how to i motivate myself to stay ontop of everything
Depends on your workload. I was pretty lucky with a lot my teachers, since they were good at what they did and rarely assigned very comprehensive homework. If you know what you're doing, I got by in my trig/precalc class doing about half the homework. I'd only ever do it if I knew I needed the practice for what we learned.
Set a goal for yourself. My psychology teacher often said that you have to care more about your work than your parents, and I believe him. You have to care about what you're doing, and setting a goal is a good way to make yourself care. What kind of grade do you want? Figure out how much work it'll take to get there. I was a pretty consistent B student, since I that was the level of effort I was willing to put in.
This will sound counterintuitive, but you should try taking some more advanced classes if you're feeling up to it. It's much easier to learn and care about learning when you're in a class full of smart people being taught by a smart person about things you don't know. Give an AP class a try sometime.
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