11th Grade Checklist: Steps For Success
11th Grade Checklist
Why it’s important to plan early
If you’ve read our 9th Grade or 10th Grade Checklist, you know that you have only 40 months of high school to accomplish a huge list of to-dos if you’re going to be a competitive candidate for top universities.
Once 10th grade is over, you’re down to 18 months to prepare everything you need for college applications: top grades, top test scores, meaningful extracurricular activities, accolades, letters of recommendation, plus a compelling application essay.
Your junior year is also when most students are taking a ton of tests: AP tests, PSAT, and SAT or ACT.
It’s a lot of work, so it’s very important that you begin as soon as possible and have a set plan.
Getting Started
It’s normal to quickly feel overwhelmed, behind, and unprepared.
But all you need is a plan!
Our 11th grade checklist below details what you should accomplish during your junior year and when you should accomplish it. We’ve also included the MEK Review courses that will best help you accomplish these goals. This will guide you with creating a plan and staying on track.
Remember, this is a checklist for top achievers, students who want to apply to Ivy Leagues and top 10 universities, so always keep in mind your key priorities:
- Grades
- Your well-being
Grades are the most important factor for college admissions, and your well-being is the most important factor, period. This plan should help eliminate stress by dividing 18 months of work more evenly across your junior and senior year. You don’t want to end up stressed and panicked.
11th Grade Checklist: Summer – 2 months
Remember, we said to start early and divide the work over time.
Preparing early and consistently is the key to not becoming overwhelmed during the fall and spring semester. Start your junior year confident and ready.
With that said, here is your to-do list:
1. Prepare for the August SAT or September ACT
Hopefully, you took our advice and prepared early for the college admission tests throughout 10th grade. Either way though, it’s imperative that the summer of 11th grade is spent in intensive prep for the SAT or ACT.
During the school year, you will have too many other things and other tests to prepare for. But in the summer, you have the freedom to devote yourself to test prep and make huge improvements in just several weeks.
Take our SAT Prep programs, offered in groups and one-to-one sessions, to master the upcoming SAT. Or check out our self-paced, online lecture series, ACT Connect, that combines module based lessons, practice assignments, and full-length simulation ACT Tests for convenient, quality ACT Prep. For Summer 2024, our Early Bird Discount gives you 20% off your registration when you make a $300 deposit and another 5% off if you pay in full before 3/31! Plus, earn an additional 10% off through out select course package discounts!
It’s important to put thought into which test you will take and what your target score should be. Check out these free resources to help you make these important decisions:
- Blog Post: “What’s A Good SAT or ACT Score?“
- Test Event: Take a Digital SAT and/or ACT Evaluation Test and receive a detailed score report
2. Prepare for rigorous math and science classes
A huge factor in college admissions is not only grades but also your “strength of curriculum.” That means the difficulty level of your courses. Did you challenge yourself with honors, Advanced Placement (AP), or International Baccalaureate(IB) classes, or stick to regular courses?
The best way to impress admission officers is to take advanced classes and ace them. To do that, you need to familiarize yourself with the content and proper study habits early.
That’s why MEK offers High School Honors courses in subjects such as Pre-Calculus, Calculus and Physics. Plus, we offer AP Course Prep classes in subjects such as AP English, AP Computer Science, AP Statistics and more!
These courses introduce you to over half of the curriculum you will encounter in the upcoming school year and teach you crucial study habits for success.
Keep in mind though, your first priority should still be SAT and ACT test prep!
3. Continue extracurricular activities
The summer is long! Which means you can prepare for the SAT or ACT and still have time to complete an internship or dive deeper into an extracurricular activities by going to a camp, retreat, or weekly volunteer meeting.
Think about what internships or activities fit with your academic interests and college ambitions and apply early.
11th Grade Checklist: Fall – 5 months
The beginning of your junior year means you’re down to 16 months before your college applications deadline.
You need to highly focus on maintaining top grades, completing college admission tests, and planning your prospective college list.
1. Maintain a high GPA
Your junior year will most likely be the year you are taking the most AP and generally challenging classes. Concentrate on maintaining a strong GPA throughout your junior year. More than test prep, extracurricular activities, or letters of recommendation, your grades is the number one factor for college admissions, so you have to make your GPA your top priority.
If at any point you feel your grades slipping, reach out immediately for help from your teachers, guidance counselors, and contact us at MEK Review.
If your GPA is low or average at the beginning of your junior year, it’s even more crucial that you focus the majority of your time and efforts on raising it.
Start off the semester strong by thoroughly reading your syllabus, talking to your teachers, and writing down all relevant information in your student planner. You should have a crystal clear idea of the homework, tests, and expectations required for each class. Check out our 3 Secrets to Keeping a High GPA in High School blog for more tips and tricks!
Be careful to not overdo it on your course schedule. You want to show admission officers that you are willing to challenge yourself, but you also want high grades. Some juniors burn themselves out by taking too many AP, IB, or otherwise advanced courses.
On the other end of the spectrum, make sure you’re not going to easy on yourself. Remember, colleges care about the difficulty level of classes. If you look at your schedule and you have no honors or AP classes, you need to toughen up your course load.
It’s about finding the right balance of easy and hard classes.
2. Take the PSAT in October
While we advise you take the PSAT in 10th grade as a trial run, your 11th grade year is the year that counts. The results from this PSAT test will determine if you are awarded National Merit Scholar status and ensuing scholarships.
This is another reason why early test prep for the SAT will benefit your chances of receiving this impressive honor and earning scholarship money!
3. Finalize SAT and ACT scores
If you didn’t reach your target SAT or ACT score by August or September, continue your test prep for the October, November, or December tests.
4. Plan summer internship or activity
The summer before your senior year, it’s important to try and participate in internships or other activities that will showcase your passion and skill in a specific academic area. Start researching internship opportunities and apply early.
11th Grade Checklist: Spring – 5 months
1. Maintain a high GPA
Always stay focused on maintaining high grades. Adjust your study routine as needed, to give yourself more time to focus on strengthening areas of struggle.
2. Create a college list
You should create a preliminary college list that is a mixture of safety, target, and reach schools. Safety schools are colleges where your chance of admission is high. Target schools are more competitive colleges where your chance of admission is fair, and reach schools are highly competitive colleges where your chance of admission is smaller. Here’s more tips on preparing your college list.
Meet with your school guidance counselor to discuss your college list and college applications. Make sure to get plenty of one-on-one time with your guidance counselor, because you will almost definitely need a letter of recommendation, and the better he or she knows you, the stronger the letter will be.
3. Select teachers or mentors for letters of recommendation
Colleges generally want additional letters of recommendation outside of your guidance counselor. Many colleges ask for letters from two teachers. Others may ask for more, and yet other schools provide the option to ask for one from a mentor such as a coach, band director, or employer. Some schools even specify which teachers they want recommendations from, such as one from a humanities teacher (English, history) and another from a math or science teacher.
Ideally, your teacher recommendations come from your 11th grade teachers, as these teachers are usually teaching your most difficult courses. However, a recommendation from a 10th grade teacher is okay, especially if they know you better. Generally stay away from letters from your freshmen teachers.
Again, the strongest letters of recommendation come from teachers who know you well and are invested in your success, so get to know your teachers, especially those teaching subjects that match your academic interests. Learn more about how to choose who to request letters of recommendation from.
Asking your 11th grade teachers early in the second semester of your junior year also gives them plenty of time to write a thoughtful recommendation, rather than waiting until 12th grade, when they will likely have recommendation requests from many other students.
4. Take AP tests
May and June of your junior year is the time to take the rest of your AP tests.
If you want to be a truly competitive candidate for top colleges or Ivy Leagues, you will need to take several tests and ace them. That means you need to try for a 5 in all your AP tests.
Because you will likely be taking several tests, you need to stretch out your preparation over the entire Spring semester. Otherwise, you will be sleep-deprived, cramming, and stressed out come May. In our experience, the biggest mistakes 11th graders make in Spring is not starting preparation early enough, and having the workload sneak up on them later in the semester.
Warning: Don’t overdo it on the tests!
It won’t matter how many AP tests you take if you don’t score high. If you’re already planning on taking a heavy number of AP tests in the Spring, consider preparing for some AP courses over the summer with our AP Course Prep classes. It’s more important to earn a perfect or near perfect score than it is to just take a lot of tests.
And we’ve introduced our innovative, self paced, online AP Exam Prep program, AP Connect. AP Connect combines full-length AP Practice Tests with engaging lectures focused on exam review, filmed by our expert instructors with more than 1000 hours of AP teaching experience.
5. Finalize your summer plans
Finish all applications for internships in late Fall or early Spring, so you can finalize your summer plans by the end of Spring. Summer is also a good time to plan for school visits.
6. Last attempt at SAT or ACT
If you didn’t reach your target score after summer or fall test prep, continue into spring with test prep for the March, May, or June SAT or test prep for the February, April, June, or July ACT. If you feel stuck in a specific score range, reach out for help or even consider switching tests. Sometimes you may be stuck at a 1450 on the SAT and go on to earn a perfect 36 on the ACT. It depends upon your individual areas of weaknesses and strengths.
If you need help deciding which test to take, take a practice Digital SAT and/or ACT test with MEK.
11th Grade Checklist: Next Steps
As you can see. there is a lot to do your junior year! But if you complete this 11th Grade Checklist, then you’ve set yourself up for success for your upcoming senior year! If you’re struggling in a certain area – grades, test prep, study habits – MEK Review is here to guide you every step of the way.
Don’t miss our Early Bird Discount for Summer 2024! Save 20+% off if you act before 3/31.
Call 855-346-1410 or contact us here to schedule a consultation.
We can’t wait to hear from you!
