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A Guide to Sophomore year

Mrs Coyle 

Mrs Coyle teaches both Honors English 10 and English 10. She is the only sophomore English teacher. She is particular about your MLA but many Mercy graduates have said how much this helped them in college. After taking her class, MLA will be ingrained in your brain and your writing will be much improved. Before turning in an assignment in her class it is important that you check it over for spelling, sentence structure, and MLA. She says this about her teaching style, “I am rather traditional in my teaching style. I enjoy the literature and grammar that I cover with my students and I want them to enjoy it too.  I try to make my expectations clear.” Her tests usually consist of two parts: objective and essay questions. The objective part requires the most studying. For the essay questions it is very important that you have a good overall understanding of the book and the different themes present in it. If you need help she is usually after school except on the days when she is helping with year book. 

Mr Stara

Mr Stara teaches Geometry. He is the only Geometry teacher for sophomores. He says that “the more effort that students put in, the more they will get out of the class.” His quizzes are sometimes harder than his tests so make sure to study for them. His tests are consistently the same difficulty, and if you don’t understand the material the first time he will let you do test corrections.  If you need help he is usually after school to help with homework. Since this is a math class I would say the most important thing is to take the homework seriously so you aren’t frantically trying to learn everything the night before the test. 

Mr Beran 

Mr Beran teaches Honors and regular Chemistry. He teaches most of the sophomores and is always available if you need help. When asked to describe his teaching style he said, “I make sure we get through everything we have to but I also want to make sure I’m not putting too much pressure on them.” His tests for the first few chapters are very long. However don’t be intimidated by them because they are usually easier than the tests that are only fifteen questions later in the year. As long as you study you his tests are ok. However if you do not study, you are in for a bad day. His chemistry final was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. He gives you a slide show full of sample questions. As long as you study this you should be fine. If he offers you a sheet that you can use on the test use it even if you don’t think you need it. It will help you avoid dumb mistakes. All in all his class requires a lot of work but if you put the work in you will do just fine. 

Mrs Regele 

Mrs Regele’s theology class is by far one of the most organized classes I have ever been in especially considering she was all online this year. Anything you need to find can be easily found in her plan for each day that she puts on Canvas along with any links to homework or study tools. With this being said, it is still important that you study for her quizzes and tests. Thirty minutes of studying should be plenty for most of her quizzes and 40 minutes for the tests. While studying is important, the key to being successful in her class are the notes sheets. It is very important that you fill out the notes. If you only do one piece of homework in her class all year let it be the notes sheets. They will help you on the tests and quizzes a lot. When asked what one piece of advice she would give to incoming sophomores she said, “Sophomore Theology is a great mix of personal reflection and academic rigor. Be open to new types of prayer and reflection, but also be ready to study!”

Mr Humphreys 

Mr Humphreys’ class is in his own words, “I teach that way because I know that it’s the kind of style you will see in college” this means that it involves a lot of lectures and notes. Notes are important, however, I would recommend reading the chapter the test is over the night before in preparation. This is time consuming but I have seen a significant change in my test grades when I do this. As far as his quizzes go, they are harder than the tests. The key to his quizzes is memorization. All the memorization techniques teachers have taught you will be very useful in his class.

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