While strong academics is a good preparation for high school, there are other skills that are equally necessary. These are skills that will be used throughout life.
- Time management: It is important for a student to start taking responsibility for their work starting in middle school. This should happen on a gradual basis. One idea is to give a student a daily planner with assignments to complete and allow the student to plan their day and prioritize which subjects to tackle first, second, etc. Of course, this will have to be carefully monitored, especially initially. As the student masters this task, gradually allow the student to take their weekly assignments and decide how to divide them up over the week. Again, this will have to be monitored until the student proves his/her ability to accomplish this successfully.
- Reading a syllabus: Mt. Sophia classes are syllabus-based. Learning to read a syllabus is good practice for high school and college.
- Checking emails: teachers in high school and professors in college usually communicate via email. By high school students should have an email that is checked regularly.
- Handing in completed work: It is not unusual for students to complete assignments but not manage to bring them to class and hand them in. The student should create a system to assist them in following through with their assignments.
- Explore their interests. Sometimes interests lead to extracurricular activities and even vocational pursuits.