I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard one of my students say, “I procrastinate, but that’s okay because I work really well under pressure.” Well, they may THINK they work WELL under pressure but – believe you me — the work they produce is anything but “well.” Procrastination is a high school and college student’s worst enemy. This nemesis can cause students to operate under the false impression that they can get by on the bare minimum. Reality check: nothing is more stressful than operating under the dark cloud of a D or an F, knowing that you must pass a major exam (like a final) in order to pass a course.

Needless to say, if a student does fail a course, he/she will have to repeat it and may have to postpone graduation or — much worse — not graduate at all. It’s like I always told my son, “Plan ahead and manage your time well; if you do things right the first time, you won’t have to them a second time.”