Senior year, a year so frequently misunderstood as the year to disregard education, relinquish all academic responsibility, and to relax before college hits you in the face like a semi-truck, is precisely the time to get a jump on college preparation.

As high school draws to a close, it’s easy to surrender to the dreaded and inevitable disease that we call Senioritis. High school requirements are mostly met, the exciting college search begins, and your grade is finally — FINALLY— merging into one big collection of ultra-spirited, school-hating, senioritis-carrying… high school seniors. I get it. It’s fun. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? But as high school winds down, the perfect opportunity is provided to start preparing for the next four years of schooling.

As most students should know, college is not as simple as living with your friends and bar hopping on Saturday nights. And no, it’s not as simple as midnight pizza runs, either. We can’t be that naive.

The utmost amount of responsibility and dedication of each attendee of each university is obligatory. Not only does the amount and severity of school work increase hugely, but the required effort —if you’re planning on success—is incomparable to that of high school.

Every student at some point in their mathematical career has said the words, “When will I ever use this in real life?” So okay, maybe proofs aren’t actually too relevant, but considering college classes are based upon one’s major, I’d say the curriculum taught in college is pretty darn important, and should therefore be revered and dedicated a great amount of effort.

So why not soften the blow of the semi-truck and get ready for the next four years of career-based learning?

And I don’t mean by taking 31415927 AP classes and attempting a 5 on each exam to earn college credit. Or maybe I do, it all depends on the kind of student someone is. Maybe challenging oneself is exactly the type of preparation needed to be ready for college, who knows?

It’s different for every student. For some, simply participating in college level courses to gain the experience of having large amounts of homework, frequent tests, lengthy writing assignments, labs, etc. is what a student needs in order to prepare for high-level learning. For others, it’s taking classes related to a possible field of interest.

Bulking up background knowledge can prove to be extremely effective, especially for majors that require a profusion of memorization of information. Being acquainted with, or even knowing this information prior to Day 1, would be worthwhile; it would not only make the class that much easier to learn, but it would provide a student with the time that other students wouldn’t have to either further study the same course or to donate attention to other important classes.

Why not take multiple Advanced Placement courses and get a few credits taken care of? Why not take AP Biology if you’re already planning on taking a Biology course in college? Why not gain the experience? Imagine how much easier it would make that freshman Biology class. Hey, that might even make time for midnight pizza runs!

The great thing about schools in the United States is that students are given this thing called “Summer Break,” where a student can relax for about two-and-a-half months before returning back to school. Crazy, right? Well this is exactly the time for relaxation, and school is exactly like the time for learning.

So Juniors, keep this in mind when planning future schedules. And Seniors, well… I hope it’s a small semi-truck.