Try not to write a diary in your second year at Hogwarts as it will be tedious and focus only on studying as the lessons taught in the classes in second year at Hogwarts are tougher than the ones taught in the classes in first year at Hogwarts. However, despite being tougher, they are also often more fun than the lessons taught in the classes in first year at Hogwarts.

You will need a bit of patience in your second year at Hogwarts as your assignments will take way longer to be graded and returned in your second year at Hogwarts as compared to your first year at Hogwarts. This will simply be because there will be lesser Professor Assistants for the subjects at Hogwarts as you move up the years at Hogwarts. However, do not give up and keep studying. Do not pester your Professors or Professor Assistants for the assignments to be graded, to prevent yourself from ending up annoying them unnecessarily and harming your decorum at Hogwarts, and instead focus on continuing with further assignments and lessons.

You will have more compulsory essay assignments in your second year at Hogwarts and the grades obtained by you in these essays will affect your overall grades and your Course Average for the respective subjects, unlike in first year when all essay assignments were for extra credit and their grades did not affect your overall grades and your Course Average for the respective subjects. Therefore, study hard, improve your writing skills, and proof-read your essays for the essay assignments and then submit them instead of submitting your essay assignments without proof-reading your essays.

None of the essay assignments in your first year at Hogwarts had a maximum word limit, though almost all of them had a minimum word count required. In your second year at Hogwarts, some essay assignments will also have a maximum word limit, especially in Care of Magical Creatures, and writing over the maximum word limit will cause you to lose marks according to the grading rubric given in the essay assignment prompt. Therefore, try to practise cutting down on your words and conveying precise and exact information in a brief and concise manner, while still ensuring that all the important information is covered. This may take a bit of practice, but with some patience, determination and effort, you will soon get the hang of it. If you are anything like me, you probably have a habit of writing too much which may pose a bit of a problem in case of maximum word limits, but like I said, you will get the hang of it, because I did.

You may find a practical-based approach in the lessons in some or most of your classes in second year at Hogwarts, which is not only fun, but also useful. However, to ensure that you do well in these classes, and to have better concepts and proper knowledge, you may need to be a bit more socially active and find study partners and practise whatever is taught in these classes. You may need to do the same even compulsorily for some assignments in your second year at Hogwarts. However, do not worry and do not hesitate. You may have been a bit self-obsessed and a bit of a know-it-all and a bit unsocial in your first year at Hogwarts, if you were like me, but in your second year at Hogwarts, you may find that to be actually productive, you may end up needing some friends who are as talented and creative as you. However, let that not stop you from being a great student at Hogwarts. Socialize, find people with common interests and especially people with common classes and make friends with the ones that are fairly active, create and join social groups at Hogwarts and also don't forget to keep the whole motive behind all the socializing in mind, which is studying and gaining practical based knowledge and clearing the concepts taught in the lessons practically through practice in creative ways with friends who are as talented and creative as you. Even if you do not find too many similar-minded friends, it is okay, just keep trying and keep volunteering to create interesting ideas for socialization and group practising and put those ideas into action and be patient. Even if no one helps make your ideas a success or reality almost immediately, you will eventually find everything you want happening, if you manage to hold your patience, dedication and effort for long enough. Just to give an example to illustrate what I appear to be blabbering about, I learnt about dueling in my Defense Against the Dark Arts classes in my second year at Hogwarts. I also learnt many practical concepts and approaches to dueling in the same classes in my second year at Hogwarts. I thought these concepts were fun to learn about. Also, dueling is something that is learnt through practice and in addition to the theoretical knowledge and the lessons, one needs to actually duel or atleast practise dueling to grasp the concepts and learn the art of dueling. Therefore, I volunteered to create and write a book titled "My Handbook of Duelling" and published it in the current Hogwarts Library. I also created a students' group at Hogwarts, named "Duelling Practice" and made it open to all, asking fellow students to enter the group and challenge me to a duel. Then, I advertised my book through my group and my group through my book. While my book acquired many readers in the current Hogwarts Library, I managed to find no one to join my group, except my friend since my first year at Hogwarts who joined voluntarily and volunteered to be my second in my duels. I did not lose heart and my dueling group stands to this day and I am waiting for someone as enthusiastic as me to one day challenge me to a gruelling duel. Similarly, if you find yourself losing heart, remind yourself of what I just said and do not deviate from your path.

You will find that if you are extremely curious and a bookworm seeking knowledge anywhere and everywhere, you will navigate your second year at Hogwarts much more easily. So, try to be these things. Also, do not stop anywhere on the path of seeking and spreading knowledge in your second year at Hogwarts. Write books on any possible topic in the current Hogwarts Library  and publish them to not only help others but also for the opportunity to research and clear your own concepts and gain more knowledge yourself and also for fun. This will help sharpen your brain and focus your mind and also help you academically by enhancing your knowledge and understanding and your reasoning capacity and understanding abilities. It will also provide productive breaks from studying and keep you refreshed and rejuvenated while at the same time keeping you sharp and productive.

Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer and participate, participate, participate. Volunteer for anything and everything and participate in anything and everything for the same reasons I explained above.

You get the chance to apply for the position of a Professor Assistant or PA for first year subjects in your second year at Hogwarts, provided you have the required grades and ample qualifications. Different Professors search for different traits, minimum grades and qualifications in their PAs and your personality traits also play a big role in determining which, if any, Professors select you as a PA. To have better chances at becoming a PA in a particular subject you find interesting or want to become a PA to the Professor for, have good grades in the concerned subject, observe the existing PAs of the Professor, and also be a well-rounded, patient, great individual overall in terms of personality and emotional maturity, then fill in the PA application and wait for a response from the respective Professor. If you do not get responses, do not be disappointed. Oftentimes, Professors will stack up the applications and use them to get more PAs at a later time when they start to feel a shortage of PAs, even if they do not need any at the present moment. Therefore, be patient. You stand a good chance of being chosen if you do not pester the Professors, instead wait patiently and study hard and improve your writing skills and your language skills and portray the traits that the respective Professor may be looking for in his/her PAs. You can  become a PA for multiple subjects if you want and get the chance to. Becoming a PA has advantages which include but are not limited to getting the opportunity to grade assignments submitted by other students and thus getting the opportunity to read a wide variety of answers and essays by different students and get ideas for your own studies and assignments from and get inspired by their work, getting closer to the Professor whose PA you are, socializing with other PAs, being respected by students who are not PAs, the opportunity to become a Head Boy or Head Girl in future, and clearer concepts in the respective subject as a direct result of repeatedly grading multiple assignments submitted by different students with different personal touches, in the subject, under the guidelines given by the Professor. Becoming a PA in a subject thus greatly contributes towards enhancing your academic prowess in the subject.