I'm not the OP but I did similar things and had similarly bad grades. Now I am doing well for myself, so the stories about how I got kicked off the track team f

I'm not the OP but I did similar things and had similarly bad grades. Now I am doing well for myself, so the stories about how I got kicked off the track team for academic ineligibility or had a college pull an admissions offer due to bad grades senior year are funny and amusing anecdotes. Anyway, looking back here is what I wished I did: try to build relationships with the teachers. Use every chance during school to talk with them and get to know them. If they have a personal connection then they have a lot of freedom to help you out. Feel free to zig while other people zag. It's OK to let everyone else compete for the top grades, just stay hungry and do an awesome job and get really excited by your own thing. Also, homework really sucks. But in all honesty and seriousness, I really wish I had done my math homework. Math is such an important skill, and there really is no other way to learn it than to just suck it up and do the problem sets.