Qualities Of An A+ Student

[TACG]

As an A+ "gifted" Junior (and I'll assume you mean a high school Junior because hopefully you aren't having these problems in college xP) I agree with pretty much everything said before.

I was home-schooled for grades 6 through 9 (I took online classes and was home alone.) and I used to literally sit at home and do nothing. A large part of getting good grades is learning to NOT just rely on your intelligence.

For motivation, It helps to have rewards to work towards, even short term goals like "progress reports come out on such and such date and this movie I want to see comes out the next day, If I do well on the progress report I can go see it."
If you have a shorter term material reward it makes it easier to get motivated.

Time management is very important, especially if you're really busy with things like sports. Don't under estimate even the 15 minutes before school starts when you get to school early. Personally I think it helps to keep a planner or to make to-do lists. It's lame but they're both really good ways to organize not only your stuff but your mind also. It doesn't just have to be a list of stuff to do, but it can also be a list of where you have to be at what time.
Breaking assignments into pieces also helps a lot with time management. When you do this it helps to have something else to do, like cleaning your room or folding laundry.
If you have to do a math worksheet with 20 problems on it, break it into 5's. Do 5 problems and then fold 3 shirts then another 5 problems and so on. If you are a serious procrastinator then set a timer for yourself and do those 5 problems in a certain amount of time. You can even race yourself.


Self Discipline unfortunately is the hardest part of being a good student.
I think the rewards come in here also. It's really really tough to keep doing an English essay when all you really want to do is draw or play guitar or sleep or chew your arm off or please anything but English. D: If you have a reward to work towards you can keep on task much better.

You say you've never studied and don't know how.
First I would start by taking notes if you don't already. If you do, try and find ways to make them more detailed. Don't just write what the teacher has written on the board, put down what s/he says also.
If you have questions about something put them down on your notes too.
Then when get home part of your homework should be either rewriting your notes or highlighting the important parts.
Don't write out complete sentences either. Draw arrows or pictures, just make sure you get the concepts down.

Read the text book. It really is there for a reason.

Google the phrase "Studying tips"
Really.

As for finding the passion in all subjects, I'm not sure its possible to genuinely like every subject let alone be passionate about it. That being said, I completely understand about not wanting to do something you don't really care about. This is part of where self discipline and will power come in.
Maybe you can think of the work for these classes as obstacles that you have to over come in order to become a programmer; kind of a "fight the power" type thing.


I think for you, being an INTJ might be a double edged sword. (Props for knowing stuff about myers-briggs btw!) Hanging out with friends won't exactly be the motivation it is for me. (ENFP with a strong border on ENFJ here.) Maybe you could use hobbies as incentive instead?

Try to use the same creativity you do for other things, with your homework.

I'm not sure how much of a perfectionist you are but I know it's messed me up a little bit especially this year. Look to balance out having one assignment done perfectly but not having done the other assignment vs. not having either assignment perfectly done but at least having them DONE. I guess you have to remember that 2 B grades are still more points then an A and an F. (Especially if the F assignment was worth more o__O)

I think if you throw the same dedication into your school work that you do the other things you like to do and learn to use tools like notes and lists to manage your time and study the material it'll work out.