Midterm Madness

Midterm Madness

Sarah Allen, Staff Writer

It’s that time of the school year where the stress and anxiety hits, and you are forced to study everything you have learned from the beginning of the year until now. The dreaded Midterm week. As the first semester ends and your grades are looking good, there are always midterms you have to worry about. So, if many students are stressing about their grades and trying to cram all the material they already took an assessment on, then why do students have to relearn the material? Midterms are worth 10% of your semester grade, and for some that could make or break their grade depending on how well they do. Not only do students have to study the week before and the week of exams, but they have to study for at least five classes.

Lainy Biron a senior at GHS says, “I have to take four exams because I got out of AP bio from the science exam last year.” There is a large amount of studying and work to prepare before exams in order to do well. How much do students actually prepare for the tests and is it even worth it? Liam Kilbreth also a senior says “I don’t really study” and Lainy adds, “I personally don’t study a lot but in the past years I used to be very prepared.” Midterms in my opinion are pointless because as a student that is asking to relearn everything from the beginning of the year and then take a long test to show your knowledge. Studying for these exams is very stressful and many students are up all hours of the night trying to cram material in for at least five classes at a time.

Lainy advises, “some tips on doing well are studying in advance because there is so much to cover and to maybe talk to teachers if you don’t understand a unit. Also, you should study the week before, so it’s still fresh and not the night before.”

How does studying for midterms affect your mental health? Personally, I feel that it is a super stressful time and makes me anxious if I don’t think I studied enough, or if I feel like I didn’t do well. This often makes me see the test and suddenly forget everything I’ve learned. Lainy says, “I was very stressed this weekend about my midterms and how they are going to make my grades go down.” Liam implied that “I don’t stress because midterms are pointless and not worth a lot of my grade.”

So, as midterm week begins, should this continue and are they worth the stress for students? Lainys says “I believe the only classes that should have a midterm are full year classes and AP classes for practice.” I agree with Lainy’s statement. For anyone going through this week and the stress, the best advice is to plan out your schedule and study the best of your ability without going overboard, because mental health is more important than getting a good grade on an exam.