Tests. The overwhelming and stressful word for all high school students. As the school year begins to wind down and gets closer and closer to the last day of school, the halls begin to fill with the excitement of many anxious students eagerly waiting for the arrival of summer, counting down the days until they are finally free of the responsibilities of school. With the onset of summer excitement that sets in place as early as May also comes the stress of the dreaded end of the year tests and finals.

The teachers rush to fit in all of the necessary tests and finals before the school year wraps up, and students are forced to spend all their free time out of school studying until finals have passed. With limited days left in the school year, many of the finals overlap with each other and students are easily overwhelmed with trying to balance all of the stress of trying to recall all of the information across many subjects. So, in the finals weeks leading up to summer, students stock up on their caffeine and snack stash to prepare for the seemingly never ending days ahead.

As students file into the classrooms, it begins a competition between students of who got the least amount of sleep and who had the most cups of caffeine in preparation for finals. The habits of many students are not the best during the school year, but they get increasingly worse during the week of an leading up to finals. Throughout the year, students say they lose sleep over school, but during finals week there really is no time to rest. When we asked students about  coffee, one student responded with “I drink about one to two cups of coffee a day, it helps me get my day started since I can detox after finals”.

There are always the finals that are the hardest to take, and there are those that are the easiest to take. When asked about the finals, Madeleine Schrieber responded, “I would say English is the easiest test to take, because it is more reading comprehension than grammar”  She also said, “I would say the hardest would be science, it is a lot to remember and memorize”

There are many different ways that you can study for your finals, such as: using your notes from class or even asking a teacher for help for stuff you are struggling on. There are so many useful apps that help you in any subject from math to Spanish. There are apps for flashcards and ones that show you step by step how to solve the problem. When we asked students what was most beneficial to their studying needs, they replied with, “Using note cards, and quizzing yourself, is really beneficial for me.” Creating a study guide with note cards or simply rewriting terms seems to be the most beneficial to many students. On the other hand, certain study techniques such as rereading the notes are not beneficial to the grade of students. A lot of students also find it more difficult to study efficiently when they have their phone or computer nearby.  

As the school days wind to an end, and the excitement of summer is buzzing around the school,  students find themselves studying for the end of the year tests. Finals are one of the most stressful tests of the year as students must recount all of the information from the whole school year. Once students take their last tests and walk out of the door for the last time of the school year, they are finally stress free from all of the tests, homework, and endless hours of studying.