It’s Thursday night, and you realize at 11 P.M. that tomorrow you will have to face the inevitable, binder checks. We love AVID but challenges will arise. Everyone at some point has wondered how they were losing points in a tutorial, what they missed on their binder check, or if the minor stresses are worth it. While you have to face challenges to grow here’s a compilation of 11 tips that helped the 2022 class get through freshman year.

1. Pull your notes together on Tuesday, revise/ question Wednesdays, and turn in Thursday. If you don’t have enough notes keep your eye out for what type you need, that way you don’t scramble
2. Take the time to actually find something you’re confused on for tutorials, we’ve all been in a time crunch where you don’t have time to put together a super valuable tutorial because let’s face it, it might take time, but it is completely worth it! Even if it’s a small thing that small thing can snowball, besides, having extra input and point of view leads to better methods and thoughts on the tutorial topic
3. Don’t go on your phones during tutorials, it is not only detrimental to the points you get but is very rude to other tutorial givers. Imagine you’re stressed, tired, and need help, but the person next to you is more focused on Snapchat streaks then participating. It sucks.
4. Talk to your tutors! Say please thank you and get to know them. They are really cool people who care a lot about you! The least you can do is smile at them and be nice
5. Go on the field trips, they are really fun and a great bonding experience.
6. Create a checklist for binder checks. Despite how much we try we will always forget something. So to get that 100% go through the list with each individual note. Here’s a list to get you started
   1. Name/Date/Subject/Topic
   2. Essential question
   3. At least 3 questions
   4. Some sort of highlighting/underlining/circling/revising
   5. A summary that answers your essential question
7. Don’t retype your notes and worksheets for the online tutorial form, take a good picture of them. If you and the tutors can see what you will be recording on the whiteboards then it’ll be fine. Besides, the more practice problems/work you can have on hand the better
8. Use the equations form in google docs, it’s quicker and looks fancier. Go to Insert → Equation and type away
9. Go to AVID after school, for a while you might think that you don’t need it but it’s a great study space. You can make up tutorials and binder checks there too and get snacks! What high schooler doesn’t want free food.
10. Get to know your AVID teacher and love them. They are your away from home parents, I can guarantee that EVERY AVID teacher is there for you and cares about you more than you can imagine. 
11. Stay in AVID. I know three people who dropped out of AVID because they thought it was too much work or thought that they didn’t need it. All three wanted back in, but because of the waiting list, they have to wait and hopefully get their spot back. No matter how overwhelming AVID can feel know that in the long run, it is completely worth it! You will be pushed, and if you weren’t then something would be wrong. 

Remember that the beginning of AVID can feel shaky, but once you get to know the class it will feel like family. From complaining about Cornell notes together to harassing each other about why Adam chose Bowser in Mario Kart Tour, to crying during speeches, AVID is a safe space, never forget that.