Around this time of year, many friends will come together, and complain about how midterms are coming. Outside and inside of school, midterms eat many student’s souls. Midterm week is claimed by many as the worst week of the school year. 

So much material, not enough time to review. No reviews in class, but more work added onto the information students already needed to study. The whole school is a madhouse, with not one person ready for midterm week. 

By the middle of January, school is hectic. Teachers are asked every five minutes for extra help, and students complain about how they don’t know anything every five seconds. Through this massive stress students obtain, many may ask, Is school all about the tests? And most students answer with yes.

School has become more competitive with Ivy league schools and AP classes.  With students getting more competitive with one another, the expectations for students to succeed keeps getting higher. 

Madison DePoto, a sophomore who takes many advanced placement and honors classes can get very overwhelmed with school. “There is so much pressure being put on us to exceed expectations in the advanced courses that we take. It was instilled in us that if we don’t have an amazing GPA we will not be able to be successful in college”, she said. “If we don’t do well on this exam, everything that we have worked for during the past few months was for nothing”, the student expressed.

School is surrounded by examinations, midterms, and exams. All students do in school is study for an exam and forget the information after they take it. Has school really changed from learning and retaining information to cramming and forgetting after students are done with the exam? These exams are stressful since students don’t know what will be asked. From September to now, every topic needs to be understood.

Along with being stressed, students also complain constantly about how much work they have to get done. “I feel like if students complained less, we would be able to do better on our midterms since we would have so much more time to study” she joked.  “All we talk about is how much work we have to do and that we have no time to do it. In lunch, all my friends and I talk about is how stressed we are. Even though we are stressed, it feels good to let it out with people that are having the same problems.”

Well, midterms are coming quickly so start flipping through that thing called a textbook that you haven’t touched since you got it. Get all your notes out and get scared since you can’t remember anything from the first month of school.  Go through your teacher’s eboard, study the castle learnings, make flash cards or try quizlet.

Start forming study groups with your friends and get ready to hear everyone complain in the hallways. To all students that are cramming for midterms, may you all rest in peace while you go through midterm week.