Try the first lesson free, practice questions included. Pick your student's grade band.
All three grade bands of The Art of Being Taken Seriously: $69 for the set. Every signature course is also included with Check-in, College Prep, Weekly Accountability and the Caveat Academy pass.
A first impression is the quick opinion people form about you in the first few moments after they meet you, often before you say more than a few words. A strong first impression is not about being the loudest or coolest person in the room. It comes from a few small habits that anyone can learn.
| first impression | the opinion someone forms about you when they first meet you |
| eye contact | looking at the eyes or face of the person you are talking with |
| greeting | the words and actions you use to say hello |
| self-advocacy | speaking up for yourself and asking for what you need |
Eye contact tells the other person, "I am paying attention to you." You do not need to stare. A good rule is to look at the person's face while they talk and while you start your sentences, then glance away naturally now and then. If looking right into someone's eyes feels hard, look at the area between their eyes or at their eyebrows. From a normal distance it looks the same.
A greeting has three parts: a friendly look, a few words and the person's name if you know it. "Good morning, Ms. Reyes" is stronger than a mumbled "hey" while looking at the floor. With friends, a casual greeting is fine. With adults at school, at a store or at an event, use a slightly more polite one.
| Situation | Weak greeting | Strong greeting |
|---|---|---|
| Arriving at class | Walking in silently | "Hi, Mr. Okafor." |
| Meeting a friend's parent | "Hey." | "Hi, I'm Priya. Nice to meet you." |
| Starting a club meeting | Waiting for someone else to talk | "Hi everyone, thanks for coming." |
In many American settings, adults shake hands when they meet. A good handshake is firm but not crushing, lasts about two or three seconds and comes with eye contact and a greeting. If someone does not offer a hand, a smile, a nod or a small wave is just as polite.
This is not about pretending to be someone else. It is about showing people the respect you would like to get back.
Many presentations fall flat because the audience cannot tell where the talk is going. A clear structure fixes that. When listeners know the plan, they relax and pay attention to your ideas instead of trying to guess your point.
This course uses a simple four-part structure: hook, message, three points, close.
The message is the most important part, and it is the one people skip. A topic is not a message. “Recycling at our school” is a topic. “Our school could cut cafeteria trash in half by adding sorting bins near the exit” is a message. A message makes a claim someone could agree or disagree with.
Signposts are short phrases that tell the audience where they are: “My first reason is…,” “The second problem is bigger,” “Finally…,” “So what does this mean for us?” Listeners cannot flip back a page the way a reader can, so signposts help them keep their place.
A good test: after planning, say your hook, message and three points out loud in under one minute. If that short version makes sense, the full talk will too.
A résumé is a short document that summarizes your skills, experience and education so that an employer, program or scholarship committee can decide whether to talk to you. It is not your life story. It is an advertisement for one purpose: getting an interview.
Readers move fast. A hiring manager may glance at a résumé for well under a minute before deciding whether to read more. Many larger employers also use an applicant tracking system, which is software that stores applications and lets recruiters search them for keywords. Both facts point to the same rule: make the important information easy to find.
| Section | What goes in it | Student notes |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Name, city and state, phone, professional email, optional profile link | No full street address, birth date or photo are needed |
| Summary (optional) | One or two lines on who you are and what you offer | Useful when your experience is thin; skip it if space is tight |
| Education | School, expected graduation month and year, GPA if strong, relevant courses or honors | Students usually put this near the top |
| Experience | Jobs, internships, volunteer roles, major responsibilities | Unpaid work counts if you did real tasks |
| Activities and leadership | Clubs, teams, school roles, projects | Show what you did, not just that you joined |
| Skills | Software, languages, certifications, tools | List only what you can actually use |
Your email address is part of your first impression. An address like skaterdude4ever looks careless next to one built from your name, such as first.last plus a number if needed. Create a separate address for applications if you have to.
The Caveat Family Guide to High School is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Each college decides admission, aid and how credit counts, and requirements change; check each college's own pages. Examples are examples, not promises. Caveat Academic Services is an independent college preparation company. Students do all of their own work.