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Comment by bmalicoat | Hacker News Reader

Get a TI calculator and try making some simple games for it in TI Basic. The calculator is nice because you can program in your not-so-great history classes or whatever.

Also start messing around with Python, there is no overhead and you can get started quickly.

Paying attention to math is important, but more important is honing your problem solving skills.

(Addressed everything to the OPs cousin for readability)

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This is basically what I did in 8th grade, then in 9th grade I joined the FIRST robotics team in our high school, which I would strongly recommend if there is one available.

I would not recommend doing it in the history classes though. In my school we had a great history class throughout high school. It taught me analytical thinking and processing of events to come up with a strategy. Studying history is as important as studying math or physics. The latter two are basic sciences, but the former expands your mind.

If you find the history class boring, try doing this. Instead of reading up all about and even in history in your textbook try to read one half (or a quarter if you feel overly adventurous) and then try to reason out what would you have done and why. Then read the other part and match your thinking with what actually happened. My history teacher used to do this type of exercises with us on a regular basis. This improved our critical thinking and ability to decide on strategies to tackle events in life.

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