Exam Stress by Ellen V.

For many students, there are two weeks which compete for the “Worst Time of the Year” title – the week of midterms in January and the week of final exams in June. It is the time of year when high school students are stretched to their highest extent, are constantly working under an enormous amount of stress and sleepless nights are taken for granted. Ironically, this is the time when academic performance is expected to be at the highest.

Taking a study break to go on facebook (I swear I’m not procrastinating), my friends’ statuses are littered with cries of desperation over exams. Exempting the names, so-and-so “has to much to do and all stressed out”, “is stressed like no other”, “is chemistry=instant stress”, “is stressed >P”, “is chillin at home, studying. ugh, i hate exams”, “is gunna fail midterms”, “cant wait for exams to be over”, “is stressed”, “is O My exams r coming so very soon”, “is doing homework for the rest of eternity” and “is dying under exam pressure”.
With two free blocks total this semester, I’m getting off easy. The only exams I have to study for are the French, English, History, Chemistry, and Journalism exams. Still, even with this “lax” schedule, I easily study for multiple hours every night.
This year, as a sophomore and last year, as a freshman, I have had the same experience in studying for exams. Teachers give out study guides during class, and when looking them over, I always am confused about whether we ever even covered that subject in class. I pride myself on being an engaged student, so I figure if I have never even heard of the subject matter, chances are we were not taught it thoroughly. There is always at least one class each semester where I feel as if I am teaching myself a semester’s worth of the class through the text book or off Wikipedia in the time period of a little over one week. Then when I actually get to the exam, the entire thing is guess work.
As January is the time when the semester is coming to a close, it is also the time when other extra-circulars are finishing up. This week when I am frantically cramming for exams I also have hours of Vermont Youth Orchestra rehearsals and a concert, I have an audition tape for a highly competitive summer music camp due, and I have a violin competition just around the corner. With all this in mind and the zero degree weather outside, I can easily call this one of the worst weeks of the year.