4Tests Blog

You may look back on your school years with fond memories, but be honest. There are classes you took that you shouldn’t have or classes you should’ve taken but could have done much better in. We’re all like that, and we all have to live with regret. But what if we could have educational do-overs? Which classes would you redo knowing what you know now? Reddit recently weighed in on just that. Here were some of our favorite responses.

1. “I think I’d “do over” my first two years of high school. I was far too depressed and distracted by puberty to make much academic progress at the time. Plus I could get a jump on college decisions or post-high-school life, neither of which I bothered with.”

2. “Not a day goes by that i regret my major (Asian Languages and Literature, why oh why…) but I’d do everything over, from kindergarten. There are a lot of opportunities I’ve wasted or not known about. Plus, you’d get to enjoy being a kid again and know how to survive the foolishness of it.”

3. “I would have spent less time worrying everything up to eighth grade. I got all A’s for just about everything in there and nobody cares, I could have done half the work and been at the same place I am now.”

4. “I went to tiny high school, and was top of my class, but then I got into Duke and was completely intimidated by all the smart people. Right before sophomore year, and old HS friend died in a car accident and (I know now, at age 37), I used that as excuse to rationalize slacking off, pulling back, and shutting down. I failed out of Duke and never went back. I regret it deeply and would do anything to go back for a do-over. I ended up getting my degree a few years later at UNC Asheville, still bitter. Really wasted my whole college career.”

5. “Redo my first year of college. Not because I got bad grades or anything, but because I could have taken more classes and wouldn’t have to play catch up afterward.”

6. “I spent 4 years at Queens in a program I didn’t want to be in, eventually not graduating and leaving for Japan. I think I am better off because of this, long-term, but I think if I had changed directions and studied something else, I would be happier with the money spent/wasted.”

7. “Start learning a second language so much earlier. I think it should be requirement to start learning a second language in 1st grade in America, like it is in many other countries.”

8. “I’d redo 7 through 12. I’d try to actually pay attention now that I know my lack of attention was due to boredom rather than me being stupid.”

9. “I would redo my senior year of HS. I went to the wrong college first year and got into 22k of debt because I realized I hated it and transferred, losing all my scholarships in the process … so dumb.”

10. “Easily grades 2-3… I felt like a genius in elementary school and felt like everything we had been doing had already been covered for me before I was born … I grew up without any work ethic and when grade 9 hit … all the math and science demanded that I do the homework frequently to understand the material. If I could go back … I’d try to pick up a book or try to learn more than what I needed to know in earlier grades, maybe try to stay ahead or make an attempt to learn something I’d need to work hard at.”

11. “I believe my lack of math skills in fifth grade – especially fractions – caused me to believe I couldn’t do math for the rest of my life so far. In college and I still think I suck at math. All because of those … fractions. I would re-do fifth grade with the knowledge i have now and hopefully get better math grades every year following. And do better on the math SAT.”

12. “I would love to go back and take (8th grade) Algebra 1 again. My teacher should not have been teaching middle schoolers. I didn’t understand her class and didn’t take it seriously, ended up failing at the semester and had to take a remedial course second semester. Since then I’ve been stuck in the regular math classes (all taught by coaches or people who just wanted me to graduate) and my counselors didn’t let me take Pre-AP Sciences, which is what really interested me. Im not a math person at all, but if i could go back in time and know what would happen if i didn’t take math seriously, I think I could do it.”

13. “I’d probably start over from at least 8th grade on. I’d stick with orchestra, in High School I’d take senior bloc honors, and I’d also take some programming classes. Then in college I would major in computer science, possibly with a minor in art, and aim for getting into a visualization master’s program, with the aim of eventually designing computer games. That’s one possible scenario.”

14. “I would not take calculus and take wood shop instead. Always wanted to take wood shop. Calculus was torturous and I’ve never used it. All I can remember is “as x approaches zero,” but it never got there, poor thing. I was required to take trigonometry but I’d like to find a way out of that one too. Cosine my bunghole. With my magic time machine wand I’d create a class on being an entrepreneur.”

15. “Everything up to my second year of college and after. Nobody ever told me cheating robbed you of so much learning. I never read a single book I was tasked with growing up, and now I suffer for it.”

In Summary

Does your educational career have a lot of holes in it? Which classes would you redo? Sound off in the comments section.