h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Welcome to h2g2! I see that you've already been visited by one of my fellow ACE's, Ming, so I won't do the ACE thing all over again. (ACEs are the meeters and greeters here, the acronym stands for Assistant Community Editor). Just thought I would welcome you as another American teenager who has just graduated from high school (as in yesterday)-- there *is* an end in sight.

Also, if you would like to leave a message to Douglas Adams' family/"to" him, you can do so at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/U42 .DNA has passed away, but his legacy will last forever.

~Amy ACE (Keeper of Wolves, Muse of Procrastinating Novelists, High Priestess of Thing)

Hi Amy! I will definitely leave a message to DNA's family. He was such a great author and his books made me like reading again after I had stopped reading for pleasure and only for homework. He will be sorely missed....

CONGRADULATIONS!!!You are SOOOO lucky you graduated!!! I'm only a freshman, so I've still got a while to go... and with finals coming up I have a lot of school left to worry about!

~Trillianete

Same thing happens with DNA's books with me... just when I have far too much work to do, I always settle down and read a few pages of any of them. It calms me. They're like a portable home. Perhaps I'm just obsessed...

When does school end for you? I know our year ended early because we started so early in August last year (not a nice thing either, half my school isn't air-conditioned), but it ended even earlier for me because senior finals come first, plus most of my classes were AP classes which needed to be done by the time the AP tests rolled around rather when the end of the year rolled around-- that is, about a month early. (Not saying that to make you jealous... just look what you have to look forward to!) It's actually rather boring having nothing to do at school, though I'm sure you think quite the opposite.

I hope finals go well for you... I know I was scared out of my mind (and quite unnecessarily) in my freshman year... just remember "Don't Panic", and you'll be fine.

~Amy

Hi again! My school ends on the 12th this year(which is late, we usually get out around the 6th)and we have finals the 7th through the 12th so I'm basically freaking out trying to study and get all my projects done at the same time. I'm a freshman so I cant take any AP classes yet except for 2 years of AP US history, which I'm taking. In the next few years though, I'm sure I will have lots of them...which I'm not sure if thats good or bad...

Anyway,I am looking forward to the end of school, although I don't know what I'm going to do with myself all day without it! Oh well, I'm sure I'll find something to do....
~trillianette

Oh, don't worry about finals! Please! If your school's anything like mine (don't assume it is, but at least think about what I say), teachers usually revise for finals the week before the exams, just to be sure *they're* not to blame for their kid's failing grades. Honestly, if you've done well in a class all year and can go through a list of topics that will be on the exam and only not know one or two, just study up on those and remind yourself of the others and you'll really be fine. Unless your teachers are horribly evil and mean s, finals are overviews, not specifics. Basically, Don't Panic, and you'll be okay.

What to do over the summer? Surf at h2g2, of course.

I am not to worried about most of my finals except for my math and science ones. My science final is tomorrow and I am doing mad studying because half the things he said would be on the final we haven't gone over at all. So basically, I have to read my entire science book. I really need an A on my Advanced Algebra 2 final because I have 2 A's and 2 B's so far, and the final will determine my final grade. I have so many projects to do, I don't know if it's humanly possible to get everything done. but it's ok, I'm not panicking...well....maybe only a little...
But after Friday things die down, so I'm almost done. Yay!!!
I can't wait for summer!!!!!!
I will definitely be on h2g2 this summer! I love this site, i just found it a month ago,and when I'm done with school I can spend more time on the net!

Oh, I hope the science final went okay... they can be killers. And it really is humanly possible to get everything done that you have to do. Course, you'll get a bit seeing as it requires 50-hour days...

I spend far too much time on this site... would you believe that it takes me an hour and a half to go through all my forum conversations... without responding to any of them?! (dead serious) Of course, that's because all my friends here talk till crazy hours of the morning... and they're spread all over the world. That'd do it.

I just took my science final! IT WAS A BREEZE!!! I was one of the first people done, which I guess could be not a good sign, but I think I did pretty well on it. Now I have to concentrate on my algebra final...but now that I have my first one done I hope it'll be easier to take them.
I will probably spend a lot of time on this site over the summer when I am not busy. I like how this site has members from all over the world, it's cool. I want to write something for the Guide but I don't know what I should write about. Oh well, I'll think of something.

Yay!!! Have some ! It helps you to think. From what you said about algebra, it seems that you'll do fine on that one, too.

I've written three (I think) entries, and only submitted one (about a year ago) which was rejected. So I've none to my name... But that's okay because it really stunk. We're talking odious here. I've been meaning to write a few about the area I live in-- mainly because there aren't any decent entries on it if any. That's what I recommend doing-- writing about your area, and the subjects you know. Also, check out what the "contributing to the Guide" topic is each week, just to see if you might have something to say. The editors in charge of that don't always use everything they get, but sometimes they pick the weirdest stuff. (That just gave me an idea... maybe I can turn my 16-page term paper on Vangogh into an entry...)

I also recommend reading entries by people you meet here-- my friend Bluebottle has written probably tens and tens of entries about the place he lives, the Isle of Wight-- and that'll give you an idea of what we're looking for. Actually, many of the people on my buddy list on my user page have written accepted entries. Look at a few and then the most important thing is to sit down and write.

I took my algebra test today, and it was as hard as I had expected. I think I did alright on it, but there were some questions I couldn't answer. Oh well. The worst is over.I don't have to see my algebra teacher again! Mmmm, yummy !
I think writing about where I live would be a good idea since I know a lot about it. It's not very exciting, though, just a suburb of Cleveland. Maybe I could write one on something I've done a paper on...but those would be really boring and pretty much useless as well. That will pass some of the time I have now!

Aww, I'm sure you did fine on your final. With math, it's [usually] good to know that you were challenged, because that means you were thinking. Well, at least it does for me. That's what happened with my SATs on the math section. Not that I got an 800 or anything (I think it was a 590), but I felt like I was sort of challenged and that made me actually think and catch things that I wouldn't have otherwise. The best idea (as future advice): if your teacher says that they give partial credit on test answers, skip the questions you don't know and come back to them at the end, working them as far as you can before you get stuck on the half chance that you might be on the right track. Some points are better than none.

Of course, if it's scantron multiple choice, forget what I just said.

I actually don't know a whole lot about the area I live in... the only really defining factor is the Amish and Mennonite (I'm in Lancaster-- a city that's now considered a suburb of Philadelphia despite the fact that it's 45 minutes away!), and I'm not all that knowledgable about them. However, I do have my sources and I can whip out an entry on them pretty fast if I need to.

On our regular tests in algebra she gave us partial credit on the questions so I tried to do as much as I could before I didn't know what to do. It helped my grades a lot, because I usually didn't know all the steps you had to do to get the answer.
I'm soooo happy! Monday is my last day of school because on Tuesday there are finals, but the finals are only for the periods I have lunch and orchestra, so I don't have to come! YAY!! I'm almost done!! Only 3 more years and then I get to go to college! 3 years is a long time though...
Are you going to college, and if so, where?
~trillianette

3 years really isn't all *that* long of a time... really. I feel like just yesterday I was entering high school. Not that I'd ever want to relive my freshman year again.

I'm going to college this fall at Radford University, which is in Radford, Virginia. I'm majoring in English, or at least planning to. It's a nice little public school in the middle of the blue ridge mountains. I really can't wait for August.

I would be so excited if I was you! Your college sounds nice. We drove though the Blue Ridge Mountains to get to South Carolina and it was really pretty there. You're going to have a lot of fun!

What are you going to do in English, write books or something? that would be kinda cool. When I get to college I want to major in science, probably something to do with areospace technology. I think that would be an interesting job.

I have my history and french finals on monday and then I'm done! Yay!

Yep, it's gorgeous and semi-secluded at Radford... just what I need to be able to study *cough* goof off *cough*.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with a degree in English-- I'd love to just sit around and write books till my fingers fall apart, but that doesn't exactly make a whole lot of money. Actually, for the most part it makes nothing. I wouldn't mind being an editor of a magazine or something, or even someone in the publishing business. Or, if worst comes to worse, I can always get a degree in teaching and become an English teacher. My one friend is going into aerospace technology-- and astronomy-- at Penn State. She really wants to become an astronaut, but she'd have to grow a few inches (the space suits are one size only and she's rather short!).

You take French too? I've been taking it for 6 years, and I'll probably continue at college-- probably minor in it just because I can. Hey, if you need any study help-- verbs or anything-- I'd be glad to help! (Just be careful that you don't actually use any foreign languages here... the Mods hate it. We'll figure something out if you need it.)

Being an editor of a magazine sounds like fun. You would get to be in charge of people. I love that.I would LOVE to be an astronaut, it's what I wanted to be since I was seven- but since there are only a couple hundred people that have gone into space ever, I want to have a back up plan, like designing spacecraft or being an astronomer or something. I'm hoping there are more job openings for those. People think I'm wierd when I tell them I want to be a rocket scientist. I guess I'm kind of a geek. But that's ok, I am proud of my geekdom!

I am in my second year of French. Last year I loved the class but this year I really hated it. I had so much fun last year and I learned so much because it was challenging and we HAD to speak french, even in conversation with the other students. I think at that rate I could have been fluent in three years. But this year we never had to speak French, ever. It was soooo easy i couldn't stand it. I have to take advanced classes and I'm used to it now. But this was amazingly easy. I could have learned all the stuff we have learned this year in maybe two or three weeks. And a lot of people thought it was hard. I hope next year is better. I heard the teacher for French three is really cool, a lot better than the one this year. I probably won't even study for very long for the final. I will already have an A for the year even if I failed it. It's so nice to have a class where you can do that though.

Be proud of your geekiness... I actually have a code on my page that shows exactly what kind of geek I am... it's actually kind of fun. Astronomy would be a fun field to go into, I think, though I'm much more people oriented.

Hmmm... did you repeat the same level of French twice? Usually it should go in ascending difficulty-- like, my last year (level 5) was reading French novels and other literature (torture, lemme tell ya!), but French 2 was just learning more verb tenses and so forth along with vocab. At least for me it was. (My school has a really nice language program).

I love those classes where it doesn't matter how you do on finals... for me, I only had to pass two of my classes this year to graduate, but I still wanted to do decently in everything else. Oh, yeah, and there was that little thing about having to keep my GPA above a 3.5 in order to get into the Honors Academy at college (considering I had a 4.1 or higher almost all year, that wasn't hard). I did have a class once where I could have never shown up and still gotten an A... Music Theory.

I thought French 2 (which is what I took this year)was going to be harder than French 1 (last year), and I was really worried about it because I got a B in French 1. But, it turned out, it was MUCH easier. I wanted to go into French 3 after a couple months and just get tutored for a while on the stuff I missed in French 2 but my school counselor said it was a bad idea and that I would have trouble catching up. I know now that I wouldn't have, because the only things we learned this year were past tense and a few verbs. I have a feeling next year will be like that too. oh well. I'm also going to take LAtin next year because it's supposed to help with SAT scores. I'll probably only take it for a year though. My GPA this year was about 4.1 also, and I was really surprised because I did't do as well in middle school as high school. I'm sure it'll go down though as I take more AP classes. I only took one this year and it wasn't very hard, but it is a 2 year course so I'm sure it will get harder.

At my schoo, French 2 is the hardest year. You learn all but two of the 14 verb tenses, and the entire year is that and grammar stuff. Not fun, but if you can make it through that, you can make it through anything. If you find next year to be as easy as this year, I recommend skipping a year, despite what your counselor says. Usually they haven't a clue what they're talking about.

About Latin helping with SAT verbal scores... I think that's partially a myth. If you understand how the etomology of a word works, then taking any language is helpful (though Romance languages tend to be more helpful than Germanic ones). I mean, I never took Latin, but I got a 740 on my verbal section. *modest * However, since Romance languages are derived from Latin, then it can be helpful. But in any case, you have to teach yourself about how a word works-- not so much where it comes from, but where the meaning of the word comes from. If you only take Latin and simply *take* it, it won't help. *sigh* I've confused myself. What was I saying? I forget. I think it all really depends on how solid one's background in language is as to how much Latin can help. But that's just my humble opinion, please don't take it as gospel...

Yeah, I'm actually thinking that taking Latin is sort of useless, it being a dead language and all. Oh well. I suppose I could just drop the class if I don't like it, because if it's as bad as French, I don't want to go through a whole year of something I don't have to do. I don't know. At least I know it will be an easy A.

I'm actually just thinking about seeing if I can buy a French book and teach myself. I would really like to learn it, but not if it means being in that kind of class again. I probably won't get around to it though. I said the same thing last summer. I'm going to be too busy trying to understand my summer eading assignments and getting them to hold my attention.

I took my last finals today; French and History. They were pretty easy, so I'm not worried about my grades on them. School officially ends tomorrow, but I don't have any finals so I don't have to come! Yay! I don't have to be a freshman anymore!