How to Impress a Classmate

Presenting Yourself Positively

Practice good hygiene and grooming. Among a mass of adolescent and teenage students, being clean and well groomed can really make you stand out. When puberty starts causing more body odor, you can impress your classmates by taking good care of yourself. Shower and wash daily. Use deodorant and even consider cologne or perfume, but be sure not to overpower or it will have the opposite effect. Brush your teeth daily. Wear clean clothes and keep your hair neat. Your classmates will notice if you are always hygienic.

Dress as your best self. Dressing well will set you apart from many of your classmates, and you can do it without a suit and expensive clothing. Part of dressing well means finding the style that matches your personality and body type best. You don’t have to wear business attire to look good, but you probably won’t impress anyone wearing sweats either. Try your best to always wear clean clothes that are free of stains. Wear clothes of the appropriate size. Ultimately, you do want to be comfortable because it will show if your clothes are bothering you. People often judge by how others are dressed no matter what, so it is likely your attire is something people will notice. Using that to your advantage to make a statement will help get you noticed in the right way. You can express your personality through what you wear. For example, you might wear apparel depicting a sports team or band that you like. If you are outgoing and a little crazy, you can wear clothes with a lot of bold colors. If you are more conservative, you can express this by wearing dress pants and a button shirt.

Master your posture and body language. People notice how you carry your body, so learning to maintain straight posture will show people your confidence. Since you spend much of your time with classmates in class, you will be sitting a lot. Learn to sit up straight and to not slouch down in your chair. Don’t cross your arms because it tends to express negative emotions. Keeping your head up and faced forward shows that you are attentive to what the teacher is saying. Nodding is also a good way to show you are listening. Consider keeping your legs firmly planted in a fairly wide position, rather than close together or with your legs crossed. This is seen as a more powerful position. When talking with a classmate, eye contact is a great way to show that you are engaged with what they are saying. Avoiding eye contact is usually seen as a way of trying to hide something.

Don’t fidget. This applies to sitting in class but also times when you are standing around with friends. Fidgeting tends to be a sign of stress, nervousness, or an overall lack of confidence, so when people see you doing it, they will notice you in a negative way. Fidgeting can include shifting in your seat a lot, tapping your pencil on the desk, or moving a lot when you talk. None of these things are necessarily bad, but they give an appearance of you not being at ease which can turn people off. If you tend to be constantly moving, you will need to actively tell yourself to calm your body down. This will take work, but once you are conscious of it, you can master it.

Smile. This is such a simple thing, but it works wonders for your overall appearance. Smiling makes you seem more confident, gives the look of being positive, and makes you seem friendly, all of which are things you want your classmate to see if they are going to be impressed with you. Even so, you don’t want to go around smiling all the time as this will most likely put people off. Just be willing to flash a smile on occasion, especially toward the person you want to impress.

Standing Out From the Crowd

Be friendly. School can be a place where meanness and hostility grow, and many students forget the rules of treating each other well. Make a specific effort to be someone who counteracts this. Always speak kindly to people in the class by not criticizing their wrong answers or making fun when they struggle. The person you want to impress will take notice that you are someone who everyone sees as kind and good to be around. There are lots of ways to be more friendly. Go out of your way to be nice to students that usually are overlooked or bullied. Ask people how they are doing and really mean it and listen to their answers. Show an interest in your classmates’ lives outside of school.

Be good at something. Your classmates will take notice if you are really great at something. Within the limits of school, you have the basic options of academic success, sports, and the arts, but don’t be afraid to find something outside of school to excel at. You shouldn’t get good at something for the sole purpose of impressing people, but it can be a good addition to making you well-rounded as a person. You may not have a lot of opportunities to show the talent you have, but if something like a talent show does come up, have the confidence to go for it. It’s also a good option to invite the classmate to participate in the activity with you so you can show them the skills you have.

Be confident in trying new things. If you want to be noticed, go out of your way to try things that everyone else seems to be afraid of doing. A great way to do this is to volunteer in class when the other students are sitting back not wanting to be picked. Your classmate will see that you are confident and will be impressed by your initiative.

Keep cool under pressure. School can often be a time of stress, tension, and drama in aspects of school work, fighting among students, and times of performance like giving a speech. When the others around you are giving in to all the pressure, you can maintain a balanced composure and stay cool. Be someone who can handle whatever situations come your way. Your classmate will be impressed and will look to you as someone to rely on when things get rough. A great way to stay composed in any situation is to take deep breaths and focus your attention on your breathing. When you start to feel stressed, your body's natural response is to speed up your breathing, but this often makes it harder to stay calm. Take breaths more slowly than you normally would. It can also help you stay calm to pause for 5-10 seconds before responding or reacting. Losing your cool tends to happen in an instant, but if you practice waiting for a little while before doing anything, you will have time to think first.

Ask your classmate about his or her interests. It’s fairly common among students, and even adults, to want to talk a lot about themselves and tell all about their lives. You can make an impression on someone by showing true interest in what they like and think about. Go out of your way to notice some of their interests and then learn about those for yourself. Your classmate will be impressed that you cared to let them share with you and that you took an interest in them. If you take the time to get into the interest they told you about, you can go back to the person and tell them about your experience. If they mention a band, go listen to their albums and tell them what you liked about it. Or watch the person’s favorite movie and go repeat a line from it to him or her.

Give a compliment. With so many people bragging about themselves and wanting everyone to notice them, you can stand out by giving a compliment. If your classmate wears an outfit you like, tell them how great they look. If they do well on a project or big assignment, congratulate them. If you know they played well in a sport over the weekend, tell them nice job. You can do this consistently over time, but not so often that it becomes obvious you are doing it.

Making Specific Impressions

Let your crush know that you are interested. Much of romance in school is done in secret because you are often afraid to be embarrassed if you get rejected. One way to impress someone you are romantically interested in is to be honest with them and let them know you notice them. Tell them you are interested in getting to know them more. This can be a bold move, and may not always work out, but rather than trying to get someone’s attention indirectly, you can come right out with it. In many cases, your crush will be impressed that you had the confidence to tell them how you felt, and if they like you in return, you’ll save time and energy you would have used trying to get their attention. If they did not yet like you in return, this move might be enough to win their affection. If you have a crush on someone that you don't actually know yet, it is probably best to introduce yourself first and wait to tell them about your crush. Give yourself a chance to talk to them a few times before revealing why you wanted to meet them.

Share something personal with a potential friend. There are always classmates who you want to be friends with but you only ever see them in class. One way to make an impression and move toward friendship is to reveal something personal about yourself to the person. This is probably best done gradually because you don’t want them telling the whole school your deepest secret. Make a real effort to talk to the person once a day for a week or so and then tell them something beyond what they would know from class. You want to find a good balance between too surface level, such as what food you like, and the most personal thing you can think of, such as family problems you have never told someone. Tell them about a hobby you have outside of school that most people wouldn’t guess. Or tell them about a goal you want to achieve later in life. A good way to try and make space for this conversation is to start sitting with the person at lunch or riding the bus together or simply walking between classes together whenever you can. This will give you a little extra time to talk to the person and get to know each other more. Once you have gotten past the initial step of making a first impression, you can work to build a stronger friendship.

Offer help rather than criticism. Being smart in school can be tricky because people may perceive you as being arrogant or a know-it-all, which is rarely a likeable quality. One way that you can impress a classmate with your smarts is to stop correcting people openly during class, but instead ask them privately if they could use some help. There are always students who struggle in school, and if you are really good in a subject, they could probably benefit from your help. Bullying people in class who make mistakes makes an impression, but not in a good way. If you notice someone struggling in class, go to them afterwards and say, “I noticed you were having a hard time with the question you were asked. Would you ever want some help studying?” The person may still turn you down, but you will come across as more respectful than if you call him or her out during class.