV series—or do something you wanted to do for a long time. Do whatever you need to feel content. Sometimes it is okay to prioritize mental health over anything. In addition, taking care of your mental health and body helps you stay motivated, focused, energized, and prepared to get ready to encounter any chaotic challenges that come your way.

These were my words from my experience. Hope this piece might help you navigate your way. Be proud of yourself, and how far you have come. Yes, you will indeed have to go through a lot, but over time you will realize how rewarding the way is! Don’t lose hope, as Stephen King’s words from The Shawshank Redemption go like this, “Remember, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies.”

Zeehad AL Sheikh, who’s actually an alien-feline, has been sent to Earth for a secret mission. ([email protected])

Copied from Reddit (r/Sat). This helped me increase my score quite a lot, so I thought of sharing it here. Hope it helps!

I know that 90% of you who score low on the reading section, specifically those who zone out when reading or have to read a passage multiple times, do so because of one single reason: You are in a hurry. You don't think you have enough time. On the practice tests, you'd run out of time, and now you think you have to answer the questions faster. But you would actually run out of time during practice questions because you were in a hurry (Ironic, right? Lol).

I realized this when watching Sol Lee take a full reading practice test. This guy takes the tests so casually; he literally talks in between questions, responding questions from the chat and giving advice, and he still manages to complete the test on time.

We've all had this exact scenario that literally ruins your score: You start the test strong, so far everything has been going well, you're confident in all of your answers. Now you read a text that you can't understand, and you spend THREE MINUTES on that single question. Finally, you answer the question—maybe correctly, maybe not.

Now, this is what I did, and I'm sure most of you do the same. After answering that question that you spent 3 minutes on, you move on to the next question and try to read the next text as fast as you can with the hope of catching up in time. Then what happens? Reading so quickly makes you not understand any of the text. Then you read it again (your heart rate rises, you start sweating, stress hormones dump in your brain), and you still don't understand anything. Now you've wasted another 3 minutes on the question. SIX MINUTES in total. You would have answered that question much quicker if you had slowed down instead of trying to catch up.

But you know what? You still have nothing to worry about. You have 70 seconds to answer each question, but some questions, like the grammar, transitions, and notes questions, take only a few seconds. So, an extra 6 minutes really mean nothing. You can still finish everything in time with 6 minutes wasted. Worst-case scenario—you don't have time to answer the last 1-3 questions. So what? Minus 40? Well, you still scored 760.

Now, what you have to do to not even waste those 6 minutes. Here's the trick—go slow, no matter what, don't panic. We all encounter that one question which, for some reason, is too difficult for us, and we waste 3 minutes on it. Well, after answering that question, take a deep breath, remind yourself to go slow, and move to the next question like you have all the time in the world. This way, you will not panic, and you will literally answer the next question in much shorter time than you would've if you tried to catch up in time.

But what if you encounter another difficult question that you have to spend another 3 minutes on? Now you're screwed, right? Now you have to really try to catch up in time with the next questions—NO!!!! 6 minutes mean nothing!!! You still have to calm yourself down after encountering those two insanely difficult questions. You have to go slow, realize that everything is actually going according to plan. You don't need to catch up! Again, worst-case scenario? You don't answer the last 2 questions (which is probably not going to happen, and you'll still manage to answer everything in time). And even that is a hundred times better than panicking and skimming over every single question for the entirety of the test.

This is what helped me drastically improve my score. Also, the key is to realize that you're not competing with the test. The SAT is a great test; it's on your side, it wants you to get a high score. It gives you plenty of time. Take the test casually, like you're playing a game or taking a test for fun.

Take a practice test now, go slow, read every single passage slowly and thoroughly understand what each sentence means. After you encounter a question you spend plenty of time on, tell yourself—this is perfectly normal, I will take a deep breath and I'll continue with the test like nothing happened. You can even rest for next 20 seconds, make a small talk with yourself, look out of the window, look at how other test takers struggle, lol. When you're calmed down, continue with the test.

Realizing this helped me raise my score from the 650s to 750+.

Good luck on the May SAT—please don't forget this single most important tip.

Here's another tip: I'm not sure if this will work for everyone, but leaving the reading based questions (especially for module 2) to the end can actually help you to not panic. The other grammar question can be solved in 20-30 seconds, and if you use the rest of your time on those reading questions, you won't panic because of how long you've spent on a single question.