I got through just pointing at things I wanted in France. Except at Starbucks, but it was more or less okay for me to speak English there due to being in Paris. On topic: I am not a big fan of school, however I do not think it sucks. I had a crap time in school, but it was made better by starting up clubs and making friendships with teachers instead of being just a student. Since I had to work after schools until the early AM, I usually slept in certain classes to make up for lack of rest. My teachers were cool with this because I studied, got high test scores, and participated in class when I was able to. It all boils down to how you spend it. If you're going to school to just go to your classes and consider that it sucks, you're doing it wrong. Make the most out of it. Spend an extra hour in a club at your school, or spend 2 minutes after class talking to your teacher about something interesting. If tests are your hardest part, treat them as review. I always treated tests as review of what I knew, and if I didn't know enough to do well on the test, I'd just study the whole subject with another method. It's mostly trial and error, keep on trying new things. Better to fail and figure out what works for you, then to do average and move on with it.