1) Record Everything
It's very important to maintain comprehensive records of your achievements. Some troops will keep their own records, but they may be flawed. As such, make it a point to record every camping night that you go on, every merit badge you complete, and every service hour you work.
2) Start Early
I myself suffered from waiting a bit too long to start. For the first few months after I crossed over, I wasn't very concerned with advancing in rank, this made it more difficult to catch up to all of my piers, most of whom were tenderfoot by the time I got my first requirements signed off.
3) Set Milestones
Setting milestones is very important. Everyone is different, so there isn't one specific age at which you need to have one specific rank. There was a kid in my troop who first started scouts when he was almost 16, and still made eagle. Personally, my goal is to make Life by while I'm 14. This will give me some wiggle room as high school gets harder.
4) Merit Badges over Rank
When I went to Summer camp, I met a kid who was a Life scout. He was also 11. You may think that he's way ahead of schedule, that's until you learn that he actually has a lot of work left to do. You need a lot of merit badges to make Eagle. Some of these Merit Badges are harder than others. For example, personal management, family life, and all of the citizenship badges were very hard for me. I know this because I got them out of the way quickly. This keeps me out of a position of being 17 and still needing all three citizenship badges.
Good luck!
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