When you are in grade 8 and start thinking about what to expect in high school, especially in subjects like math, it may cause some anxiety.
But there are simple things you can do in order to better prepare for the change and embrace it.
1. Memorize the multiplication tables.
Say, what? Yes, knowing the times tables well makes your life easier when taking high school math courses. There will be many new concepts that you will have to learn and opening up your brain to those, rather than stumbling over every 2 x 4 or 6 x 8 will help you understand the new concepts better. Of course, the calculators are always there, but it may be time consuming reaching for your calculator every time you need to do basic math, when you may only have 1 hour to complete an evaluation.
2. Practice operations with integers, fractions and decimals.
In elementary and middle school you have probably been going over how integers, fractions and decimals work, but mainly doing hands-on activities. In high school, you will need to solve algebraic equations involving integers, fractions and decimals regularly and preferably fast. Therefore, knowing how to add, subtract, multiply and divide integers, fractions and decimals on paper/whiteboard/tablet is a very useful skill that will help you achieve much desired success in high school math till the very last grade.
3. Plan ahead.
High school math is very interesting. It can be absolutely fascinating and engaging if you understand it and if you spend enough time practicing it. You will definitely need to spend quite a bit of time reviewing your notes and completing accompanying practice. By the way, taking your own notes in class rather than just going by the uploaded teacher notes is much more useful since you are paying more attention to the content. This is why notes on our intomath.org website have some information that needs to be filled in by you ;).
But you are not only planning on doing math 24/7 in high school, are you? So creating a plan of your activities ahead of time, allocating time for math practice and sticking to the plan as much as possible is extremely helpful.
Focusing on the above three things will definitely improve your chances of staying on top of your high school math right off the bat and actually enjoy it, rather than suffer through it!