Nervous? Probably. You might be worrying about the workload or making new friends, and that’s normal – nearly everyone does. Here are 14 tips to help you throughout the year. Trust me, you’ll want to keep these in mind.

1. Make sure to keep a personal planner handy. Relying fully on memory is not fool-proof.

2. Get to know the people in your fifth period class because they are the ones you go to lunch with.

3. Do not be embarrassed to ask for help in class, chances are someone else is also too afraid to ask the same question. Do it for them.

4. Keep snacks in your backpack in case you have to stay after school, or you risk being the person with the grumbling stomach.

5. Always have a light jacket or shiver your way through the day. The school can get very cold.

6. Do not be afraid to talk to upperclassmen, they were once a freshman too.

7. Read the books in English, SparkNotes is never a substitute to reading. Your teacher will know and your grade will reflect that.

8. Provide teachers with tissues at the beginning of the year or mid-February will be a miserable period of sniffling noses.

9. Always have a supply of pencils. Chances are, once someone “borrows” one, they have officially claimed it as their own.

10. Always keep loose leaf paper, it becomes extremely scarce toward the end of the year.

11. Procrastination is not your friend. Start assignments when they are assigned to keep stress levels down.

12. The coldest water fountain is always by the boy’s restroom. Really.

13. The upstairs bathrooms in the physics hallway are switched. Girls on the left, boys on the right. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

14. Bathrooms are crowded at the beginning of lunch and throughout lunchtime.