How many of you did equally well with all subjects in school?

How do I get an A+ in all my subjects in school?

• I'm a Freshman in High School, and I'm an extremely smart student. When I first started High School, I came out of the closet, and most people were fine with it. Ever since I came out of the closet, I haven't been insecure anymore, and I'm fine with talking a lot with people. This developed a large social life in my life. With all this socialism going on, I somewhat didn't care about my homework and my grades and grew untidy. I don't want this to continue throughout my High School years. How Do I get myself back on track? I've been procrastinating a lot, and I get shy when asking some of my teacher's questions, because I'm afraid that some homophobes in my class will snicker and call me down :(. Most people at my school like me, but that doesn't me ALL of them do. Some of them like to mumble "fag" whenever I pass by, or give me the stink-eye. I don't let these things get to me, because I know what happens to most teen-gays when they do. I've heard a lot of them commit suicide, and I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW I will never head down that road... It's the last semester of school now, and all throughout most of my classes, I've been getting D's and F's. So that kind of also plays in my shyness when I want to ask a question- I also get afraid that my teachers or fellow classmates will see how stupid my questions are and label me as a retard.

• Answer:

  From your question it seems you became over confident in a "crowd" and allowed yourself to follow them rather than focus on your subjects in class and homework. At school there will always be the know alls (who sometimes know nothing) and those who set out to deliberately put others down. You need to avoid these people and simply aim to do better than them. As regards asking questions, it is far better to ask a teacher, than to let him/her assume you know what they are trying to convey. Your main concern now is to improve your grades, and perhaps you should ask the teacher (privately) if you can have additional work to improve them. The question may be asked as to why you do not ask open questions in class, to which you can say you feel intimidated. Focus hard on attaining superior grades and maybe you will be envied by those who make your school life uneasy at the moment. Just grow a hard skin !